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.
- Open source
- Nothing deleted
- Creative apps untouched
- Menu, no flags
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://dandanilyuk.github.io/adobe_services_disabler/disable_adobe_services.sh)"
Open Terminal with ⌘ Space, type Terminal, Return, and paste. It shows what is currently running, then an arrow-key picker: disable or enable. Asks for sudo only to cover Adobe's system daemons. Read the script first
Downloads the script and opens it in less. Press q when you are done reading and it starts; nothing changes until you pick from its menu. The downloaded copy deletes itself when it finishes. Or read it on GitHub
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://dandanilyuk.github.io/adobe_services_disabler/disable_adobe_services.ps1 | iex"
Open an Administrator window with Win X, then Terminal (Admin), and paste. That covers services and machine-wide tasks. Same status view and picker, no flags. Read the script first
Saves the script, opens it in Notepad, and starts it in this window. Read it, then pick from its menu; nothing changes before that. Use an Administrator window to cover services and machine-wide tasks. Or read it on GitHub
Detected macOS. Use the tabs if that's not this machine.
The only interface
No flags, no options. After a listing of what Adobe has installed, three choices. Arrow keys move, Enter selects, q or Esc backs out. Nothing is touched until you pick Disable or Enable.
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.
Never executed on a real Windows machine. Treat the first run as a test, and report how it goes.
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.
- 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 no copy is left lying around.