HAN--Please educate me.
I agree with you that a UPS is the way to go to prevent a shutdown which would damage open programs.
However, I would have thought that a proper surge protector would protect the equipment from a surge (off or on).
So I am saying there are two different issues. UPS (protecting data) vs. surge protector (protecting equipment).
1) A UPS protects the new data to the extent you can Save during an orderly shutdown even if the power is off.
2) A properly sized surge protector should protect your equipment, though if the PC is shut down, you will lose the new data in open programs if the power goes off. What difference would that be from just shutting down by turning OFF on the tower?
I certainly agree that backups are highly desireable. But if the backup equipment is hosed (because it is not connected to a surge protector) I suspect a backup is not going to function.

yurka--My comments here and in earlier posts assume that your UPS includes a surge protector. I think that is almost a given today, but in earlier UPS units it may not be the case.