Gary I went back to an earlier version 7.0.28822.0 but unfortunately the data base was changed by the newest version so the older version couldn’t open it. My choice was to start a fresh data base with no emails or ride it out with the newest…which is what I’ll be doing.
Ah yes, I seem to remember that the database format was changed again early in version 7. Maybe it was at 7.1.x. The release history does not mention these important changes. Sorry about that. 
I’m sure if I had more time and patience I could find a version of eM without the closing delay and also being compatible with the newer version. Something interesting I forgot to mention. I copied/replaced the entire database folder from a back up I did before this new version, unfortunately it too was not compatible. Maybe it’s a registry entry that is not changing back after the newer version changes it…
No, it is not a registry thing. The database actually has a different format that is not backwards compatible.
You can move your data across to an early version if it is all online, but not your settings.