Windows Vista Vista logging me off!

HELP! my Laptop is running vista home premium and has been working like a dream up until last night when I went looking for a free program to convert video files (from avi to mpg) from my camera. Found one that looked fairly decent "“ didn’t set any alarm bells with my anti-virus software and installed it perfectly. Then it asked me to close all my work because it had to restart to take effect - which I did. Now it wont let me log on! Or more specifically it will let me log on but within 30 seconds I get the message "“


WARNING- Windows is about to log you off!

Windows has encounted a fatal error and will restart in one minute.


Or something like that. Is there any way you can help me? Im desperate as it has all of my uni assignments and such on it! and I would really enjoy not having to pay top dollar for our IT specialist to fix it if it can be done by myself!

 

Thaknkyou for your advice. i shall try this later today when im home from work. If this works you are my lifesaver! i do understand the importance of backing up my files- but i had just begun working on this one last night and needed to input a video into a slidshow - hence my need for the converter that must have downloaded a nasty bug onto my machine. if my system restores and its working fine again, are there any video converters (Avi format to MPG format... i think. I need to be able to play in in windows media and possibly burn to DVD so whatever format works best for that) that someone can recommend? id like to point out once more that i am a starving uni student and would be very grateful if this were freeware or minimal cost! Thanx!! will let you know if this worked!

 

Thanks PeteC! your suggestions worked wonderfully. i will try windows movie maker!