customize save for future sessions

["B. T. Raven" <btraven@nihilo.net>]

When I try to save any customization (through Specific Option) to .emacs
I see:

Invalid Read Syntax: "?"

Am on w64-7pro and Emacs 23.3.1

Possibly pertinent os evironment settings:

C:\mydocu~1>set
...
ALTERNATE_EDITOR=C:\emacs\bin\runemacs --debug-init
APPDATA=C:\Users\Ec\AppData\Roaming
.....
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
EMACS_SERVER_FILE=C:\Users\Ec\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\server\se
.....
home=c:\users\Ec\Appdata\Roaming
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\Ec
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\Ec\AppData\Local
.....
Path=C:\Python33\;c:\mingw\bin;C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin;c:\gnu\bin;C:\Windows\
.... etc.
:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\;c:\adt\adt\sdk\platform-tools
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
....
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
...
Emacs itself is installed in c:\emacs, not with w32 programs.

Also is there a faq for this group (gnu.emacs.help). I need to (re)learn
how to use emacsclientw, installation options, etc. With every upgrade
to Emacs and the OS things get clunkier due to my own ignorance of the
basics and to the fact that many important things are done and then
forgotten once a year or even less often.

Thanks,

Ed