Thanks for the info, Tony. Lot of food for thought there. I have installed AVG 8 now. The main problem was teh updates which it seems are due to malware.

>Hi Terry.
>I don't know if you still interested in AVG free edition. The link to get it is http://free.avg.com/
>At the office we have been making updates with no problem. At home I'm using Eset NOD32.
>BTW - None antivirus can 'catch' all the sort of Malware that exist these days. You can get
>a virus through Internet before the antivirus maker gets a copy of it to build the vacines.
>Usually the best way is to give the antivirus a 'hand'. Help it remove what it is not seeing,
>of course, manually. I use 3 utilities to achieve this:
> - lspfix (very, very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing)
> - hijackthis
> - Autoruns
>About reformating your disk :), there are virus that can resist a reformat of your disk. In these
>cases, before reformat you must delete the partitions an create them again.
>But the flawlless wait to remove a partition virus is to do a 'Quick Low Level Format'. That
>will erase the first an last sectors of the hard disk and let no chance for a reinfection.
>But to avoid all of these steps is a good practice to have an 'Image' of your installation and
>restore it when needed. Like others said you can use Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage.
>
>>What - you mean reformat my disk?
>>
>>>I guess you need major antimalware - FORMAT. <g>
>>>
>>>>When you're overdrawn the banks stiffs you with extra charges for being overdrawn. When you've got this infection you can't get the downloads you need!!!
>>>>
>>>>So I'm kept away from AVG, Windows, et al, updates. The evidence is certainly pointing to this type of infection, preventing its own cure. Damn! I guess I'll have to get the files on a stick from another puter.
>>>>
>>>>Seems a good call, Sergey.
>>>>
>>>>BTW, when I check for windows updates, via Windows defender, i get 0x80190194 error "The program can't check for ... updates".
>>>>
>>>>>See if 'Open different internet places' Thread #1377595 Message #1377627 can help.