Windows 7 Program backup for system recovery

[rosphite1]

I'm not a techie by any stretch of the imagination but my computer is acting up. Over a period of 2+ months I've been carrying out various tests, restores and processes checking various bits and pieces and I conclude that it seems to be something with the nVIDIA drivers and the windows desktop manager (which does not work anymore - always triggers error on startup and closes).
This is a conclusion - not definitive.

The computer is now starting to lag and appear slow. I run 5 screens (non-gaming) for trading and the screens are retaining lines when I move windows around (hence, my suspicion that the drivers are related to the problem - as also mentioned on the nVIDIA site)

Anyhow, I'm resigned to the fact that I need to try the system recovery (can't do a system restore as it wasn't switched on!). I've found the explanation of this process. It seems pretty simple. But first I need to take all my programs/applications off the computer and their dependant files.
Is there a link anywhere that would guide someone through this using baby steps? [im terrified that some software that I have bought to work within applications may disappear - hence why I haven't done a system recovery prior to this]
I'm assuming that I can copy my apps/progs back onto the recovered PC and hey presto everything is as was - please clarify if I'm incorrect? Also, the handling of the Norton antivirus that I use!!!

My other question is regarding the drivers that are used for running the various devices attached to the PC e.g. speakers, printer, screen-drivers, DVD etc....
How are these handled and/or what do I need to do to ensure that everything works after the recovery?

I can imagine that I may get responses that might appear basic to the learned but please bare in mind that anything other than plain English will have me looking up explanations of explanations (especially acronyms) and completely throw me.

my plea for help looks forward to any you may be able to give
Thank you in advance

 

[patcooke]

If you run a system recovery you will lose all installed apps, settings, updates etc. The bad news is that all applications will need to be reinstalled from whatever media they were originally installed. You cannot simply "extract" an applications program from the place to where it was installed and put it back. The install process runs a host of procedures which make changes and write entries to the system registry, install library routines which are clled by the program and many other things and these processes must be repeated after a system recovery.

The good news is that the recovery image will have been created for the pc by the manufacturer so device drivers should all be part of the recovery.

You should also take care to make back up copies of any user data stored on the system drive as these will all be overwritten (typically in your user folder and maybe other areas) to an external storage medium such as a usb hard drive.