If I back up everything on my hard drive, will Microsoft Office 2003 still work?

My computer is moving very sluggishly and I have tried everything (disk defragmentation, cleanup, etc). I want to preform a system restore now. I am running Windows XP home edition if that is relevant. After I do the back up and restore the system will all my applications still work? I am especially concerned about MS Office since it is pretty expensive (for a college student like me). Also what are the steps for restoring after you create the backup disk ( I just want to make sure I have it right). I am using a sony viao laptop model pcg-7f1L. Thanks in advance!

If I back up everything on my hard drive, will Microsoft Office 2003 still work?hp

Only if you backup EVERY SINGLE FILE, FOLDER, AND ANYTHING ELSE on the harddrive.

If I back up everything on my hard drive, will Microsoft Office 2003 still work?mcaffee

If you are restoring just to an earlier date , your applications will not be effected. If you are going to reformat your HDD,then it wipes the computer clean and everything has to be reinstalled. You make the back ups for everything and after reformat you have to reinstall it all.
Yes it will. In case you backup your system with some product like True Image everything will work after the restore including games and programs not related with office.
If you restore to a restore point date that is before the date you installed office, office will not work. Same thing for most other programs that make registry entries.