Ok, yes I had to temporarily disable my fully purchased & licensed NORTON antivirus.  So.. Not a "bad antivirus."  Secondly, I was never "messing with things and deleting things."  I just uninstalled it again and reinstalled 11.8, and THIS time everything did pop right back up just fine, thankfully.  I wasn't trying to be a dick, but the difference in 11.8 & 11.9 seems to be a wave of troubleshooting.