Here we’ll discuss how to turn off McAfee antivirus temporarily and disable it so you can perform various installations on your Windows PC or Mac OS.
Remember that disabling or turning off your McAfee antivirus will not uninstall or remove the software; however, this action may leave your OS unprotected and vulnerable to malware and viruses.
1. Turn Off McAfee Antivirus on Mac OS
Follow the below-mentioned step-by-step process to turn off McAfee antivirus on your Mac OS successfully.
- Go to your McAfee icon and click on it. The icon will be on the top-right side of your Mac’s menu bar.
- The McAfee drop-down menu will show you two options, click on Total Protection Console.
- Go to the Home tab.
- Locate the Gear icon (settings).
- Navigate to Real-Time Scanning and click on it.
- Now you need to Disable Real-Time Scanning by:
- Select the lock icon.
- Go on to enter your administrator password and click on OK.
- Close the Real-Time Scanning switch at the top-right corner of your window.
- Go back to the Gear icon and navigate to the Firewall option.
- Disable McAfee’s Firewall by:
- Select the lock icon.
- Enter your administrator password and click on OK.
- Close the Firewall switch from the top-right corner of your window.
- Go back to your Gear icon and navigate to Automatic Updates.
- Disable Auto Update by:
- Select the lock icon.
- Enter your administrator password and click OK.
- Close the Auto Update switch at the top-right corner of your window.
- Go back to the Gear icon and click on Scheduled Scans.
- Now you need to unlock the full and custom scan settings page. Click gear icon > enter administrator password > click on OK.
- Click on the drop-down arrow on the tab where ‘weekly’ is written. Select the Never option. By doing so, McAfee will not re-activate itself automatically to perform scans in the background.
- Go back to the Gear icon and click on McAfee SiteAdvisor.
- Disable the McAfee SiteAdvisor by:
- Select the lock icon.
- Enter your administrator password and click on OK.
- Close the McAfee SiteAdvisor switch
- Go on to close your settings window.
- You have now successfully disabled your Mac’s McAfee program.
2. Turn Off McAfee Antivirus on Windows OS
Follow the below-mentioned step-by-step process to turn off McAfee antivirus on your Mac OS successfully.
- Go to the search bar next to the Start button in your taskbar.
- Type McAfee and press enter.
- Click on McAfee Total Protection. Your McAfee application will launch.
- Locate the PC Security tab and click on it.
- Now go to Real-Time Scanning and click on the Turn Off button.
- A new window with the name ‘Turn Off’ will open. Select the time limit for which you want your McAfee app to be disabled. If you want to turn it back on manually, select Never. Once done, click on Turn Off.
- Go back and navigate to Firewall. Turn it Off also. Your Firewall page will be blank if your Firewall is already turned Off.
- Again, go back and click on Automatic Updates. Click on Turn Off.
- Now go to Scheduled Scans and Turn Off.
- By doing so, your McAfee Antivirus will get disabled temporarily, and you can turn it back On manually whenever you want to.
Alternative for McAfee: Bitdefender
In contrast to McAfee, Bitdefender has a perfect malware detection rate, offers the cheapest plans, and comes integrated with a ton of extra features that you’ll not find in any other antivirus software.
Bitdefender is a better choice as it offers simple, streamlined solutions and is a customizable antivirus overall. Both McAfee and Bitdefender are the two most comprehensive security suites available for your internet security; however, McAfee is slower, offers few features, and its user interface is not as interactive as Bitdefender’s.
