Summary :
You may want to turn off Avast antivirus when failing to install a new application or driver since the antivirus may don’t allow installations. How to disable Avast? This post will walk you through some simple methods in Windows and Mac, as well as useful tips to protect your PC after disabling antivirus.
Jul 27, 2020 Norton AntiVirus Plus. Disable or enable advanced protection features on Mac. The Advanced window lets you disable or enable the. App Store is a service mark.
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What Is Avast?
Simply put, Avast is one of the best free antivirus programs on the market that you can download it for use. It has been around a long time, helping you to protect against many threats from the local files, instant messages, emails, internet, P2P connections, etc.
It also offers various services including computer security, firewall, anti-phishing, browser security, antispyware, anti-spam and more. Importantly, it can be used in multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, Android, iPad & iPhone and loT. To get more information about this program, refer to its official website.
Why Need to Disable Avast
Although this antivirus program is powerful and excellent, you sometimes need to disable Avast, especially when you install a new application or driver. This is because the program might not recognize or allow the installation as it deems the app or driver as unknown sources and even it misreads a trustable setup as a threat.
For this common issue, we will show you how to disable Avast in detail for Windows and Mac, along with some visual pictures.
How to Disable Avast Free Antivirus in Windows 10/8/7
The following section is about methods to turn off complete or individual Avast antivirus shields. Let’s go to see the detailed steps.
How to Close Avast Completely (All Shields)
Basically, turning off all the shields of Avast refers to completely stopping or disabling the whole active protection of this free antivirus. Thus, you should know what you are doing. Generally, the following is also the procedure of how to stop Avast from running in the background.
Step 1: Control Avast Shields
1. Go to the taskbar in Windows 10/8/7, right-click on the icon of Avast and you can see some options regarding the security suite.
If you find your Windows 10 taskbar is not working, please don’t panic since I have useful methods to help.
2. Choose Avast shields control.
3. Choose one option based on how long you want to stop Avast from running. To disable Avast permanently, you can choose the last one. To temporarily disable Avast, the former three options are available.
Step 2: Confirm Your Operation
After choosing an option, this software asks you to make a confirmation. All shields will be turned off or stopped. This may cause a malware attack, so do this operation prudently. Then, click OK to continue.
Step 3: Go Back to the Main Window
Later, open the main interface and you will find this software gives you a message in red saying “All your shields are off”. This means you are not protected by Avast. To use it again, you should click RESOLVE.
How to Disable Avast (Specified Shields)
In the above, we have shown you how to close Avast completely. Sometimes, you may want to only turn off or stop certain shields. Now, let’s go to see the step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Run Avast Free Antivirus in Windows 10/8/7. Then, go to its Protection interface where you can click Core Shields to choose core defenses.
Step 2: Choose the shield that you want to turn off or stop and click on the switcher.
Step 3: Avast gives you four options: Stop for 10 minutes, Stop for 1 hour, Stop until your next restart, and Stop indefinitely. Choose one based on your own needs.
Step 4: After confirmation, you can see the switcher becomes OFF in the Protection tab. To turn it on, you can change the switcher from OFF to ON.
How to Disable Avast on Windows Startup
Some users may want to stop this antivirus from running on startup. If you are the one, follow these steps below.
Step 1: Right-click on the taskbar and choose Task Manager.
Is Task Manager not responding in Windows 10/8/7? Now get the full solutions to fix Task Manager if you can’t open it.
Step 2: Navigate to the Startup tab.
Step 3: Right-click on AvLaunch component and choose Disable. After that, it won’t automatically run when turning on your Windows 10/8/7.
How to Uninstall Avast Antivirus
Sometimes, you may want to remove Avast from your computer when you still can’t install an app or driver after trying the above ways. Here is how to uninstall Avast Antivirus in Windows 10/8/7.
Step 1: Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
Step 2: Right-click on Avast Free Antivirus and choose Uninstall to remove it.
How to Disable Avast Mac
As mentioned above, you can use this program (full name – Avast Security) in Mac. Similarly, you can disable it when failing to install a new app or driver.
To do this work, you can open Avast Security, go to the Preferences interface where you can see three types of Avast Shield, choose the shield you want to turn off and then click Disable. If required, type an administrator password.
Besides, you can also choose to uninstall this program completely instead of stopping certain shields.
How to Protect Your PC: Make a Backup
To some degree, you can only disable some shields of Avast or directly remove it rather than disabling it from Startup. Even, some users report that it will automatically restart.
After you disable/turn off Avast shields or uninstalling the program, your PC may be at risk of threats like malware, spyware, viruses, and more, which could cause data loss. To avoid data loss, you should make a backup for your important files.
MiniTool ShadowMaker can be your good assistant in backing up files. As a professional and secure file backup software, it can help to make a backup for Windows operating system (Windows 10/8/7/, etc.), the entire disk and partitions besides files & folders.
It offers two methods to back up your important files, imaging backup and file sync, helping to keep data safe well. Now, don’t hesitate to download MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition for 30-day free trial by hitting the download button.
Here is the procedure of how to back up files.
Step 1: Choose a Local Backup
- Double-click this program.
- Continue to use the trial edition by clicking Keep Trial.
- From the following interface, click the left Connect button to start a local backup.
Step 2: What to Back up
- Go to the Source section, and choose the Folders and Files type.
- In the pop-up window, check all the items you want to back up and click OK to go back to the Backup page.
What do I need to back up my computer? What files should I back up? Now, get the answers to these two questions in this post.
Step 3: Where to Back up
- In the same way, go to the Destination section of the Backup page.
- Choose a path to store the backup. A USB drive, external hard drive, NAS or network can be chosen depending on actual needs.
Step 4: Run a Backup
Choose Back up Now to start the backup in the Manage page.
Useful Methods to Protect Your PC Against Virus and Malware
In addition to backing up your important files after you disable Avast or uninstall it, you can take some other measures to protect the PC from malware and virus.
Run Windows Defender
Windows Defender is a free antimalware program that comes with Windows 10, helping scan programs you open & new files downloaded from the web, protect PCs against from viruses, malware, and other malicious threats.
You can automatically update it through Windows Update. If you disable Avast, please ensure Windows Defender is running.
Troubled by Windows Defender not turning on? Here are full solutions to repair Windows Defender in Windows 10/8/7 and the best way for PC protection.
Keep Windows Up-to-Date
Microsoft periodically releases some special security updates to protect your PC against viruses and some other malware attacks. Please make sure your Windows is running the latest operating system version to gain these security updates.
Use a Firewall
If a virus tries to connect to your computer, Windows Firewall or any other firewall program may tell you the suspicious campaign. Besides, it can block viruses or worms from trying to download malicious applications to the PC.
Ensure UAC Is Turned on
UAC refers to User Account Control that can notify you and ask you whether to approve the changes when some changes are made to your computer that needs administrator-level permission. This way, UAC can keep viruses from unwanted changes.
Some other tips you can pay attention to after you disable Avast
- Use a strong password
- Use your Internet browser's privacy settings.
- Clear your Internet cache and your browsing history.
- Pay attention to Windows SmartScreen notifications.
- Use a pop-up blocker with your Internet browser.
- Don't open email attachments that you don't recognize and email messages from unfamiliar senders.
Bottom Line
After reading this post, you have clearly learned how to disable Avast in PC and Mac or uninstall Avast Antivirus. After stopping or removing it, your PC may be at risk of malware threats, thus, some measures to keep your PC from viruses are told to you. Take action!
Should you encounter any question regarding our software or any suggestion of closing or disabling Avast, leave your idea in the Comment part below or send an email to our team – [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible. Thank you!
How To Temporarily Disable Avast, ESET, McAfee, Avira And Webroot Antivirus In Windows 10
Antivirus or anti-virus software (often abbreviated to AV), sometimes known as anti-malware software, is computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious software. Anti-virus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses.
With the proliferation of other types of malware, however, antivirus software started to provide protection from other computer threats. In particular, modern antivirus software can protect from: malicious browser helper objects (BHOs), browser hijackers, ransomware, keyloggers, backdoors, rootkits, trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, dialers, fraudtools, adware and spyware. Some products also include protection from other computer threats, such as infected and malicious URLs, spam, scam and phishing attacks, online identity (privacy), online banking attacks, social engineering techniques, advanced persistent threat (APT) and botnet DDoS attacks.
Traditional anti-virus software relies heavily upon signatures to identify malware. When malware arrives in the hands of an antivirus firm, it is analysed by malware researchers or by dynamic analysis systems. Once it is determined to be malware, a proper signature of the file is extracted and added to the signatures database of the antivirus software.
Although the signature-based approach can effectively contain malware outbreaks, malware authors have tried to stay a step ahead of such software by writing certain viruses, which encrypt parts of themselves or otherwise modify themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match virus signatures in the dictionary.
Despite this, there are situations when anti-virus software needs to be disabled. For example, when installing certain programs, an installation program requests that you disable the anti-virus software. This can happen when the anti-virus software has difficulty determining whether the program you want to install is a virus or a legitimate program. If this is the case, we recommend that you to re-enable the anti-virus software when you have finished downloading and installing your new software. We also strongly advise against disabling the antivirus when you do not expect anything to be installed, or when you are prompted to do so by a website or an email message.
In this guide, we show how to temporarily disable anti-virus software such as Avast, Eset, McAfee, Avira, and Webroot antivirus.
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It is recommended to run a free scan with Malwarebytes - a tool to detect malware and fix computer errors. You will need to purchase the full version to remove infections and eliminate computer errors. Free trial available.
How To Temporarily Disable Avast Antivirus
Avast is one of the largest security companies in the world using next-gen technologies to fight cyber attacks in real time. Avast differs from other next generation companies in that they have an immense cloud-based machine learning engine that receives a constant stream of data from over more than 435 million users, which facilitates learning at unprecedented speeds and makes our artificial intelligence engine smarter and faster than all others. Avast has created a scalable cloud-based security infrastructure that sees everything that happens on the internet. It has a view into everything online, good and bad, giving it the unique advantage of being first to inspect and analyze potential threats. When new malware is discovered, Avast can quickly deploy new security features to protect their users.
To temporarily (or permanently) disable Avast, click the arrow icon on the Windows taskbar to expand the notification area menu. Find the Avast Antivirus icon and right-click it. A contextual menu should pop up - if that does not happen, try right-clicking the Avast Antivirus icon several times until you succeed. Then select 'Avast shields control' and choose if you want to disable it temporarily (for 10 minutes, 1 hour, or until the next restart) or permanently.
It will ask you to confirm the action by clicking 'Yes'. Click 'Yes' if you really want to disable Avast Antivirus software.
How To Temporarily Disable ESET Antivirus
ESET began life as a pioneer of antivirus protection, creating award-winning threat-detection software. Now, ESET's goal is to make sure that everybody can enjoy the breathtaking opportunities that technology offers. Today, our security solutions allow businesses and consumers in more than 200 countries and territories to make the most of the digital world. To keep you protected at the highest level, ESET built a global network of research and development centers. They help ESET anticipate new security trends, better intercept new threats, and harness the talents of researchers on all continents.
To temporarily disable ESET antivirus, click the arrow icon on the Windows taskbar to expand the notification area menu. Find the ESET Antivirus icon and right-click it - a contextual menu will pop up. Click 'Pause protection'.
ESET antivirus will ask if you want to disable antivirus and antispyware protection. By disabling antivirus and antispyware protection you will deactivate real-time protection, document protection, web acess protection, email client protection and anti-phishing protection. Select the time range and click 'Apply'.
How To Temporarily Disable McAfee Antivirus
McAfee, Inc. (known as Intel Security Group in 2014–2017) is an American global computer security software company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and claims to be the world's largest dedicated security technology company. The company was purchased by Intel in February 2011, and became part of the Intel Security division. It protects against the latest viruses, malware and online threats. One subscription can protect an unlimited number of computers, smartphones and tablets against viruses and online threats. It offers real-time protection against mobile viruses and spam, and an ultra-secure online cloud vault that uses voice and face biometric authentication so only you can access your files.
To temporarily disable McAfee antivirus, click the arrow icon on the Windows taskbar to expand the notification area menu. Find the McAfee Antivirus icon and right-click it - a contextual menu will pop up. Select 'Change settings' and then click 'Real-time Scanning'.
Click 'Turn Off' and then select when you wish to resume Real Time Scanning (how long it is to be disabled). Click the blue 'Turn Off' button and McAfee antivirus will be disabled. If you want to disable its firewall, repeat the steps and select 'Firewall' from the contextual menu when right-clicked on the McAfee icon.
How To Turn Off Antivirus App On Macbook
How To Temporarily Disable Avira Antivirus
Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG is a German multinational security software company mainly known for their anti-virus software, Avira Internet Security. Award-winning Avira Free Antivirus protection is an antivirus that works silently in the background to protect you against all types of online threats to your PC, privacy, and irreplaceable files. Avira's protection-cloud AI technology gives you not only a real-time malware scanner and virus detector, but also an early warning system, which analyzes unknown files in the cloud - anonymously - from millions of users, to protect you from threats as they emerge in real time. Avira works fine out of the box, capable of running system scans without slowing down other tasks, such as loading webpages or editing a document. It appareas as if built in to the operating system, and you can navigate using either the left-hand pane or the drop-down menus along the top.
To temporarily disable Avira antivirus, click the the arrow icon on the Windows taskbar to expand the notification area menu. Find the Avira Antivirus icon and right-click it - a contextual menu will pop up. Avira real-time protection should be enabled by default - if it is enabled, it will have a checkmark next to 'Enable Real-Time Protection'. To disable Avira, simply click 'Enable Real-Time Protection' and it will be disabled. Repeat the steps if you want to reenable it.
How To Temporarily Disable Webroot Antivirus
Webroot Inc. is a private American company that provides Internet security for consumers and businesses. As the first to harness the cloud and artificial intelligence to stop zero-day threats in real time, Webroot secures businesses and individuals worldwide with threat intelligence and protection for endpoints and networks. Webroot's malware detection system is very different from most competitors. It does not use the typical antivirus signature database, but rather works on metadata and behavior patterns. It also calculates a simple numeric hash for each file, and checks its online database to see if that file has already been identified as good, or as bad. Data from multiple machines, users, companies and devices streams into one big cloud-based pot, and Webroot effectively learns from the malware its users encounter and puts that knowledge into action. So as more people use Webroot’s products and connect to its services the more effective they become.
How To Turn Off Antivirus Software On Mac
To temporarily disable Webroot, click the the arrow icon on the Windows taskbar to expand the notification area menu. Locate the Webroot Antivirus icon and right-click it - a contextual menu will pop up. Select 'Shut down Protection' and click it.
You will be asked if really want to shut down SecureAnywhere to stop all real-time protection and proactive malware defense. Click 'Yes' to confirm the action.
We hope this article was useful and that you can temporarily or permanently disable anti-virus software such as Avast, ESET, McAfee, Avira and Webroot antivirus.