dawman wrote:Jeez Nestor you saved the day.
I was thinking about using portable installs but hate to give up real-time usage.
Thanks..

Yes, simply deactivate the Antivir "guard" like described in the link.
Also, install Piriform CCleaner FREE ...
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Go to "extras" and click on the "autostart" tab.
You´ll see Avira Antivir installed some more applications in addition to the guard,- p.ex. "Avira Launcher".
De-activate w/ CCleaner or better de-install that too, otherwise it´s active always because there´s no way to set it to "manual" or "deactivated" in the Windows services list,- it´s simply greyed out .
In Win XP Pro SP3 and on 2 machines, I was able de-installing everything except the "guard", getting rid of everything which could not be de-activated in autostart.
When working w/ SCOPE and native DAWs like Presonus Studio One Pro, Reason, Reaper, Cantabile etc., I not only de-activate the "guard", I also de-activate the network connection in device manager completely and only activate network connection and Antivir guard on demand when doing updates and/or downloads of surf the web for some info I need for audio-/MIDI work.
On my machines, Windows firewall is active as a Windows service always, but does nothing with network card/ internet connection being disconnected.
Works like a charme.
I also use Malwarebytes frequently on demand.
It killed some hidden toolbars and other spyware crap from both of my audio machines, found a trojan too and deleted.
Since then, all fine.
B.t.w., Avira also installs a browser safety plugin you´ll find w/ CCleaner under "extras" > "browser plugins".
There are 2 tabs for Windows Internet Explorer and in my case,- Firefox.
There, you can de-activate several unnecessary things like Java helpers and s##t too,- all bloatware.
For Firefox I kept Avira Browser Savety, EasyYoutube Downloader Express, YouTube Unblocker, Quicktime plugin and Shockwave Flash.
That´s all and they do nothing as long the browser isn´t launched.
For Windows Internet Explorer I killed everything.
For CCleaner and Malwarebytes as also the other browser plugins mentioned above, Quicktime at 1st place, don´t allow automatic search for updates.
Do it manually on occasion.
Most of the times my office machine tells me there are updates, so I can decide for the others.
Avira looks for updates every time you power up a machine which has it installed and when you connect to the internet, you cannot change it ...
So, when your machine´s network card is activated always in device manager and connects to the internet automatic once the machine is powered up, Avira WILL perform an update !
But that job is by default scheduled to a minimum every 2 hrs which is a PITA !
Set it to every 24 hrs or such.
You only find it w/ Avira application launched, then go to the "extras" tab and click on "configuration" ...
In addition, Avira automaticly performs system scans which is independent from the "guard" state and kicks in randomly.
Set it to the highest,- IIRC every 162 hrs ...
CCleaner works very good, never had any issues.
Bud