A very important point to remember is that your disk storage is the primary place in your system where your software and data are permanently kept, even when you power your system off. If your hard drive fails, it is very likely that you may lose some or all of your stored data. There are company's out there with sophisticated software tools that may be able to recover this data, however this process can generally be time consuming and expensive. Software Programs Programs are of course are one of the key parts of a computer. They are what bring the computer to life and make it go.
Programs are the instructions that tell the computer what to do.
Programs are the spreadsheets, the word processors, the mapping software, the math packages, the personal finance mangers, the childrens educational software, etc. Installing software programs onto your computer essentially takes the compressed software from the installation media such as floppy disks or CD ROMS, uncompresses them and places them onto your hard drive. As mentioned in the memory section, loading software programs onto your computer does not slow it down. The software only takes up more space on your disk drive. Filling up your System Registry with lots of superfulus, useless entries is what slows down a computer.