Returning to this. It has been a busy couple of months, and I never had time to do the uninstall. Instead, when I encounter a bearded orange ball (usually the problem) or a locked-up taskbar (don’t think I’ve had this problem in quite some time), I’ve learned to just turn off all shields permanently and reboot, then restart all the shields at the X’d-out orange ball. This seems to work quite well. And I only have to do it say maybe one in ten boots. I think the next time there is a big update to avast, where a whole update comes down, I’ll do the uninstall/install procedure to start fresh, but for now I’m just going to leave it.

I like your fish swimming in the fish bowl, asyn.

Thanks for your folks’ help. I’ll try to mark this topic closed.