One command · macOS & Windows · Fully reversible

Turn off everything Adobe runs in the background.

Creative Cloud quietly installs helpers, updaters, and telemetry agents that start with your machine. One command shuts every one of them down. The same command turns them back on.

Terminal · zsh
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://dandanilyuk.github.io/adobe_services_disabler/disable_adobe_services.sh)"

Shows what is currently running, then an arrow-key picker: disable or enable. No flags to remember. Asks for sudo only to cover Adobe's system daemons. Read the script first

Detected macOS. Use the tabs if that's not this machine.

What gets switched off

Both scripts find Adobe's launch items by wildcard, so they still work after Creative Cloud updates recreate them.

On macOS

  • launchd agents & daemonsEvery com.adobe.* plist is booted out and marked disabled, so it stays off across reboots.
  • App extensionsFinder Sync and the right-click extension are switched off at the pluginkit level, the only place they stay off.
  • Running helpersCoreSync, CCXProcess, AdobeIPCBroker and friends are stopped on the spot.

On Windows

  • ServicesEvery Adobe service is stopped and its startup type set to Disabled.
  • Scheduled tasksUpdater and telemetry tasks are disabled in place.
  • Startup entriesFlipped with the same StartupApproved flag Task Manager uses. Nothing is deleted.
  • Running helpersBackground processes are stopped. Creative apps never are.

Built to be undone

One command undoes it

Run the same one-liner again and pick Enable. Nothing was deleted, so the same switches flip back and everything loads at the next login or boot.

Creative apps are safe

Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere, Lightroom and the rest are never killed and never touched. Only the background helpers are.

It shows you first

Before anything happens it lists every Adobe item on your machine and whether it is currently on. Then you choose, or quit.

No black box

A few hundred lines of readable bash and PowerShell, in the open on GitHub. Read them before you run them.

The fine print

  • On macOS, sudo is requested once, only for Adobe's system-wide daemons. Decline it and the per-user agents and app extensions are still handled.
  • On Windows, run from an Administrator window to cover services, scheduled tasks, and machine-wide startup entries. Without admin, per-user items are still handled.
  • Opening the Creative Cloud desktop app can respawn some helpers until your next reboot. They stay off after that.
  • Adobe installers recreate their launch items during updates. Re-run the command any time; it rediscovers whatever exists.
  • On macOS, also check System Settings > General > Login Items and turn off anything from Adobe listed there.
  • Quitting from the menu is always safe: nothing is touched until you pick Disable or Enable.
  • If you download the script instead of running the one-liner, it deletes itself once it finishes, so nothing is left in your Downloads folder.
What the menu looks like

There are no flags or arguments to remember. Run the one command and you get a list of what Adobe has installed, then three choices:

  Disable Adobe startup services
  Enable Adobe startup services
  Quit

Arrow keys move, Enter selects, q or Esc backs out without touching anything.