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For my computer, creating a drive image would take many hours every time.

I create restore points very often as a system backup option if needed.

You misunderstood what I said, I only said general viruses and malware don’t concern me for the purposes of this question regarding spyware going into and then coming from an email account to my computer.
But in general, I’m VERY concerned, cautious and careful to prevent viruses and malware, which is why I use the programs below (Avast, Malwarebytes Anti-malware & anti-exploit, SuperAntiSpyware, MCshield and WinPatrol). In addition to those, I use Ccleaner very often and AdwCleaner periodically. I also disabled the Flash plugin on Chrome, only to be enabled when absolutely needed (good thing Chrome finally removed the Java plugin, not that I’d use it anyway).
Obviously I try to keep safe browsing habits as well.
It is precisely due to caution I generally exercise, that I got concerned when the above-discussed question about the email spyware occurred to me, thus I was focusing only on that in this thread (at least till now).
I’d love to hear your suggestions if you think I should add anything to the list.