if i temporarily stop avast because i need maximum ram for an application (say, imaging my hdd), will avast remain resident in ram? if yes, then can i remove it temporarily – or will this be more trouble than it’s worth?
Be off line when you do imaging of your disk.
If you’re using avast 4.8, right click the ‘a’ blue icon and chose the last (bottom) option to disable the antivirus.