Not aware of a keyboard shortcut to disable avast shields until restart...
What Avast Game Mode does: (scroll down for Game Mode information)
https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/44/
It's in Features and Settings.
Additonal info for Windows 10: (Assuming you have Windows 10, not stated)
https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/25/14390990/microsoft-windows-10-game-mode-explanation
https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-turn-on-game-mode-in-windows-10/
Why turn off protection? What are you testing?
Thank you for the reply!
I did indicate Windows 10 is what I am using. In this case WIN10Pro.
My reasons for disabling the real-time scan engine are for speed and stability running
mission critical DJ software in a live environment. Wifi is normally off. this machine does not see the internet very much at all. It's a fairly low risk environment. However I do like to keep Avast anyway.
Avast's Gaming mode would be sufficient if it actually disables the real-time scanning, and if it really detects my selected software as its supposed to (after being selected as one of the apps I want to have initiating Game Mode). It's a nice feature to have not just for gaming but for other power users (3D work, Video Editing, etc). I am glad Avast lets us make custom selections to run Game Mode with.
In my case I need to squeeze everything out of my machine and prevent any additional background processing, etc. Windows Game Mode is not really suitable for my purposes ATM.
I checked the link you included for info on Avast Game Mode and I see nothing but the most basic of explanations, which I already knew.
Game Mode is a new feature in Avast Antivirus that improves the performance of your PC while you game by adjusting system settings and disabling unnecessary apps from running in the background. Each time you run a game, Game Mode automatically detects it and adds it to a list of game entries. When you run games from this list of entries, Game Mode automatically launches.
I will try to dig in more to see the fine-grained details of Avast's Game Mode features to try to uncover if "Shield Control" is affected in any way.
Thank you, mchain!