How to Disable Avast Temporarily: 4 Best Ways to Do It

Our antivirus programs often get overzealous and affect some sites, executables, programs, and apps that don’t pose any threat. This error can happen to even popular antivirus programs like Avast.

Besides this, there are programs or files we would love to access without being warned by our antivirus; whatever the reason it is, this guide shows you how to disable Avast.

How to Disable Avast: Best Ways to Disable Avast Temporarily

1. From the System Tray

You can turn off Avast directly from your System Tray.

Usually, the Avast icon is visible there; most times, you’ll have to access it by clicking the bracket pointing up to display hidden icons. Check out the steps –

• Locate the Avast icon from your System Tray, usually at the lower right corner of your screen. 

• Right-click on Avast, then select Avast Shield Control from the pop-up menu. 

• Select any of the four options there to disable Avast. The options are self-explanatory and are as follows; 

• Disable for 10 minutes. 
• Disable for 1 hour
• Disable until computer is restarted
• Disable permanently. 
• A pop-up window will ask you to confirm any selection you make. Click on Yes to proceed.

2. From Avast Settings

The best way how to disable Avast is to directly do it from Avast system settings. Here’s how –

• Visit your Start menu, then search and select Avast. Alternatively, you can use the Avast shortcut on your desktop or launch it from your System Tray.
• When in, click on Menu from the upper right corner of the Avast window. 
• From the drop-down menu, click on Settings; it is often appended with a gear icon. 
• Click on Protection from the left pane, then select the Core Shields option. 

• Toggle off the switch next to Core Shield; this completely disables all Avast Shields. 

• Avast presents you with options to decide how long to keep the Shields off. Options will include –

• Stop for 10 minutes. 
• Stop for 1 hour
• Stop until computer is restarted
• Stop indefinitely 
• From the next pop-up window, click on Yes to confirm the decision. 

You can confirm it is off by accessing Avast, you’ll be greeted with an “All Antivirus shields are off” message.

3. Disable Specific Shields 

Here, you’ll see how to turn off Avast antivirus by disabling specific shields.

If your reason for turning off Avast was due to conflicts with a file, there’s no need to completely turn off Avast and leave your system vulnerable to attacks.

You can simply turn off just the File Shield. 

• Launch Avast through its desktop shortcut or from your System Tray. 

• Click on the Menu button from the upper right corner of the Avast window.

• Select Settings from the drop-down menu, then click on Protection from the left pane.
• Next, click on Core Shields; Avast presents you with all the active shields. Below are the shields and their functions.

• File Shield: This component monitors files on your hard drive. It goes into action when files are run, modified, accessed and saved, and if it detects malware, the File Shield prevents the file from infecting your device.
• Behaviour Shield: It monitors programs installed on your computer for suspicious behavior that may include malicious codes.
• Web Shield: A ton of malicious files are often downloaded from the internet. This shield scans your internet activity for malware and prevents them from being downloaded to your device.
• Mail Shield: This component works on mail management software like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. This shield scans incoming and outgoing email messages for threats.

• Now, toggle off any of the shields with the switcher close to it. You can toggle off a shield for 10 minutes, 1 hour, until your computer is restarted or permanently. 
• If presented with a confirm pop-up window, click on Yes. 

4. Adjust Sensitivity 

Alternatively, you can reduce the sensitivity of the Core Shields. Launch Avast, go to the Menu button, select Settings, click on Protection, then access the Core Shields. 

Usually, the shields are set to Medium Sensitivity; you can reduce it to Low Sensitivity or increase it to High Sensitivity.

This would either reduce or increase how Avast will respond to potential threats. This feature can be controlled with the white slider.

Conclusion

These are the best ways how to disable Avast.

We will recommend switching the internet off if you need to completely disable Avast or to keep real-time blocking active if you need to work with the internet on and disable all other components to avoid downloading malicious software while online.

Worth adding, there are allegations that Avast sells user data. You can however turn off the feature that allows Avast to share your usage data quite easily.

Open Avast and go to Settings from Menu. Navigate to General and then to Personal Privacy. Check out available – you can uncheck all of them to opt out from sharing your usage data with Avast.

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