All,
First & foremost Thank You for your help here.
BOAC - Makes sense, I shall blame mrs batninth as I, like StaceyF, go through the updates to check what's important & what isn't before letting update manager let rip. In this case, Browser Choice just appeared when mrs batninth was using this PC so applying the principle of TTI ("Total Technical Irrationality") it must be her fault
Mornington Crescent - that page is really useful. I suspect that our various XP laptops will also get blighted by this so now I know how to disable it. I checked the laptop that originally started with it, and there is no sign of BrowserChoice in startup so I guess that running it also removes the startup entry. Either way, I have the answer now for the rest of the PC estate here at batninth towers
frostbite - I suggest care with that strategy. Mrs batninth's laptop had major problems with auto update so I turned it off but then got bitten about 6 months later when it needed something necessary