Thanks for the reply DavidR.

I did a clean install of Windows XP (from CD) onto a freshly formatted HDD a year ago and went for whatever free product was available from Avast at the time. I’ve just done a search of “avast” files and folders in Windows and this brings up various files starting x86_avast… or x86_policy… with creation date (coincidentally) of 30 October 2014 (yes, 2014).

I also use CCleaner regularly - on both the XP laptop and my general purpose Win 7 laptop (also an Inspiron 1300).

Steve