Well, I had planned to uninstall and reinstall today and then, last night, I suddenly wondered if a system restore would do the trick... I have not downloaded/upgraded/installed anything on my computer and there was not even a Windows update (since the pop-ups/voice-overs disappeared).. just system check-out points.. so a restored to Tuesday and... everything is working just fine now. When I logged on this morning, there's the pop-up and that voice telling me the virus definitions had been updated..!
No clue what caused this mess but that's the odd part about computers.. things just happen. I hope this is a good fix... Thank you again to all those who offered their help.
You hear such conflicting opinions.. For instance, my computer-servicing company used to install "CA Anti-Virus" ($80 Cdn.) and I just hated it. Never knew what it was doing, user-unfriendly interface but they swore by it. Now, they like "Norton". One of the guys there said "Avast" was good along with "AVG" and one of the guys there dislikes "Avast" and recommends "Microsoft Security Essentials" or "Norton".
I'll stick with Avast for now and hope that same pop-up issue doesn't happen again..
