KILL ADOBE
A small Mac app that shuts down Adobe's background processes and keeps them
shut down.

By Andy Hutchinson


WHAT IT'S FOR
-------------
Install any Adobe application and you also get a dozen or so background
programs you never asked for. They run whether or not you're using Adobe
software, and one of them in particular has a habit of pegging a CPU core for
hours at a time. That's the fan noise.

Kill Adobe shuts them down. It doesn't touch Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign or
anything else you actually open.


INSTALLING IT
-------------
Drag "Kill Adobe" into your Applications folder. Double-click to open.

Needs macOS 13 Ventura or later. Works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.


USING IT
--------
THE BIG RED BUTTON
Press it. Anything of Adobe's running in the background stops. The number at
the top tells you how many were running.

START GUARD
Killing them only lasts until an Adobe app starts them again, which happens
within seconds of opening Photoshop. Start Guard leaves a watchman running that
checks every 15 seconds and shuts them down again, indefinitely, including
after you restart your Mac. Press it once and forget about it.

STOP GUARD
Turns the watchman off and leaves Adobe's processes alone from then on.

REFRESH
Updates the number. The app doesn't poll constantly, so press this if you want
to see the current state.

SOUND EFFECT (RUDE)
Off by default. Tick it if you want the button to make a noise. It's rude.
You've been warned.


SETTINGS
--------
Click "Settings" at the bottom to open a small panel with two tickboxes. Both
are on by default, which suits most people.

ADOBE DESKTOP SERVICE
Handles your subscription licensing. If your Adobe apps ever start demanding
you sign in again, untick this, then press Stop Guard followed by Start Guard.

CORE SYNC
Syncs the Creative Cloud Files folder and switches Adobe Fonts on and off. If
you use either of those, untick it.


WHAT IT DOES AND DOESN'T DO
---------------------------
It can't stop Photoshop launching a helper while Photoshop is open. Nothing on
macOS can, since Apple closed off the permission that would allow it. What it
does is stop those helpers settling in and running for hours. In testing, one
process that had built up 87 minutes of CPU time went to nothing at all.

Your Adobe apps carry on working normally.


UNDOING IT
----------
Press Stop Guard. That removes the watchman completely.

The app puts two files in your own user folder and nothing anywhere else:

    ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.andyhutchinson.killadobe.guard.plist
    ~/Library/Application Support/Kill Adobe/

Stop Guard removes the first. Delete the second by hand if you want everything
gone, then drag the app to the Trash.

No password required, no system files touched, nothing installed behind your
back.
