Hi Eddy & Bob, thanks for the replies. It dawned on me this afternoon that if I couldn't get to Programs and Features to do a repair install or to do an uninstall for a 'clean install', why not just download a new Avast and do a full install. Did that and after two "that's embarrassing, UI failed' messages, Avast asked me to reboot. Rebooted and Avast came back to sit proudly in the systray proclaiming that I am protected - No UI error.
Unfortunately I'm still struggling with the server execution issue and the half-baked system restore(s) and who knows what else, but I wanted to let you and the world know that Avast will do an install on top of itself and apparently 'repair' an installed version.
Thanks again,
tom