I have the same trouble from last month upgrading avast! free 8.0.1497 to avast! free 2014.9.0.2006 or 2014.9.0.2007 and recently 2014.9.0.2008. It is quite curious for me because I never had the same trouble with 8.0.1497 but now none of the recent 3 updated versions funnctions accordingly and cannot open web pages with Java applet. For easy reference, you may check the page of Java Oracle (with my case in japanese language) for confirming Java version on your computer, and in my case never Java detect my uptodate version 7u45. I’m also checking english forum but cannot find out solutions. My browser is IE 10.

I understand this avast! free is based on Avast! Internet Security which includes firewall function. Isn’t it any relation to the trouble? Or most of the people without such problem?

P.S. Disabling the Web Shield, it is possible to open the mentioned page like the attached screen shot.