1. Almost certainly yes, if you have that option.

2. It depends what you mean.

If you install XP, install all your drivers, install all your apps, get everything running nicely and then take a snapshot of the drive, then you can reinstall the image next time instead of going through the whole process. This will certainly work.

If you mean take a Snapshot of Program Files then you will have mixed results. Some apps will work. Others will complain about missing registry setting and DLL files. Some will not work at all.

3. I would imagine that some sort of utility is provided.