I am sorry about your issues. I am NOT an expert, but will try to help you as much as possible with Avast.

First of all, please never shut down the web shield, as you are opening your computer to nasty bugs on the internet.

There is a Avast Repair option in the Add/Remove programs in your computer that would solve most issues with Avast.

Have you tried that, please? If not here are the instructions for it.

Click on “Start”, find “Control Panel” and click on it. A new window will open. Scroll down until you see Programs, click on it. Another panel will open up, you should see at the top Programs and Features, click on it and another panel will open up. Scroll down until you see Avast Internet Security, once you find it, right click it (hover your mouse over it will say Uninstall/Change). Once you click it another panel will be shown from Avast. Their will be several options for you to choose from. On the left side there will be shown the following. Update, Change, Repair, and Uninstall. Click on REPAIR and follow the instructions. This should fix any issues you have with Avast.

Please let me know if this corrects your issues.