You don’t want to uninstall it (yet). You just want it to shut up and sit down for five minutes. You need to disable Avast.
Suddenly, your once-snappy MacBook Pro started sounding like a jet engine during takeoff. That innocent 5MB PDF you downloaded took three minutes to open. And the pop-ups? Oh, the pop-ups. "Congratulations! You are 1,394th visitor today!" No, wait—that’s a different kind of malware. Avast’s pop-ups just want you to upgrade to a "Pro" version that you’re pretty sure you already paid for. disable avast mac
Go to the Avast app > Menu Bar > Avast > Uninstall Avast. Then, reboot. Your Mac will be lighter, faster, and happier. Replace it with common sense: don't download "MacKeeper," don't open sketchy email attachments, and keep your macOS updated. Disabling Avast is easy. It’s a temporary bandage for a performance bleed. But if you’re disabling it more than once a month, you’re not the user—the antivirus is using you . You don’t want to uninstall it (yet)
But then, something changed.
Avast really doesn’t like being ignored. After your chosen time expires, it will re-arm itself automatically with the enthusiasm of a mall cop who just found his whistle. If you want a longer truce, you need the nuclear option. The Nuclear Option (Method 2: The Terminal Takedown) This is for when you’re installing a massive app (looking at you, Adobe Creative Cloud) or compiling code, and Avast keeps screaming "RANSOMWARE!" every time you save a text file. Suddenly, your once-snappy MacBook Pro started sounding like
macOS has built-in protection called XProtect and Notarization. It’s not perfect, but it’s quiet, polite, and doesn’t ask you to rate its performance after every scan. Most modern "Mac viruses" are actually adware or browser hijackers—things you click on yourself.