Current build is 4.8.1335. I suggest a reinstall from scratch.
-Download latest Avast Home (or Pro) and save it to your desktop, or a folder.
-Download the Avast uninstall utility and save it to your desktop.
-Disconnect from the web.
-Stop on access protection
-Uninstall Avast from the control panel add/remove programs.
-Run the Avast uninstall utility.
- Reboot when prompted, and at least now if not prompted earlier.
-Install latest Avast.
-Reconnect. Get updates. See if that fixes it.
I have done all of the above. In fact I was even able to find and delete three dll's that were left behind by the Avast uninstall utility from a prior Avast 4.6 version a number of upgrades ago by using Clean Sweep which I had used to monitor that install at the time.
I even defragged the disk after completely uinstalling Avast to have a more compressed drive to install the most current version of Avast.
What I found is that the Ashwebsv application seemed OK when I first booted up but the next time I checked the "Task Manager" later on I found Ashwebsv "not responding" once again. As I said before however, I do see Ashwebsv working in that the "scanned count" increases and the Avast ball spins when opening web pages on the Internet even with the "not responding" status in the "Task Manager". It is just that the application always has the "not responding" status which makes me think that it is not discontinuing something that it should be or something when it runs. And as I mentioned before I have to always "end task" via either the message I get on shut down or stop the process in the Task Manager before I am allowed to do a shut down.
If I stop/start the Web Shield provider it makes no difference, Ashwebsv still has a "not responding" status in "Task Manager". Also if I just stop the Web Shield Ashwebsv still shows up under Task Manager" when I would expect it to disappear and still has the status of "not responding".
I would add that even if I "cancel" (do not "end" the process) on Shut Down Ashwebsv will then disappear in my "Task Manager" (as if I had asked to "end" the process even though I did not) and Ashwebsv will not start back up even if I stop/start the Web Shield provider. At that time it makes no difference what I do I cannot get a web page to load any longer at all and must reboot to reset whatever it is that is necessary to make my browser work again.
What is even more strange is that if I stop the Web Shield provider (terminated) and reboot the computer Aswebsv is still in my "Task Manager" and does not have an error (NO "not responding" error) but even if I leave the Web Shield OFF and launch my browser with the Web Shield STILL OFF Ashwebsv status in the "Task Manager" will change to "not responding" even though the Web shield remains off and the Avast ball does not turn (which would tell me that Ashwebsv should not be running yet the status becomes "not responding").
Of course as I said before once Ashwebsv has the status "not responding" in the "Task Manager" it stays this way no matter what I do, turning Web shield off/on whatever makes no difference to the status from then on.
So it would seem that a CLEAN install does not make any difference for me.