Hi Sir nihil,

I did a bit more research on this and came up with this...

http://hardwarehell.com/articles/bootclean.shtml

"Some program installations that require a reboot, may be using the temp folder to store files needed to complete installation upon the reboot".

This probably explains why I found the installer in the Temp dir.

As for the problem I had, I'm still at a loss. I did close the AV (McAfee 7.03), started it up again, and yet is was still in the state of updating. The issue is mute now, since I have a new image on C:/ .....everything is running well. In the meantime I'll be figuring more ways how to brake my box. It's only 1's & 0's...LOL- until the day I loose important data, knock on wood.