Modified from http://dcycleproject.org/blog/32/disabling-blocks A simple helper function to disable blocks programatically. Useful for deployment modules.

Disable Block Programmatically

/**
 * Helper Function to disable blocks
 * Modified from http://dcycleproject.org/blog/32/disabling-blocks
 * @param  string $theme  The name of the theme you'd like the block to be disabled on
 * @param  array $blocks Array of blocks. Module => Block name
 */
function disable_block($theme, $blocks) {
  foreach ($blocks as $module => $delta) {
    $num_updated = db_update('block') // Table name no longer needs {}
      ->fields(array(
        'region' => '-1',
      ))
      ->condition('module', $module, '=')
      ->condition('delta', $delta, '=')
      ->condition('theme', $theme, '=')
      ->execute();
  }
}