levinut -

Don’t worry Windows keeps copies of explorer.exe and re-creates the file automatically (in fact that what made me think that a virus is running wild on my system - I just couldn’t get rid of explorer.exe no matter how hard I tried).

If for some reason Windows doesn’t re-create explorer.exe for you, it doesn’t, you can still copy the file yourself from (windir)\system32\dllcache or EXPAND the original file from the Windows installation CD.

If all else fails I can email you my explorer.exe …

To Avast team -

I’m glad that it turns out to be just a false alarm. I apologize for blaming Avast for bringing in the virus, but I hope you understand that when two different computers stop working after an update…

Anyway you deserve a big Thank You for a great free product!

J.