That sounds like my issue of reregistering my free version awhile back.I had forgot that I had a firewall rule blocking AvastUI.exe.Unblocked the rule and avast registered ok then.
Not sure if this is your case though.
Try a repair. Control panel…add/remove…double click “avast”…scroll to “repair”…re-boot.
This does work most of the time. I always try “repair” before anything else.