An alternative might be to use a disk imaging program such as Acronis True Image. This would make a backup (image) of your entire working system, complete with installed programs, settings and preferences. The backup can be stored on DVD's, another disk partition, external drive or secondary internal drive.

If you ever need to, just overwrite your faulty system using the good copy of it. If you wish, you could make 2 or more backups with different configurations or programs installed, then choose which one you want use on your computer. Any malware, system faults, programs you've tried but decided you don't need can all be got rid of in about 15 - 20 minutes by using a known good disk image.

Backups can be accessed using the imaging software or, if the computer is so corrupt that it won't boot up, they can be accessed using the supplied disk (the installation disk doubles up as a boot disk). If you obtain the program via a software download, there is an option in Acronis True Image to make a boot CD.