Lee / all:

Guess I must have had a “bad” install. As you suggested, I uninstalled and reinstalled and it’s now a whole new interface, with the icon in the system tray, etc… Before, it seemed to be a mixed up interface, with some inconsistencies of the old and new release, now it’s ok…

And, with the good install and the Tbird upgrade, there is now no performance problem…

EDIT: well the above resolution was last night after the reinstall/reboot, but today with normal startup, the systray icons are not present, and the performance slowdown is back. Rather perplexing, and I am back to strongly considering backing out the upgrade, unless someone can advise me as to what the underlying problem might be and how to easily fix it…? :-\