...case I want to get a new computer? I have some programs that I don't know the origin of,and I want to install them on my new computer.

You can certainly try, but don't trash the old computer before checking they work.In general this rarely works properly as you have no idea of all the files in all the places the original installer copied to your computer. There are also registry entries which are tricky to find that would need copying over.

The answer to this is almost no.If by chance the program installs all files to one location I would say 95% yes.Todays applications install the in its home folder, which is usualy located under c:\Program Files and also put files in c:\program files\common files, c:\windows, c:\windows\system32 and a few others. Also some stuff is stored in the registry that the program needs to run, such as registration keys, file locations, etc.Another thing, on most original CD's everything is heavily compressed so you dont need tons of disks to install the program. Some programs may be 640 Meg on the CD before install, but after install it takes up 2+ Gig (nearly 3.5 times more).If someone really knows what they are doing it can be done, but its easier to just have the original disk.