Ta-Da! Guys; I love you and I want Painless to bear your children
Got it fired up in Safe Mode and ran System Restore. Everything now peachy. Thankyou very much for the good advice.
OK, Percy Pigeon 'ere is next on the agenda. Tomorrow morning at breakfast I'll grab 'im - won't be too hard as he's so docile he'll feed out of our hands - and get the info off his rings and do the right thing. I'm just worried with all this Karma going round that when I touch him there will be some StarTrek-Mr.Spock-Vulcan mind-meld situation and he'll become "aware" that in the past I've shot several dozen of his breathren with a .310 shotgun!
It could be the end of something beautiful!