Okay per the instructions, I ran the avast uninstall tool in safe mode, and then installed the version as per the provided link. My web browsers speed (Chrome and Firefox) are slightly improved, but not without a few hiccups.
For example: opening Gmail in Firefox- I had to reload the page twice to get it to load completely. The first attempt I was greeted with a blank white screen. I closed the browser, and tried again, and then saw gmail partially loaded - I refreshed the page and it finally loaded.
Also upon my first attempt opening Chrome after installing avast I received a blank page with an SSL error. I closed and reopened the browser and then it loaded my home page (google.com) correctly.
I'm not sure why I am having so many problems with avast on my new computer...
Any other suggestions?