Just a quick question, in order to maximize the speed and thoroughness of an Avast scan, should I close all windows including my firewall before starting it?
you shouldn’t close (=deactivate ? ) your firewall AT ALL all unless you’re offline,
or unless you have secured your system very thoroughly…
closing of other processes/apps should increase avast’s speed, but not necessarily it’s thoroughness (except for programs which demand exclusive access to their files)
You can, otherwise, use Startup Delayer to avoid stressing while Windows is booting/logging on and the, speed the avast! startup.
But, remember, as say whocares, security demands resources: less resources used less security. You must find the optimal point 8)