How to disable Google Chrome auto update?
Have spent a long time trying to disable updates (literally hours, reading forums and testing various (some exotic) solutions), and this was driving me crazy. But there what seems an infallible solution (see further down).
Even using the official Google page with the templates did NOTHING: https://support.google.com/installer/answer/146164?hl=en
I followed scrupulously the instructions of that page, the keys in the registry are all correct, but still going to the "About Google Chrome" when the program is opened, I can see the wheel going around and a few seconds later the update is forced and done.
I have tried using the standalone installer of Google, on a Windows 8.1 machine 64Bits - and yes all the keys are set to :
Dword: AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes Value: 0
Dword: DisableAutoUpdateChecksCheckboxValue Value: 1
Dword: UpdateDefault Value: 0
Dword: Update{8A69D345-D564-463C-AFF1-A69D9E530F96} Value: 0
(this last one requires the service(s) to not be disabled - gupdate/gupdatem)
... both in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update AND HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Policies\Google\Update since it is a 64-bit machine.
So the radical solution to prevent the auto-update, if that helps anyone, is to just purely sort the program responsible for the updates itself! (Just deleting it, OR saving a copy, OR renaming it OR even better just in case I one day need to do an update: Zip the content for future potential re-use).
Easy solution :
1- Go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\ and find the folder "update".
2- There are a couple of options to choose from:
A) first method: Rename the folder:
- Right click > Rename > from Update.bak to Update2.bak for example.
- Now launch Chrome: NO MORE UPDATES!! since it can not find the update program !! Finished.
B) second method: Zip the folder:
- Zip the entire folder by making an archive. (Right click the "Update" folder > Send to Compressed (zip) folder)
- A window might ask you to backup/zip and place it on the desktop, click yes. (message: Windows cannot create the compressed folders here. Do you want to be placed on the desktop instead?)
- Move the newly created zip file to the original location. New window security might pop up > click continue. (message: You need administrator permission to copy this file). [This will be what to unzip if one day you decide to update Chrome - Just remember that when unzipped it will have the following structure: Update > Update > then all the content of the folder. Remember to move everything from inside the second update folder (copy paste) one level up so that is becoming: Update > then all the content of the folder].
- Now that you have a copy just delete the "Update" folder.
- Now launch Chrome: NO MORE UPDATES!! since it can not find the update program !! Finished.
Good luck and Enjoy.
We had a problem printing with v49something.
I blocked tools.google.com on localhost temporarily so that I could install previous version and prevent updating to the version that is breaking the label printing.
So, in /etc/hosts I added:
0.0.0.0 tools.google.com
Not a perfect solution, but was perfect for us.
This is just a trick to stop auto update of Google Chrome in Mac OS.
- Go to Applications Folder in Finder.
- Right click Google Chrome and select Show Package Contents.
- Go to Contents directory.
- Open Info.plist file with XCode or other text editor.
- Change the value of the key: KSUpdateURL to an invalid URL. something like https://tools.google.com/service/invalidurl
- Overwrite Info.plist file.
- Restart Google Chrome.
Finally go to Google Chrome Settings / About. You will see Update always fails because the update url was set to an invalid one.
