Backing up your downloaded installation files

 If you have or intend to have a few applications (in my case Windows), it will be wise that for you back up a copy of the downloads. Something can happen that you may need to rebuild your system and you have to transfer your apps to another device.

I once spilled coffee on my laptop and it seems to be only by the grace of God that I have saved a great part of the downloaded files to easily install them in a hastily bought new laptop.  That was years ago.  That new laptop became old, at least 12 years old, and the number of apps installed, among other things, have proved to slowly kill my system.  Yes even with the best of your antivirus and malware protection, some nasty things seem to be able to come through unexpectedly, slowly or quickly bring your system down.  I have lost the wifi signal, then I started using the ethernet cable to make my connection direct.  That lasted for a few years and then one day, just a few moths ago, it wouldn't recognize the cable.  So I started using my mobile phone to connect but that was quite inconvenient.  I then purchased a wifi dongle which seemed to work for a while.  Every now and then I would get a wifi signal only to lose it again sometime during the day and I had to reboot the system a few times before I could get a signal.

So this time I had to buy a new laptop, this time an Inspiron 16 with 32gb RAM and 1tb of SSD memory.  This should last me a while.  The problem is now transferring my applications to the new laptop.  I know there are various apps out there like Zinstall, Easyus, etc but here's the thing, I don't to be carrying some old junk into the computer that will present the same problems to the new computer.  I decided to do it the hard way - to reinstall each app that I need to the new laptop.  I am sort of three quarters of the way through that now.  I have kept some backup of most of the programs.  I have also the activation keys for most of them. I ran into some problems with installation, like missing elements or wrong activation keys, but they have been sorted out by emailing customer support of the software companies.  In one case, I had to pay for an upgrade to be able to install the products but it wasn't too bad because it was only about $20.

Sometimes, the software providers do not keep the older versions of their products, but because I had kept the downloads, I was still able to install them.  Most software would allow you to install in more than one device.  I have only come across one software provider who insisted that I should uninstall first from the old device before I can install in the new one.

My job of transferring the apps over were made easier because I kept the downloads of those apps.  So it will be wise for you to do the same thing.  You never know when you need to have a new device and you still need those apps you have been using.  After all, without the apps, your computer is basically useless.