avast is not designed to work as on-demand only (not resident).
If your computer is slow, try seeing which other programs are running, if you can, buy a little more RAM, and set avast Standard Shield level to Normal (not High).
Any other security program running?
I’ve only just wiped the computer and reloaded Windows. There are no other programs running.
It’s an old laptop that’s not worth my while spending any money on. I’m looking for free solutions.
The setting was Standard.
Only Spybot is also running.
Thanks for the help.
So the only way to stop the ongoing background scan element of the anti virus is to delete the entire program?
Avast is not intended to run as a non-resident.
Use Standard Shield at Normal level or even Custom one and uncheck open/created/modified files to be scanned.