Interesting that no one really has an answer for actually disabling/turning off/exiting avast! free.

It seems there isn’t actually a way to turn off avast! free. Yes - you can disable the shields - but that is not the same thing.

I find this a major oversite - and a mistake that should be rectified. A lot of programs allow you the options of disabling individual componenets (in avast! case - the shields) as well as exiting/terminating the program itself.