I went to the registry that was pointed out by spybot and changed START from 3(manual start) to 2(automatic start) Then I uninstalled, rebooted and reinstalled Avast. now it seems that I no longer have a problem. Security centre is working. Avast is working, and I do not see any redirects in my browsers. I hope that this is not a temporary situation.

Please find attached the report you requested. EB, I truly wish to thank you for all the time and effort you have put into helping resolve my problem. Something must have worked! ;D