Avast is preventing me from loading many websites since upgrading to a new computer

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
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So I finally replaced my old 2018 Dell XPS8930 desktop running Windows 10 with a much better Dell Pro Max Tower T2 PC running Windows 11. I reinstalled all the apps and transferred all the files. I installed Avast Free Antivirus, the security program I’ve been using for over 20 years.

Right away I noticed certain websites homepage and login pages weren’t loading at all on my Firefox browser (my browser of choice for the same 20 year period). Yet I would go to my old PC which I didn’t get rid of, it’s set up in my kitchen as a backup PC, and the same sites would load quickly on Windows 10 running Firefox with all the same extensions, same Avast Free Antivirus settings, same wifi network.

I have spent the last week messing with Firefox troubleshooting, checking wifi speed, network settings on new computer, long phone calls and emails with Dell tech support agent, all to no avail. The same sites do load quickly on the new PC using Edge as a browser, but I don’t want to use Edge or Chrome, I am used to Firefox.

Anyway, it occurred to me today to try disabling all web shields in Avast. Now all web pages load instantly. Problem fixed, I think!

Now I need to know what I can do to keep using Avast and Firefox on my new Windows 11 PC, if possible. I already created exceptions in Avast for several of the websites that wouldn’t load, but it didn’t help (FWIW, those websites are mostly financial sites like PayPal, Venmo, my credit union, but also many retail sites and even an independent news site).

My Dell tech thought it was the AdBlockPlus extension in Firefox but I removed that and it didn’t help.

Only disabling all web shields in Avast allows me to access the websites I want to. Please help me fix this so I can continue using Avast. If I can’t fix it then I would rather ditch Avast and use Windows Defender or some other free open source security program, than dump Firefox and start using Edge or Chrome.

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Bumping this post to see if anyone has any ideas. If I can’t solve this matter then I will likely choose to stop using Avast after over twenty years of daily use. I know I’m not a paying customer since I stick with the free version, but maybe it is time to let it go and hope Windows Defender will cover all my security needs.

FWIW I did a full uninstall and reinstall of Avast using the instructions at Clean Install of Avast - Google Docs and additionally I used the offline installer to avoid automatically adding Avast Secure Browser to my computer which it did before and I had to delete, thought maybe that was causing problems, but no, the issue persists, and disabling web shields solves it.

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If anyone is having this problem on Windows 11, try going into Menu → Settings → Scam Guardian → UNcheck “Enable QUIC/HTTP3 Scanning” (Or just like what OP did, disable the Web Guard) and give it a few minutes.

Yup, I am having the same issue on my Windows 11 machine as well. I don’t know what they’ve changed, but it has gotten worse lately, blocking/slowing YouTube videos and Amazon. It either completely blocks a lot of legitimate websites or slows down to the point where it takes 5 minutes for them to load at all. Unchecking that function fixes the problem for me and apparently, this has been an issue for months according to older posts. I don’t know why they haven’t fixed it yet. Avast does not appear to be fully compatible with Windows 11 at the moment. It works fine on my Windows 10 machines.

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Thanks I will try that and look for consistently positive results and let you know. Weird that Avast should work better in Windows 10 than the latest version. Not so weird that there would be problems in Firefox, since many apps tend to optimize browser performance in Chrome or Edge and don’t worry so much if there are issues with Firefox. And the fact that Avast now has its own browser (never tried it, maybe I should) suggests that maybe they would like users to drop their old browser for the new Avast browser. I guess I can’t complain since I’m not a paying subscriber.

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This works! Last night and this morning those pesky web pages are loading quickly with this adjusted setting. I hope it continues to do so, and I can continue using Firefox and Avast. Thanks for that suggestion!

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Glad to hear that!! I don’t know what’s going on with this feature on Windows 11, but I hope they fix it soon because turning it off means slightly less security for us Windows 11 users.

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Use Bitdefender Free :wink: