no, opera wasn't causing any problems, i just decided on that system to remove the `growingly' obsolete software: it was my windows 7 system and i was playing with various replacement browsers, and had finally decided to use an opera-ized firefox (via extensions) as my default- though i'm still playing around and could switch to seamonkey???? (still playing with opera's mail program and haven't decided on whether to keep it or not). opera 19 is still on my system, but is looking increasingly irrelevant compared to firefox. i still use opera 12.16 on my linux, i find it faster than chomium and firefox, and security isn't as concerning on that system. so long story short ... opera 12 removed from my windows 7 for acceptance of inevitable.
on that system, antivirus is mse and webroot. additionally have winpatrol and spyshelter to harden system. problem may have come from spyshelter, though logs don't indicate this. but spyshelter can run browsers with limited user rights. this post interested me because there was some similarity in the problems. so i suggested my fix.
inversely jarodsafehouse71, if your problems only occur when opera is started, try my above suggestion. if your problems occur immediately with startup of system, you likely have other problems. you could try starting in safemode and tackle your problems from there. uninstall opera 12 to see if it was the root of your problems - if not you can always reinstall. scan your system for malware. make sure there are no updates for your drivers (or for windows in general). think about if you recently installed something new that might be causing conflicts and uninstall it to check (perhaps your antivirus just had a big, bad update?). if all else fails, it might be time for a system restore point (its so much easier than trying to figure it out, sometimes).
and for bookmarks etc. try: favbackup: http://download.cnet.com/FavBackup/3000-2242_4-10946542.html?tag=mncol;1
i used it with success in the past.
