DavidR
Thank you.
I had thought that Avast may be protecting itself, but the messages that Windows gave suggested that somehow I needed to get Administrators, rather than Administrator, to provide permission. Unhelpful messages from Windows I think, but then what else could it say, I guess it had no more information than that. However, perhaps as part of Avast's self defence mechanism it could interrupt the second Windows message, having confirmed Administrator privileges, with its own message that it is the one defending the files, and its ownership, rather than Windows doing so.
Concerning the concurrent connection limit being exceeded, the message is clearly 'limit in Avast! exceeded' Outlook may indeed have 48 connections open, but I understand that the Avast default is 50, so we have two left. Even so, Outlook had not exhibited this problem until the .2349 (or was it .2346 I am now confused about this) update had been applied.
In my view Avast should not prevent Outlook from performing its task, just because Avast cannot get hold of a connection. Yes, warn the user of course, but allow the user to proceed, with a 'this is risky' message if thought necessary and a link to a simple mechanism within the UI to increase the limit, or redirect the user to other potential causes of the problem.
I had initially thought it was simply a 'tired' Windows issue, and rebooted the machine, but it was not. The problem was there from the moment Outlook started.
And I have no doubt I have mentioned things here that should perhaps be in another thread, like asking for a new feature or new behaviour from Avast, and if so I ask for your forbearance.
Kind regards
Coco