Day 55 - Effin Keys? What are they for?

I have a beef with Dell. I bought a laptop last December, and it came with no manual. The notation said ever so sweetly, "go on line to download the manual". I had no need, so I did not do it. Then yesterday, when trying to boot up, I got the message, "insert recovery disk", which of course did not come with my purchase. So I was put instantly into panic mode. Each time I tried to restart the computer, my only on-screen choices were to select the F2 or F12 buttons, which brought me to the Dell test screen which after running all the diagnostics possible, told me yet once again to insert the windows 7-64 bit recovery disk, which did not come with the purchase. UGH, frustration level was rising. So I went to the Dell site. After much searching, I finally found something I could use. It said if your desktop does not load, hit the F8 key, continuing to tap it until the recovery screen appears, then follow the instructions. It seems that Dell had already downloaded the recovery disk to my laptop, and by hitting the F8 key I was able to access it. In my humble opinion, I think the mention of this F8 key should be included in the Dell screen, after all I did not have the manual to reference. I felt pretty proud of myself for figuring this all out, and avoiding the $ charged by the Geek Squad at Best Buy. And yes, once I was up and running, I immediately burned a recovery disk, but it is handy to know about the F8 key.  I always wondered what those effin keys were for, now I know, learned about them the hard way.