I guess I was always going to have a gander at any possible replies, just in case there was anything worth coming back to.

AVG, for me, has always been sitting in the reserve; I mentioned, earlier in the thread, that for about a decade, now, give or take, I’ve been using Avast. Were it possible for me to use Avast, sans hassle, I must say I would do… however, AVG enjoys a great reputation (preferred by many, as well).

Interface seems easy to use; they have an up-sell portion of it, that you can hide, with a single click. Seems to automatically employ some basic level PC optimization, which has seen my start-up time 12% faster (reports this to you, just the once). It’s free version doesn’t have a shield for downloads, like that for Avast, but, it was seldom noticed, to be fair (I could maybe count on my hands how many precautionary messages I’ve received for any downloads, over the years). Otherwise, it offers a fairly comprehensive Webshield.

Just a couple days in, but, so far, so good. If/when I get a new system, I’ll likely return to Avast (worth noting that this problem persisted, even after a fresh reformatting)… but, until then, I really couldn’t be arsed to get to the bottom of what’s causing the issue (may be naive, on my part… but, I suppose I am so entitled).