To Craig
No. No Norton or Symantec or any other active program.
Trying to confirm the source of the problem has been a challenge. This problem is sporadic, and the very process that's causing it is also preventing me from promptly viewing Task Mgr.
I've spotted some issues with a setup.exe process and teatimer in the past, but the most recent instance was undoubtably avast.
I simply can't afford to permit it to update first thing, when my priority is to get other services up and running.
I'm posting here with the hope that someone will consider introducing alternatives in the auto update settings ... to either specific times during the day, or after startup but on a xx minute delay.
I've switched to manual in the meantime, and we'll see if I have this problem again ... which would obviously implicate something else. I'll report back if that happens.
P
PS - these verification panes are a royal pain in the ass. First time half the text was out of the window, so I failed the test.
Second time, system concluded that I'd already posted this reply, so it rejected it as a repeat even though it was rejected.
Who knows if this gets through.