down loading music cd's to my computer

If you mean to copy CDROMs to your computer, then use a CD extractor program.

If you mean to download music from the internet, I would recommend itunes.(although personally, I'd rather buy them in a store on CD, but that's me)

Want to copy music off a CD?  Use Windows Media Player.  Assuming you have this, load your source CD in your drive.  Windows Media Player should open automatically.  On the Media Player toolbar, click on FILE, then click on COPY, then click on COPY FROM AUDIO CD, and finally click on the drive where your source CD is located.

This will bring up the window in Windows Media Player that  displays all the tracks on the source CD.  Select the track(s) that you want to copy to your computer by checking off the box just to the left of each track.  Want to copy the entire CD?  Then check off ALL the tracks.

Once you've identified the track(s) you want, click on the COPY MUSIC tab on the Media Player toolbox.  Make a note of where the music will be copied to on your hard drive so that you can find it once Media Player has finished its work.  The path to where the files will be copied to is located just above the control buttons in the Media Player window (play, stop, etc.)   Don't like where Media Player put your copied tracks?  Use Windows Explorer (CUT and PASTE) to move them where ever you want once they have been copied. 

Windows Media Player displays its progress copying the tracks from the source CD to your computerin the "Copy Status" column.  Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Good Luck!

Snowdrift