PROBLEM: QUICKEN 2011 and AVAST 6.0.1273
It appears that there is an incompatibility with Avast 6.0.1273 and Quicken 2011. When attempting to initiate a browser session from within Quicken, the programs (Quicken and the browser,IE8)immediately and abruptly close.
I think I isolated the issue to the Quicken/Browser/Avast interaction. A browser session opened outside of Quicken while Quicken was still running worked without issues. Both the browser and Quicken sessions operated "as advertised" when both were opened separately, but were run concurrently.
I did not find any other functionality issues with either of the programs.
I reverted back to Avast 6.0.1203 and both of the programs operated as expected.