What 'Opera'?

Click on the "Opera" menu... the logo in the upper left.

I wish I got daily updates

Trust me... no, you don't.

No, it is Opera,and Opera alone. If I go to Opera>About Opera after this happens, there will always be an update download either in progress or pending. "Daily" is a bit of hyperbole, but it is VERY frequently.

It seems like once a day Opera just crashes - just disappears from my screen. Suddenly and without warngin. If I am typing anything (e.g. like this forum posting), the work is lost. I get a brief error from Windows about some application having a dialog box open. When I restart Opera, the "Speed Dial" icons are about half size and the browser has lost all knowledge of any kind of search engine capability.

Eventually, things return to normal, but sometimes it takes forever.

All of this maddening behavior is related to the also seemingly never-ending, daily "updates" that seem mostly to do nothing at all but be annoying.

Fix this or I'm done.

Windows 7, by the way.