Author Topic: How can I STOP Avast sporadically without having to uninstall it each time??  (Read 4188 times)

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pgp566

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There are times when it is necessary to completely STOP an antivirus program without (hopefully) having to uninstall it -- examples:
1) I am in a remote location on a VERY expensive Internet connection. Avast wants to keep updating itself over the Internet whenever it feels like it (no possibility to schedule) -- even if I turn off updates Avast still connects to the Internet regularly in order to tell me that updates are ready! The problem is that if I go over 25Mb at such a remote location each Mb cost £5 !!  Avast could very soon bankrupt me with its uncontrollable Internet updating !!  How can I completely exit, or turn off, Avast, without having to uninstall it and then re-install it every time I want to do a virus check?  I can turn off _every_ other antivirus program I have come across.
2) From such remote location I do astronomy!  When doing astronomy the PC needs dedicated control of the CCD imaging camera -- the procedures are very resource intensive and ideally _all_ irrelevant processes need to be stopped, including multiple instances of Avast running in the background!  I am _never_ connected to the Internet during such imaging sessions, thus virus detection is irrelevant.  I need to STOP Avast during CCD imaging sessions  --  again, how can I do this without having to uninstall Avast each time I want to do an imaging session?  Again, I can do this easily with _every_ other antivirus program I have come across.  e.g. with Malwarebytes I just right-click and select 'Exit'  --  elegant and easy.  How can I do this with Avast?  Stopping the services does _not_ stop Avast  -- it is still continuously trying to update itself over the Internet.

Many thanks
PP

cinchez

  • Guest
U may see this thread for more info^^

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=41086.0

Good luck^^

-AnimeLover^^

Offline Tarq57

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Hi pgp566, welcome to the forum
Avast updates are incremental, and rather tiny, typically a few Kb. It is going to have virtually no affect on your download allowance.
However, if you want to disable it, go to the program settings and select "manual" (where the cursor is on the illustration) for both program and VPS updating.
The program updates, if you are not using the latest version, would definitely be large. As stated, the VPS updates tiny. If the program is seriously out of date, the VPS updates may not work, anyway.
The current program version is 4.8.1335. If you don't have that version, sooner or later you will have to update it.

Avast is designed to be run in the background, so there is no "exit" option. You can "stop on access protection" by right clicking the tray icon, and making the appropriate choice. The only services remaining will be ashservice and ashdisp. Between them they will typically use only 30Mb or so. Nothing will be scanned, and therefore nothing should be interfering with the running of the camera.
If that is still unacceptable, I don't think there is any other option but to (a) uninstall the program for astronomy sessions, or (b) stop the services via the taskmanager  or via services. To do that you would have to first go to program settings>troubleshooting and tick the box that says "disable self protection".

Malware Bytes is not an antivirus, it's an antispyware.
What is your RAM and CPU? The lack of RAM is more likely to be the core problem that the Avast service.
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Offline Lisandro

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There are times when it is necessary to completely STOP an antivirus program without (hopefully) having to uninstall it -- examples:
1) I am in a remote location on a VERY expensive Internet connection. Avast wants to keep updating itself over the Internet whenever it feels like it (no possibility to schedule) -- even if I turn off updates Avast still connects to the Internet regularly in order to tell me that updates are ready! The problem is that if I go over 25Mb at such a remote location each Mb cost £5 !!  Avast could very soon bankrupt me with its uncontrollable Internet updating !!  How can I completely exit, or turn off, Avast, without having to uninstall it and then re-install it every time I want to do a virus check?  I can turn off _every_ other antivirus program I have come across.
avast updates are incremental, far bellow 25Mb... just few kb. But if you want to change the update frequency, just let them to "Ask" mode (or even "Manual") into Program Settings > Update.

2) From such remote location I do astronomy!  When doing astronomy the PC needs dedicated control of the CCD imaging camera -- the procedures are very resource intensive and ideally _all_ irrelevant processes need to be stopped, including multiple instances of Avast running in the background!  I am _never_ connected to the Internet during such imaging sessions, thus virus detection is irrelevant.  I need to STOP Avast during CCD imaging sessions  --  again, how can I do this without having to uninstall Avast each time I want to do an imaging session?  Again, I can do this easily with _every_ other antivirus program I have come across.  e.g. with Malwarebytes I just right-click and select 'Exit'  --  elegant and easy.  How can I do this with Avast?  Stopping the services does _not_ stop Avast  -- it is still continuously trying to update itself over the Internet.
The easy way will be "Stop on-access protection". That will disable antivirus activities. But really, it will be good to let it running and just exclude the file type of that imaging camera works with.
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