How to disable McAfee
Do you need to install a program that requires the momentary deactivation of the antivirus and would you like a hand to understand how to do it? Tell me, what antivirus do you use on your PC? McAfee? Then know that it is a breeze: you do not have to do is access the main screen of the software, select the function you want to disable (eg the antivirus scan in real time) and click on the relevant lever.
Attention, however, the deactivation of the antivirus, even if temporary, leads the computer to be “discovered” and vulnerable to the cyber threats that can be found every day on the Net: before proceeding, assure beyond reasonable doubt that the program you are trying to run does not contain malicious software (if you do not “trust” the McAfee engine, you can try to perform a multi-engine scan with an online antivirus).
At this point, if you are still interested in proceeding and want to know how to disable McAfee on your computer, or even on your smartphone or your tablet, take a few minutes of free time and read on: find all the information you need below.
Index
- How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on Windows
How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee Safe Connect - How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on your Mac
- How to disable McAfee – Disable McAfee in the browser
- How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on Android
- How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on iOS
How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on Windows
Before going into the heart of this tutorial and explaining how to disable McAfee on Windows, I would like to point out that the guide was made using McAfee Total Protection, which is currently the most complete and widespread version of the famous Californian antivirus. Without due premise, let’s move on to action!
If you want to temporarily disable McAfee’s real-time protection, start the antivirus by double clicking on its icon on the desktop or in the Windows notification area (next to the system clock), click on the gear icon located at the top right of the window that has been opened and select the item Scan in real time from the menu that appears on the screen.
How to disable McAfee
At this point, presses the button Disable and uses the drop-down menu that appears in the middle of the screen to indicate the length of time during which McAfee protection must remain disabled: you can choose between 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 60 minutes, or you can choose to reactivate the protection only when the PC is restarted or never (not recommended!).
Finally, click on the Disable button located at the bottom right and McAfee’s real-time protection will be suspended for the period of time you have chosen.
How to disable McAfee
If you change your mind, you can instantly reactivate McAfee protection by returning to the menu ⚙︎> Real-time Scan and pressing the Activate button.
If, however, you do not want to disable the protection of McAfee for the whole system but only for some specific files, do so: go to the menu ⚙︎> Real-time scanning of the antivirus, presses the Activate button to activate the protection in real time (if necessary) and click on the Add file button located at the bottom right to choose the files to be excluded from the scan in real time.
How to disable McAfee
In addition to a real-time protection module, McAfee also includes a scheduled scan feature, through which the program performs a complete computer check-up on set days and times.
If you want to disable this feature, open McAfee, go to the menu ⚙︎> Scheduled Scan and presses the button Disable. Easier than that ?!
How to disable McAfee
The more complete versions of McAfee, such as McAfee Total Protection that I’m talking about in this tutorial, also include other types of protection as well as viruses and malware.
For example, by going to the menu ⚙︎> Firewall of the program and pressing the button Disable you can disable the firewall included in the program, entering the menu ⚙︎> Vulnerability scanning and putting the check mark next to the entry Do not set a scan schedule (at the bottom of the window) you can disable the automatic search for updates for the programs installed on the PC.
How to disable McAfee
In short: as you could understand, deactivating the various features of McAfee for Windows is really a breeze. All you have to do is open the program, click on the gear icon located at the top right, select the function to disable from the menu that opens and proceed by pressing the Disable button in the next window.
In case of change of heart, all the anti-virus functions can be reactivated by returning to the respective menus and clicking on the Activate / Enable button.
How to disable McAfee
If, instead of temporarily disabling McAfee, you decide to completely uninstall the program, go to Start> Settings (or in Start> Control Panel, if you use a version of Windows before 10), go to the App (or Uninstall a program, if use a version of Windows prior to 10), select McAfee Total Protection from the list of programs installed on your PC and click on the Uninstall button.
If you encounter any difficulties at this stage, try reading my tutorial on how to uninstall McAfee and put the instructions in it into practice.
How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee Safe Connect
Even if you do not have McAfee anti-virus installed on your PC, every time you log in to Windows, you get a McAfee Safe Connect window? It does not surprise me. McAfee Safe Connect is a free trial VPN service (with 250MB of traffic per month) that protects online communications on Windows, MacOS and mobile devices. It is included as an option in the installation packages of many programs downloaded from the Internet, so it is easy to find it installed on your computer without realizing it. Fortunately it is just as easy to disable or uninstall it.
If you want to disable McAfee Safe Connect so that it does not start automatically every time you turn on your PC, right-click on the Windows taskbar (the black bar at the bottom of the desktop) and select the Task Manager item from the menu that appears.
In the window that opens, select the Startup tab, click on the entry for McAfee Safe Connect and presses the Disable button located at the bottom right. If you use a version of Windows prior to 8.x, you can get the same result by calling the Run … panel (by pressing the Win + R key combination on the PC keyboard) and giving the command msconfig: a window called System Configuration will open , through which you can manage the PC startup and select which software to start automatically when accessing Windows and which are not.
How to disable McAfee
If you want to completely uninstall McAfee Safe Connect, go to Start> Settings> App if you’re using Windows 10 or Start> Control Panel> Uninstall a program if you’re using an older version of Windows, click on the McAfee Safe Connect icon and press on the Uninstall button.
In the window that opens, press the Yes button, wait a few seconds and the program will be completely removed from the system. Easier than that ?!
How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on your Mac
McAfee also offers its protection to Mac users. In fact, the Californian company has released products such as McAfee Internet Security for Mac and McAfee Endpoint Security for Mac that protect MacOS from malware designed for the Apple operating system and “classics” virus for Windows (which can not attack macOS, but should be avoided the same if you share files with Windows PC).
Disabling McAfee on Mac is as simple as it is on Windows. All you have to do is start the application by selecting its icon from the macOS Launchpad (the rocket icon located on the Dock bar). Then you have to click on the name of the program in the bar on the top left (eg McAfee Endpoint Security for Mac) and select the Preferences item from the menu that appears.
How to disable McAfee
In the window that opens, click the lock icon located at the bottom left, type the password of your user account on macOS (the one you use to access the system) and the Enter. Then move the levers related to the functions you want to deactivate to OFF: Threat prevention for real-time antimalware protection, Firewall for the firewall or Web protection to protect against malicious sites and you’re done.
If you change your mind, you can retrace your steps and re-enable McAfee for Mac protection by returning to the program preferences and turning ON the levers you’ve previously disabled.
Note: The guidelines are for McAfee Endpoint Security for Mac. The procedure for McAfee Internet Security for Mac may differ slightly.
How to disable McAfee – Disable McAfee in the browser
McAfee has also implemented several browser extensions, such as McAfee WebAdvisor, which allows you to receive alerts about infected sites while browsing with Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer. If you have installed this extension and now you need to temporarily disable it, here are all the steps you need to take.
- Chrome – if you’re using the Chrome browser, click the button? located at the top right and select the items Other instruments> Extensions from the menu that appears. In the tab that opens, find the extension of McAfee (eg McAfee WebAdvisor) and remove the check mark from the entry that affects the latter. The extension will be deactivated instantly.
How to disable McAfee
- Firefox – if you use Mozilla Firefox, presses the button? located at the top right and select the item Add-ons from the menu that appears. In the tab that opens, click on the Extensions icon on the left, find the extension of McAfee (eg McAfee WebAdvisor) and proceed to the deactivation of the latter by pressing the button Disable
How to disable McAfee
- Internet Explorer – to disable the extension of McAfee in Internet Explorer, click on the gear icon located at the top right and select the item Manage additional components from the menu that appears. In the window that opens, click on the entries for McAfee extensions (eg McAfee WebAdvisor BHO and McAfee WebAdvisor) and click on the Disable button located at the bottom right.
How to disable McAfee
If you change your mind, you can re-enable McAfee extensions in your browser by simply accessing the settings of the browser and clicking on the Activate / Enable button, where you previously clicked Disable / Disable.
How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on Android
How to disable McAfee
Have you installed the McAfee app to protect your Android device but did you notice that it consumes too much battery and / or that is not right for you? If you want to disable the antimalware protection in real time without giving up the other features of the application, open the latter, presses the button? located at the top right and select the Settings item from the menu that appears.
At this point, tap on the Scan Security item, move the lever relative to the Real-time Scan function to OFF, answer Deactivate the warning that appears on the screen and you’re done. If you want to also disable scheduled scans, tap the Scheduled Scan item, move the Scheduled Scan function to OFF and answer Deactivate the warning that appears on the screen.
Following almost the same indications as the ones I just gave you for the antimalware scan, you can also disable McAfee’s privacy protection and web security features. It’s up to you to choose which features to keep active and which are not.
Note: if you want to delete the widget that McAfee adds to the Android home screen, make a long tap on the green shield that is in the corner of the home screen and drag the latter to the trash icon that appears at the top.
How to disable McAfee – Turn off McAfee on iOS
How to disable McAfee
Devices such as iPhones and iPad are not subject to malware risk (unless they are unlocked via procedures such as jailbreak). However, McAfee has released an app for iOS devices that allows you to locate devices remotely and create a secure archive in which to store your most important files.
Not being an anti-malware app, it does not act in real time on the device (which, among other things, for the structure of the iOS multitasking, would not even be possible, if not for a few minutes) and therefore there is no need to deactivate it. If you want to get rid of it because you do not need it anymore, uninstall it by making a long tap on its icons, pressing on the (x) that appears at the top left and giving confirmation.
How to disable McAfee