From the Computer Help Zone
"The Quick scan takes 15-30 minutes are on average and the full scan can take anywhere from 1-6 hours (depending on the size of your hard drive and how much data you have on it). The good news is that you can do other things on the computer while the scan is running - although it may slow you down a bit."

There's no problem using your computer when running a malware/virus scan although it may be a bit slower to respond.

95% of the time malwarebytes here runs minimized while surfing youtube/forum/new/etc. Same with all of scanners.

Malwarebytes seems fast on the laptop here, 2.4ghz dual core & 8gb ram... 15 min full scan maybe,,, guess it likes the ram on mine. Last laptop was maybe an hour with 1.8 dual core 3gb.

Would this apply to running AV programs as well ? Or is there something sufficiently different between malware/spyware scans and AV scans that would make running the latter require not having any programs open ?

@ not2bright,
It applies to Anti Virus programs as well, it's just going to slow things down a bit while the scan is running as mike has said.

Doing this is called multitasking,an endeavour computer makers have been instilling on us for years.

When I use the computer while Avast scans, I get a notice 'certain files items could not be scanned.' I always assumed it was because I was using something while the scan ran.

Avast starts to scan at 4pm, which is a terrible time for me, as I'm usually doing something when the scan starts. I can't figure out how to change the time. If I can, I close everything and let it scan.

Jane

Hi jane__ny ,

There will always be certain files that cannot be scanned by Avast. These are hidden and secure files that Microsoft Windows does not want us to mess with. They are protected files.

Change scan times on avast see link for maybe some help.

http://dposorio.com/blog/173/how-to-schedule-automatic-scans-with-free-version-of-avast-on-vista/

Joe