Hello again all!
Well, I am fed up with this now.
Event viewer doesn't log anything extra happening when I attempt to open Recuva. Nothing. Nada.
System restore would take me way back into early June ..... too much happened since then. Would be easier to forego Recuva than do that, I fear.
Tinkered with Task manager and I noticed part of my Zonealarm firewall leaping up the memory scale. Disabled Zonealarm, rebooted ..... and no joy with that either.
Compatibilty mode is a no-go either. Recuva flashes its welcome screen, as always, and disappears.
I have stopped dozens of other processes too and I can not stop this problem. Have run out of patience now (and hair?) and I can't spend hours on this anymore. As much as it pains me to quit, that is what I am going to do. I'll just have to do without Recuva on this machine. That fact that it all (continues) to work on my desktop really grates .....
Thanks all for your words of advice and encouragement - you have been great. You are all superb examples of what is best in supportive on-line communities. My humble thanks to you folks!
I shall return now and again past here, to see if anyone stumbles on a solution, but I won't be spending anymore time chasing my tail, lol!
Adios amigos!