Saving programs

[sprayer]

My friend has just had his computer seriously malfunction and as a result has lost many programs
he used to use, it got me to thinking about my laptop running windows XP, I to have programs such as
DVD fab 5, Corel print house etc. that I use a lot but no longer have the original discs for, is there any
way that I can copy these programs on to disc so that if I ever need to change my laptop I will be able
to load them on to a new one? how do I do it (in easy terms please as I am a computer numpty)

[ChuckFickens]

The simple and quick answer here is, No.

It is possible to use software that would create an image of your entire hard drive that could be restored if the drive failed, but these could cause a lot of difficulties if you were try and recover to different hardware (i.e. a new laptop) because there would almost certainly not be XP drivers available for a new laptop these days (also if you bought a new laptop it would have windows7 on it so putting XP on it would be going backwards)

[sprayer]

Thanks for your answer Chuck..

[VHG]

Also note that some programs written for XP wont run on Windows 7.