Temporarily shut down Avast

Hi - I’m a first time poster. Love Avast but seem to have run into a glitch. I need to undo a system restore (the restore didn’t fix my problem) but the restore did completely lose all my Firefox settings. When I tried to undo the restore, Windows told me it could not restart, possibly because an anti-virus program is blocking some service/whatever? Windows needs for the restart. Unfortunately, the message didn’t say what was being blocked.

I have been unable to find a way temporarily to close down Avast. I did try to close Avast from the Task Manager but got a message that the Avast files were locked. ??? ??? ???Searches at the support site yielded no results; I read more about Avast than I’d ever read before (in HELP) and could find no suggestions.

I’d appreciate any ideas/suggestions. FYI, I’m using Avast Free. OS = 64 bit Windows 7; System info: TOSHIBA Satellite L50D, Installed RAM = 4 GB, Processor = AMD Turion™ II Dual-Core Mobile 2.20 GHz.

If you need further info, please let me know. Also, if this question has already been posed, please accept my apology. Maybe today is a high-brain-drain day but I couldn’t figure out how to determine if my question has already been asked.

Thanks for the help,
Shiffra

Open Avast and go to settings- select troubleshooting and remove the tick from Enable self defense module
Then try the restore (remember to reset the protection after)

Posted question on 3/14 re: how to shut down avast so I could download a file. I got a suggestion, followed the advice, and was able to accomplish what I wanted. Don’t know who responded to my query because now I can’t find it. But to whomever responded: Thanks! I appreciate it. ;D