Microsoft Windows has become such an ingrained feature to our daily lives that losing the CDs that accompany and back it up can lead to panic.

A couple things to do whenever you buy a new computer or cd package is to write down all the registration info including licenses in a little notebook and keep it in a safe place. This way you have the most critical information in a secondary place rather than just on the cd or cd manual itself. This will go a long way in enabling tech support to work with you.

Now if you have a connection to the internet, hopefully it is fast, you can go to the Windows website where you are able to download specific files and or the entire program. You should be able to use your current license to activate it. Again this is the importance of having the license information in a secondary place, as it makes technical support that much easier.

The key to remember is that it is not so much the CD that is important, but rather it is proof of purchase. Software is becoming widely available online and so activation and license codes are quickly becoming the name of the computer installation game. So long as you keep a nice backup copy of all essential information it will save you a lot of time when working with computer problems.