Hello,
I want to thank everyone who provided helpful information for this issue with After Effects, and for the issue I was having with Premiere Pro. I ended up doing the following in order to get both programs back up and running from freezing during the start up process. However, before I tell you the steps I took, I just wanted to add that I am still having the same problems but I seem to be able to get both problems working again by simply uninstalling both programs, totally shutting the computer down and then bringing it back up again, then reinstalling both programs and then once again shutting the computer down entirely before bringing it back up and starting the programs again. I am fairly certain that I am going to be FORCED to purchase their damn Creative Cloud rip-off because they won't provide fixes for known issues in their software unless you purchase their newest software.
So anyhow, here is what I did in order to get the programs working again.
1. Contacted AVG customer service who spent over two hours with me totally uninstalling my AVG software, clearing up ALL traces of it off of my computer, and then installing the newest version of their software and any and all updates.
2. Once the newest AVG software was installed, I went in and made sure that the following four connections were being allowed.
- AfterFX.exe
- Adobe QT32 Server.exe
- dynamiclinkmanager.exe
- PProHeadless.exe
3. Totally uninstalled both programs, did a complete shut down of the computer before restarting it.
4. Reinstalled both programs and then once again did a complete shut down of the computer before restarting it.
5. When I booted up both programs I cleared the preferences just liked I was advised in an answer to my initial post.
Both programs worked great and I left them up and running for several days, and then Windows did an automatic update and then once again I couldn't get either program to open. So I simply did steps #3 and #4 again, (well I had to do it twice) and I now have both programs up and running once again.
So hopefully I can keep them both up and running with minimal hassle for awhile so that I can get the projects I am working on completed.
Thank you once again to everyone who provided useful and helpful information!
Shawn