Google Chrome, Google Lively, Google Earth, and an untold number of other Google applications may install an update mechanism named googleupdate.exe, googleupdater.exe, or something similar. The googleupdate may continually attempt to access the Internet without requesting permission and without providing an option to disable it. This behavior may persist even after the parent application has been removed. While there's no single way to rid the system of googleupdate, the following tips provide the common install locations.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 5 - 15 minutes
Here's How:
- Instead of removal, a permission-based firewall such as ZoneAlarm can be used to temporarily block Googleupdate. If desired, the steps below can be used to completely remove Googleupdate from the system. Before attempting any manual removal, it's a good idea to backup your system and make a separate backup of the system registry. Also note that removing Googleupdate will impact the parent applications ability to download updates.
- To locate instances of googleupdate, search all local fixed drives for googleupd or googleupd* (depending on the search utility, the * wildcard may be required. Note that it is not required for the Windows search feature in Windows Explorer).
- Make copies of any files found, noting their original location. Depending on the OS, some or all of the following may be found:
Google Update (Task Scheduler Object)
Googleupdate.exe (Application) (two or more locations)
GoogleUpdateHelper.msi (Windows Installer Package) - You should be able to delete the Google Update Task Scheduler Object and the GoogleUpdateHelper.msi with no problem. However, to delete googleupdate.exe, you'll first need to launch Task Manager, locate the running Google Update process, and stop it. After doing that, you should be able to delete Googleupdate.exe. In other cases, GoogleUpdate may be installed as a service, in which case you will need to first stop the service before attempting to delete the file.
- Next, open the Registry Editor and browse to the following subkey:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ - In the right pane, locate the value named "Google Update", right-click the name and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. When finished, close the Registry Editor.
- After following the above steps, reboot the system.
