Today ... since my last comment on this thread, for the first I tried to remove my Flash Drive. And I did encounter the dreaded inability to safely remove the Flash Drive.
I then decided, "Okay, so let me try downloading and using that highly-touted USB Disk Ejector. I tried it out and NOPE! No Dice. That Sucker was even very slow to get around to telling me that the Flash Drive could NOT be safely removed because some App was in use, which of course, NOTHING was in use and I was even Off Line. It was bad enough that it took an eternity to copy the only 400 something KByte Setup File from my Desktop to my Flash Drive.
Something is definitely wrong with 5.1.889 regarding ANY Flash Drive activity.
The only alleged Workaround that we had to safely remove our Flash Drives, USB Disk Ejector was slow and worthless. That's aside of any Copy & Paste activity involving the Flash Drive is VERY slow with periods where it downright looks like it's locked up. I had planned on updating my Back Up Flash Drives, but now I'm gonna hold off because it's liable to take an hour or more. And I no longer even trust that any writing onto the Flash Drives will be done correctly what with all the weird behavior.
And no, it's NOT my Flash Drive. Everything was working fine with 5.0.677.
The problems surfaced right after my update to 5.1.889.
As to whether my computer has a virus?
Well, last night 5.1.889 indicated that my system, as usual, is clean.