A lot of studies have been done on this and compelling data indicate that Avast web shields have been used to harvest and sell user data to big corporations. But the good news is that disabling and removing Avast is very easy.
How to Temporarily Disable Avast Features
Avast provides 4 different shields, including File Shield, Behavior Shield (available for Windows PCs only), Web Shield, and Mail Shield. If you’re worried about Avast tracking and selling data on your online activity, you should disable the Web Shield and the Mail Shield at the very least. You may also need to disable the File Shield and the Behavior Shield if Avast is wrongly preventing you from installing or launching a particular file or program (if you’re sure the program is safe).
How to Temporarily Disable Avast Features on Windows
You have the option to disable Avast’s Core Shields permanently, for a set period of time, or until you restart your computer.
To temporarily disable all of the shields at once, move the cursor over the Avast icon on the right-hand side of the taskbar and right-click it. Now, hover your cursor over the “Avast shields control” setting, and click on one of the 3 options for disabling the shields temporarily. These options are:
- Disable the shield for 10 minutes.
- Disable for 1 hour.
- Disable until computer is restarted.
Choose the desired duration that you want the shields to be shut down for, and click on “OK, STOP” when prompted by Avast to confirm the action.
The above method disables all of the Avast shields at once. However, you can also choose to temporarily disable only specific shields. Here’s how:
In your Windows PC, open the Avast user interface and click on “Protection” on the left-hand side of the main menu.
How to Disable Avast Features on Mac
The Mac version of Avast doesn’t allow you to temporarily disable the shields for a set amount of time. This means you can’t choose for the shields to restart automatically after a specified period of time — you can only disable them, and they will remain disabled until you turn them back on. Here’s how to disable Avast’s features for Mac.
From the main menu, click on “Core Shields”.
How to Temporarily Disable Avast Features
Now, click on the toggle button(s) under the shield(s) that you want to disable.
How to Temporarily Disable Avast Features
This disables the shield(s) instantly. You can simply press the toggle buttons again to re-enable any shields.
How to Completely Disable Avast
Avast allows you to completely disable its main features without uninstalling it. This could be useful if Avast’s shields are preventing you from changing certain system settings, installing trustworthy programs, or accessing trusted websites. Disabling Avast also allows you to try out other antivirus programs before you decide to completely remove it from your system.
Here’s how you can completely disable Avast on your Windows or macOS computer:
How to Completely Disable Avast on Windows
To disable Avast completely, simply right-click on the Avast icon on the right of the taskbar, select the “Avast shield controls” option, and choose “Disable permanently” in the drop-down menu. This will open a prompt asking you to confirm the action — and that’s all it takes to disable all of Avast’s protections on your PC.
How to Completely Disable Avast
Avast will then stay disabled until you manually re-enable it. To do this, once again right-click on the Avast icon in the task bar, hover your mouse over “Avast shield controls”, and select the “Enable all shields” option.
How to Completely Disable Avast on Mac
Avast’s Mac app doesn’t allow you to completely disable all shields at once — instead, you have to turn off each feature one by one.
To do this, open the main menu in Avast and click on “Core Shields”.
Now, click the toggle buttons under each shield one by one to disable all of them.
Avast will now be completely disabled, and it will remain so until you re-enable the shields. You can re-enable them by simply clicking on the toggle buttons under each shield again.
How to Fully Remove Avast From Your Device
The uninstallation process for Avast varies slightly for different devices. Note that uninstalling the app doesn’t mean that your Avast subscription is also canceled — you have to cancel the subscription separately. To do that, sign in to your Avast account using your login credentials, locate your subscription details, click “Unsubscribe” under the subscription you want to cancel, and follow on-screen instructions to complete the cancellation.