Downloading and Installing Software Updates-Answered

Thank you.

All of my clients have switched to Chrome as their browser and Java has been removed. Chrome does not require Java. Java has been the source of many malware attacks. Chrome is used in almost 70% of all computers using the Internet now.

As with almost every computer-related question, the answer (to both versions of your question) is, "It depends."

If your computer has sufficient resources (RAM, CPU power, disk space/speed), you can run a background task such as updating your antimalware program while you access the Internet, depending, of course, on what other applications might be running in the background.

On the other hand, if you have minimal RAM, a slow CPU, and/or a nearly-full hard drive, and you have other resource-consuming background tasks running or you like to have lots of browser tabs open, you'll be better off closing some or all of your browser tabs while the update runs. Also consider that often an update of an antimalware program will trigger a system scan, and the scan -- far more than the update itself -- can really bog down a system with marginal resources.

I have long ago removed Java from my system, but I seem to recall that updating Java may have required the browser to be rebooted, but considering that modern browsers don't use Java, that shouldn't matter any more. If you're still running IE 11, you shouldn't be doing that.

Sorry, I do not have the answer to your direct question. Instead I am advising that you switch browsers and uninstall Java. If you cannot or will not do that, Hopefully someone else here in the forum will advise you.