I may be wrong, but it appears that any application using https either freezes or gives me an error.
I've tried some obvious stuff (below) but I'm running out of ideas and would really appreciate a pointer as to how I should / could go about debugging this problem.
Why I Think It's a HTTPS Problem
Firstly I can't search Google or Yahoo. Loading Chrome and searching from the address/omni bar just gives me the spinning circle and eventually times out (ERR_TIMED_OUT). Going straight to a http website such as this one works fine. But note how I'm not getting the gravatar images
I use a VPN to connect to a web server and manage websites. When I try to open and connect using that, it freezes.
I use Outlook to connect to a number of pop3 accounts. Fine. When it tries to hook up with Exchange account, Outlook totally freezes.
I can see the home page of my bank's website (http). When I click into online banking (https), Chrome gives me the ERR_TIMED_OUT message
Only the affected application(s) freeze or error out - the rest of the system continues to work fine
Update
I restarted Chrome. Now google search works fine. But other https connections don't seem to:
I also noticed that when downloading files they reach 100% but never complete properly.
Debugging Attempts So Far
Scanning with Malware Bytes, AVG and Super Anti Spyware - they don't find anything wrong. I'm going to try Eset online scanner as soon as I've posted this.
Disabling AVG
Disabling Firewall
Doing a system restore to a couple of weeks ago, but that doesn't help any.
Looking in the Event Viewer - I didn't see anything obviously wrong here, but I don't have the expertise to look for anything in particular