They often only have a binary that you would have to reverse engineer. Source code gets lost.
To step outside just utility programs, the reason why Command & Conquer didn't have a remaster was:
> I'm not going to get into this conversation, but I feel this needs to be answered. During this project of getting the games on Steam, no source code from any legacy games showed up in the archives.
> And the people using it multiple times a year delete it afterwards?
The people wouldn't, but in the environments I'm thinking of, security policies might.
What you're leaning into is a high-risk backup strategy that would rely mostly on luck to get something remotely close to the current version back online. It's pretty reckless.
> The people wouldn't, but in the environments I'm thinking of, security policies might.
In environments that go so far (deleting local checkouts of code out of security concerns), I bet they do have a mirror/copy of the version controlled code.