R2D2 No, I did not install f.lux, because I do not have f.lux on the install that causes me no problems.
Either way it's a moot point, I have the old pain free Windows install working fine now (turns out it was the "Windows Experience Program" crashing Windows Explorer and MSIE.exe, and you need to use Group Policy Editor to disable it, and viola, all the problems vanished), so I'm going to blow away the painful install and install Lubunu on the HDD and experiment with virtualizing Windows. That should give me the much finer grain control over the desktop rendering engine, with the ability to run all my Windows applications, and he ability to backup virtual hard disks for instant ability to load previous versions of the PC.