If your computer came with no recovery disks, then you should be able to make them. Provided you can burn your own cd's. This is usually the option given on new pcs.
My laptop came without any recovery disks either but I've since burned mine onto cd's. Took four cd's in all.
You can look in the Help and Support section on your pc for info on how to make your recovery cds and how to restore your computer to factory specs without them. The recovery partition is separted from the Windows partition so you can do this. Provided you are running Windows XP. When you are running Windows XP the recovery partition is separate. Loading programs onto you pc does not affect that partition. Unless it's a virus of some sort.
By the way, what type of pc do you have, and what version of windows are you running on it? When was the last time you did a scandisk and a defrag on it? This is regular maintenance that should be done. Before running a Scandisk or a Defrag, remove the programs you no longer use or want. Takes awhile to do this but it does help with slow pc's. Hope it helps.