Solved Any way of disabling Chrome updates?

[spotify95]

Hi,

I am using Windows 7 and have Google Chrome as my main browser. My windows 8.1 laptop also has Chrome installed.

I have a bit of an issue at the moment: I am currently running Chrome version 44 and do not want to update the browser any further, as from what I have heard, Chrome version 45 will kill off all of my main plugins that I use - with no way of re-enabling them.

What I would like to know is: how can I permanently disable Google Chrome from updating? From what I have found out Chrome 45 will be coming out to the stable channel in a matter of days and I do not want it on my machine as it will break everything that I use Chrome for. I do have Firefox and Pale Moon installed on the laptop but I don't know how to transfer all of my settings, including passwords, apps, extensions etc on to Firefox (from Chrome). Hence my reasoning to stay on an older version of Google Chrome.

Any suggestions on how to fix this (or get all of my stuff, including extensions, passwords, themes etc to Firefox/Pale Moon) will be greatly appreciated - preferably before this Chrome 45 lands on my computer so I can at least stick with Chrome for as long as possible.

Thanks!

 

[paul1149]

Short of an actual solution to the extension problem, and I suppose most extensions will convert if necessary, I would switch to Slimjet, a chromium-based browser like Chrome that has more features, is more secure and updates only manually. You can transfer everything over via chrome sync (but I recommend backing up your user profile first, because chrome's sync is pretty rough).

 

[spotify95]

Short of an actual solution to the extension problem, and I suppose most extensions will convert if necessary, I would switch to Slimjet, a chromium-based browser like Chrome that has more features, is more secure and updates only manually. You can transfer everything over via chrome sync (but I recommend backing up your user profile first, because chrome's sync is pretty rough).

Hi there,

Thanks for the suggestion. It seems like Slim Jet uses a Chrome based browser, so everything should sync across smoothly, I hope.

Also, looking at this thread: Web Browser Discussion, Browser Talk - Slimjet Web Browser Online Forum ? View topic - Support of NPAPI plugin It seems like Slimjet have decided to keep support for NPAPI plugins (i.e. many of the plugins that I need to use!) so, assuming that the transition between browsers is smooth, I should be fine with Slimjet; especially if you don't have to auto update the browser - meaning that I won't end up with loads of plugins disappearing off my browser for good.

Is there an actual way of stopping Chrome from updating? If not then I'll use Slimjet.

Furthermore, the current browsers I have installed are:
1. Chrome (default)
2. Chrome Canary - it seems a bit quicker than Chrome and is more up to date (though now that hasn't got my plugins!)
3. Firefox - was thinking about using this as my default but can't transfer everything across. Is being used as secondary browser
4. Pale Moon - a Firefox based browser that I looked into using in case Chrome updated to v45.
5. Sleipnir - back up browser, I suppose
6. Tor Browser for anonymity

If I install Slimjet, this will mean a total of 7 browsers. I'm keeping Firefox/Pale Moon/Tor, and possibly Canary just in case - can I bin the others? As I assume that Slimjet will sync my devices as it is Chrome based?

Thanks!

 

[paul1149]

Slimjet will sync just as well as chrome because it uses the same google sync engine on your same google account. Yes, for now SJ is maintaining support for NAPPI extensions. I see no need for both chrome and SJ, and SJ easily wins in my book. Wait till you see the extra functions it has, with more planned.

 

[spotify95]

Slimjet will sync just as well as chrome because it uses the same google sync engine on your same google account. Yes, for now SJ is maintaining support for NAPPI extensions. I see no need for both chrome and SJ, and SJ easily wins in my book. Wait till you see the extra functions it has, with more planned.

Thanks, in which case it seems like Slimjet will do everything I need it to do and more. It does seem that chrome is a tiny but faster on speedtest.net but the difference is so small as to be unnoticeable.

I installed SJ last night and it seems to be doing the trick; all of my chrome stuff has sync'ed across with no issues. I also like the right click mouse gestures, saves time and is more convenient IMO.

Plus of course if NPAPI was deprecated I could just stop all updates quite nicely - with SJ there is the option to choose how often to look for updates. If there are problems with future releases then I set that to "Never" and I can keep going in my world of NPAPI life. (Flash player NPAPI is better and more efficient than the chrome version, Java and Silverlight have no plans on going PPAPI, and Google Talk is still NPAPI with no PPAPI version. And no I won't use Hangouts as it isn't as good as Talk; the latter being able to tell me if I can video chat friends, as well as seeing at a glance if they are on desktop or mobile.)

In fact I have just recommended SJ to other people I know who also have issues with NPAPI; having re-enabled them manually and now having them totally disabled in the very near future.

Definitely accepting as solution. Thanks!

 

[paul1149]

Best all around browser, IMO. Enjoy.

 

[spotify95]

Best all around browser, IMO. Enjoy.

Thank you - I am very appreciative of your solution and you may have just saved my browser from totally crashing and being no good at all.

I have just had a look and Chrome v45 has hit the stable channel. I hope that it doesn't hit my laptop, and that my "fix" I tried a few days ago stops the update.

My method was to go to MSCONFIG and turn off anything to do with Google Update on the Services and Startup channel - in effect, stopping the thing from having permission to update. Seems like something has happened recently though where it updated nonetheless. If this laptop gets Chrome v45 then Chrome and Chrome Canary will be BINNED and WIPED from my computer and I'll be using Slimjet as my main browser with Firefox as secondary and Pale Moon as backup. I can see a lot of people ditching Chrome altogether because of this.

 

[paul1149]

Google updates most of its stuff via scheduled tasks. I'm not sure how the services integrate with that, but it's worth going to CP / admin tools / sched tasks to disable the google stuff.

A word about SJ's core. It still is at chromium 42. This is for two reasons. First, 43 was intentionally skipped because of the "OK google" privacy incursion that google slipped into that version. The plan was to wait for 44 to come out, but secondly, for some reason we haven't had an update in several weeks. Prior to this we were getting more than one a week. No word on why the delay.

But I think the more you look into the various features (eg, I use aliases a lot), you'll find SJ is a much better browser anyway.

 

[spotify95]

Google updates most of its stuff via scheduled tasks. I'm not sure how the services integrate with that, but it's worth going to CP / admin tools / sched tasks to disable the google stuff.

A word about SJ's core. It still is at chromium 42. This is for two reasons. First, 43 was intentionally skipped because of the "OK google" privacy incursion that google slipped into that version. The plan was to wait for 44 to come out, but secondly, for some reason we haven't had an update in several weeks. Prior to this we were getting more than one a week. No word on why the delay.

But I think the more you look into the various features (eg, I use aliases a lot), you'll find SJ is a much better browser anyway.

Hi there,

I've found the task scheduler but can't seem to find the google update stuff, don't know what I am looking for. If you could let me know how to disable it, it'd be great, but if not, I'll see what happens.

I had a look and yeah it is using Chromium 42. You are correct that the OK Google thing is missing - will that be put in or will that never be used, due to privacy issues? I don't use the Voice search thing anyway so am unaffected, but it'd be good to know whether us SJ users will get the OKG or not.

I'll definitely look into the SJ features, so thanks for letting me know about it. Though so long as I have a browser that works like Chrome does, and will support old fashioned plugins, such as Java, Silverlight, Google Talk, etc etc, I'll be fine. Hence why I ditched Chrome because of the PPAPI only policy.

 

[paul1149]

I personally think the worst part of the OK Google snafu was that they didn't announce it beforehand. I think it's a safe bet that SJ would let us know if they incorporate it (as I think they will in time), and probably give us the option to disable it.

I'm not on Windows at the moment, but I recall the google updater being in the top level folder of scheduled tasks, not sorted into one of the lower folders. Or the easier way to access tasks is via the utility CCleaner, at Tools / Startup

 

[spotify95]

I personally think the worst part of the OK Google snafu was that they didn't announce it beforehand. I think it's a safe bet that SJ would let us know if they incorporate it (as I think they will in time), and probably give us the option to disable it.

I'm not on Windows at the moment, but I recall the google updater being in the top level folder of scheduled tasks, not sorted into one of the lower folders. Or the easier way to access tasks is via the utility CCleaner, at Tools / Startup

I saw the OK Google stuff a few weeks/months ago and you're right, it appeared out of nowhere but tbh I don't really like using voice search so I haven't ever used it on my laptop and only once used it on my phone!

I had a look and couldn't find the google updater - and I don't really want to install any more software, I've already installed two new browsers (Pale Moon & Slim Jet) as alt's to solve this Chrome thing! And anyway I can't do anything about it now as Chrome auto updated itself (despite me instructing it not to!) to v45.0.x.

Is there any way of rolling back to an earlier version of Chrome? Is there anywhere I can download an older version from? Or am I totally stuffed? (I am using SJ but seeing if I can recover my Chrome.)

Thanks!

 

[paul1149]

Not that I'm aware. But I don't follow chrome very closely.