Free Republic

Is there a way to 'backup' how a computer is prior to installing a program (AdAware in this case)? Last time went on a spyware installing binge, the computer got a blue screen. This computer has Windows XP, and apparently there is a feature to go to the last session(?) that worked. Thing is, when the computer got a blue screen, the last session option did not work. Is there something to do to initiate it?

On Monday evening at about 9:10 pm, I saw an icon in my XP Home Edition (with SP2) computer, telling me that a Windows update needed to be installed. I clicked on it, and it did the installation. When I restarted Windows, and went into Word and PowerPoint, I found I could not do a save or a save as. When I tried either command, the application simply froze up (the little application icon at the top left of the window became a white rectangle). When I clicked to close the window, Windows gave me the "application is not responding"...