I sure came to the right place. Thanks to all of you. Each reply was different, but either would have probably worked.I did the easiest thing for me and that was to pull the plugs on the printer and scanner, reboot and uninstall the software, even after a stern warning that I would be doing irreversible damage. Then I turned the computer back on and tried the scanner and printer. Both work fine, so far. I may have done damage that has not shown up yet. If I have a problem I may try the system restore feature. I had forgotten I even had that. Have had this computer for about 3 years and never tried the system restore.Thanks again!! Ida

zep, you got off free and clear, not I, not the first time probably won't be the last. Oh well can't please them all. LOL and yes I do have resources to back it up. Help! My computer is slow! a highly regarded MVP posts about registry cleaner use. Mark Russinovich (Author of the "Bible", Windows Internals, co-founder of Winternals and Sysinternals, and since both companies were bought by Microsoft, now a senior Microsoft employee) "I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since it's of little practical use on anything other than Win2K terminal servers and developing one that's both safe and effective requires a huge amount of application-specific knowledge. Will using Registry Cleaners speed-up my system and make it more reliable? It will have no effect on system speed. There is an excellent chance it will make your system less reliable." And the extremely well know Fred Langa Are software registry cleaners of any use? Fred Langa started with a standard PC, imaged it, and ran 10 registry cleaners. He ran each three times on an image: Highest number of items that needed to be "fixed": 800 Lowest number of items found to be "fixed": 59 "Does not this suggest that what needs to be fixed is not at all certain? The other question it invites is it not possible that those generating a large number of entries are trying to sell snake oil? " And from Bill Castner MS MVP who works on many of the support forums. "Summary of Registry Cleaner Software: Do not bother with this. It it unlikely to help, it can cause harm. There are no end-user benefits from running registry cleaners. Unnecessary entries in the registry do no harm. This should not be a regular maintenance chore. It most certainly if done should not be automated. I hold to the singular distinction I made in the beginning: there are times that a fast registry editor with search is needed to fix a single issue under Expert hands. There is no justification for the regular use of automated registry cleaning tools; and as the results above show, they are of dubious merit as the "fix" for even one-off problems that need solving." Bill Castner MS-MVP, Aumha VSOP & Moderator I could certainly go on for quite some time quoting from each of the support forums, but I won't bother. As DA so wisely stated "The problem is here at the forum we have members of various levels of inexperience who at times overly rely on a member's suggestion or from readings elsewhere." That is precisely why at help forums you MUST be extremely cautious what is suggested, and every support forum I work on goes by the statement that Bill Castner made above. If someone knowingly choses to use such a program they take that risk upon them selves which is fine if they are knowingly entering into it and know the risks involved.

REVO was used to uninstall Ashampooo successfully. Zone Alarm Free is now the new installed firewall. Since Avast is now successfully updating, I would support the idea that Ashampoo and Avast currently make for an unhappy combo. I'm posting in case this "solution" to "Avast cannot find the server" is helpful to another.

Okay. So I'm feeling reassured. I'll back up my data files again. Is there a simple command to back them all up at once - or a whole group at once. I'm sure the instructions are simple, but I've never done it. Grandms - I don't save most email, but I do save some. Some that are from a professional organization I'm on the Board of. Others that might include professional recommendations (plumbers, petsitters, etc) - things like that. I'm on a couple of listservs that often have very useful compilations of resources and professional recommendations.