[Stone Mill]

I don't know if this helps, but WIN 2000 (and I believe XP) has "hibernate mode" next to the shutdown options which will put your computer to sleep. When you turn the computer on again, all programs restored will be at the exact point in time you gave the hibernate command.

I do this when I'm working on a big turn and need to leave.

Unfortunately, if someone else needs to use the computer, you need to brief them not to close SEIV, and leave it minimized while working, etc, and especially to hibernate it again, as opposed to shutting down.