Free AVG 17.4.3014 killed my virtual machine

I have good reason to believe that AVG 17.4.3014 killed my Windows Virtual PC XP Mode in Windows 7. Shortly after the program updated itself to that version, I found that XP Mode would not open. I didn't suspect AVG at first. I have my entire hard drive backed up and when I tried the backup, XP Mode worked fine. but after AVG updated itself on that drive also, XP Mode no longer worked there, either. When I try to open it, the progress bar reaches a certain point and then vanishes and that's it. I've tried customizing a few options in AVG settings with no success. I also tried temporarily disabling AVG. The fact that that didn't help either makes me think that AVG has permanently damaged my virtual machine in some way. I suspect that it might not like some of the applications I have running there but I don't want AVG to concern itself at all with anything in that virtual machine. Before I take any steps to try to repair the VM, I'd like some assurance that it's not going to just happen all over again. Please help if you can.