Thanks for showing me how to find this component. I did my usual Avast update earlier this month, and afterwards noticed that every time I tried to save a game on Steam my computer would slow to a crawl for 2-5 minutes. I also noticed that annoying 'gaming hook' in my task manager whenever this happened.
After I turned off the gaming mode, the 'gaming hook' disappeared from my task manager and the slowdown stopped.
Although I do not like it when my antivirus program causes more problems than the viruses that it is supposedly protecting me against, I do appreciate your information on how to turn this 'feature' off.
thanks again