Saving Your Software’s License Information

Nearly every time you purchase software — whether you get it from a retail store, have it shipped to you, or purchase a downloadable version — you have to deal with license codes (also called license keys) to make the product work. Sometimes license keys come on little stickers in the packaging, other times they are printed on the CD. They might be e-mailed to you, found on a Web page, or even read to you over the phone.

Figure Out Why You Need Security Patches (Microsoft Patches)

The big software programs that run on PCs today consist of thousands and sometimes even millions of lines of source code (the step-by-step instructions that give the program its functionality and personality). That’s a lot to keep track of and (as with anything made by people) flaws can creep in.

Software can be as complex as any mechanical orchestration of gears, shafts, pulleys, bearings, levers, switches, and so on. But unlike physical machinery, software is almost entirely abstract it’s a set of electronic instructions. You can’t just hold it in your hand or put a wrench on it to tighten it up; that makes it harder to examine for strength, robustness, resiliency, and integrity.

It’s difficult to watch software’s inner workings in action:

There is rarely something you can actually watch. Even a word-processing program consists of mostly mathematical calculations, data buffers, table lookups, device management, and other steps that mostly push electrons around, far removed from what we see on the screen.

Challenges like this make it difficult to know whether a complex software program is error-free and whether it does exactly what it’s supposed to do and nothing else.