how often should I run my virus scan?

I set mine to run twice a week.

You should be able to set it to run at a certain time, so you can scan it when you're not using the computer (e.g. if you're at work or asleep) and it won't slow you down with whatever you're doing.

It's important to do it regularly, you never know when a virus'll get ya...

Using Windows on the Internet is a huge gamble at all times, and setting a schedule to scan for malware is pointless.

Once anything gets into your system, all bets are off about what it can or may do. In one minute, or one week.

Malware (of any lethality) doesn't deploy on a schedule over the 'Net.

It's ALWAYS there.

Vectors are abundant; malware is multifaceted and morphs constantly; and lethal code seeks every opportunity available to infest a system, with boundless enthusiasm.

Although focused on ill-advised "user behavior" (such as peer-to-peer file sharing, porno sites, free music & movies, etc.), malware can lurk anywhere.

Adopt a 'keep it out' rather than 'take care of it after the fact' mentality, and dedicate more resources to 'real time' defense.

Avast or Avira (and several others) have fairly good 'doorstep' monitoring; but you should not rely on a single defense perimeter. Lightweight defense "layering" is the better approach.

Modifying your on-line habits is a far better strategy and keeps you far cleaner in the long run.

A good starting point is to use Firefox, with "NoScript", and turn off 3rd party cookies.

It will prevent a lot of the trash you see here in Y! Ans. from getting into your system.

Frequent, scheduled data backups help defray the hassle and heartache when formatted re-installs are the only solution to catastrophic system meltdowns.

Daily is the best. Most good Anti-Virus programs have an auto scan feature designed to scan you computer at the best time of day for you. If you have a problem with it slowing down your computer you can usually set the Anti-virus so it uses less of your system memory.

You should run the full scan atleast once a week. You could put it on overnight so it doesn't slow your computer when u r working on it.

Every week is fine. You should leave your computer on overnight and have it scan overnight so it does not interfere with your daily usage.

If you have real-time protection, I would use once a week.

If you don't, I would run a scan daily.

Once a week works fine for me.

LIKE BRUSHING YOUR TEETH 2-3 TIMES A DAY

daily is best since you are using xp