Mail Shield Disabled and Cannot Be Enabled

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Overnight Saturday, 05-December, Windows 10 Version 1511 auto-updated to the new Cumulative Update 4 (CU4) released in KB3116908. After the update, both Gmail and Yahoo! Mail have stopped syncing over IMAPS and cannot send email via SMTPS. Prior to the Windows auto-update, I had several Gmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts configured in both Thunderbird and Windows Mail. Everything was working normally prior to the Windows auto-update based on the last email received at 10:36PM on 05-December just before the auto-update. Now, I cannot receive or send emails with any of my email accounts with either email client. (Additional information: I'm not dead in the water with email. Using the same IMAPS and SMTPS settings, I can access all of my Gmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts via a Linux server with Thunderbird on the same network, or via my Android smartphone on the same network and on the carrier's network, or via Gmail and Yahoo! Mail web interfaces. No password issues or configuration issues...just Windows 10 update issues!  It's just a pain because the Windows PC is my primary device.)

How does this relate to Avast? After the Windows 10 auto-update, the Mail Shield in the Avast console is turned off and the controls to either turn it on or to customize it are disabled! What does Avast check on the local PC to determine whether or not the Mail Shield is relevant and should be used? Somehow, Avast has identified that email cannot be received or sent on this Windows 10 PC any longer so that it has deemed the Mail Shield as irrelevant and disabled it completely. (I am using the Avast Free version and recall updating it to the latest version within the last week.)

Any suggestions for how to re-enable email capabilities which hopefully will also allow me to re-enable the Mail Shield?

[Eddy]

What exact version of avast ?
Already tried a repair of avast ?
Already performed a clean installation of avast ?
Any other security (related) software installed ? (or was there)

[Pondus]

I had several Gmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts configured in both Thunderbird and Windows Mail.

Have you checked account settings in your mail client(s) ?   are they still correct

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@Eddy
Thanks for the reply!
1) I am running Avast Free v11.1.2245 with Antivirus Defnition v151207-2 last updated on 12/7/2015.
2) Yes, I have run the repair, and the Mail Shield is still disabled.
3) No, I have not performed a clean install yet.
4) I do not have any other security software other than Windows Firewall (not Defender).

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@Pondus
Thanks for the reply!
Yes, I have checked the Gmail and Yahoo! Mail settings in both Thunderbird and Windows Mail for all 8 of my email accounts.  All of the settings were unchanged after the Windows 10 auto-update and are still correct.

All 8 email accounts stopped syncing with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail simultaneously after the Windows 10 CU4 auto-update.  It's as if the Windows 10 update is disallowing all IMAPS and SMTPS traffic.

[REDACTED]

Eureka! This issue is solved. 

When I went into Avast, I thought I would click on the Update program button just for the heck of it.  When I did, Avast reported that the program was already up to date, but then prompted me that a restart was required. I used the Avast dialog window to initiate the restart. Upon restart, my Mail Shield has been restored AND I am now receiving and sending emails across all Gmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts.

Based on my Windows Programs and Features, it appears that Avast was trying to perform an auto-update of the program around the same time that Windows 10 CU4 auto-update was trying to run. Windows showed that Avast was updated on12/06/2015, but as indicated by the Avast console, it was still awaiting a restart. Even though the Windows 10 CU4 update rebooted the computer multiple time to complete this massive update, I'm guessing that it interrupted the Avast update and was therefore never completed until now.

Thanks for the couple of you who replied to my original post so quickly!!!

[Pondus]

Computers work in mysterious ways and reboots sometimes fix mysterious problems