It is hard to say of course, but if you uninstalled an application right before the problems occurred, is it possible that the uninstaller removed some important file or changed some (registry) settigns (e.g. mantra discovered that an uninstaller app moved avast startup items from one registry key to another).
You don't happen to remember the information on the bluescreen, do you? If it's a very low address (0000xxxx) and if the bluescreen appears when loading the desktop... well, it reminds me of a problem I encountered
many times personally (and which has absolutely nothing to do with avast - just windows). The symptoms are similar - blue screen when the desktop is loading... Solution: boot to DOS and delete the file ShellIconCache from windows directory (it's not important and will be recreated the next time you start windows). Well, just a wild guess - Win9x seem to have some general problems with icons. Anyway, if the bluescreen appears again, try to write down the info from there.
When I see your configuration, you can also try to disable the scanning of created/modified files as well. But if it works now, there's no points there... only if the problem reappears, disabling parts of the protection may suggest where the problem could be.
Of course, it's more secure to have additional files listed in the "scan files on open" box (e.g. HT* could be useful); I didn't suggest it as a solution - but only to check if it helps.
As for the updated files: I'm sorry, but I was very busy with the coding and testing (the mentioned Standard Shield changes, and also the Virus Cleaner) - and I forgot to put them online
. So, we'd have to wait till Monday when I get back to work (unless Vlk manages to compile & upload them somewhere).