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How to remove invisible googleupdate.exe or google updater from windows

GoogleUpdate.exe is small program which get installed with any google product you download and use. GoogleUpdate comes update comes bundled with google picasa, google desktop search, as in latest it comes embedded with google chrome.

GoogleUpdate seems to be hidden process, does not even show up when you install google chrome

What is GoogleUpdate.exe?  

“GoogleUpdate.exe is a software component that acts as a meta-installer and auto-updater in many downloadable Google applications, including Google Chrome. It keeps google programs updated”

googe-update 

Above is the snapshot of the googleupdate.exe running and shown at the task manager.

GoogleUpdate.exe automatically runs in the background and automatically connects to google servers, use system resources all the time, downloads and install these updates.

It also reports some data usage to the google servers which includes version numbers, language, operating system etc.

Many people may ask why should I remove googleupdate.exe, Let’s see why

Why you should stop googleupdate.exe?

Because it downloads the updates even when you don’t need them and it also consumes the some part of your internet bandwidth without asking any permission from you.

Let’s see how can you remove googleupdate.exe from your computer.

GoogleUpdate.exe add itself to the windows scheduler, it does not add itself to system startup so you can’t remove it using msconfig command.

How to Remove GoogleUpdate.exe in XP

1. Go to Start >> Control Panel

2. Open Administrative Tools >> Scheduled Tasks

3. Locate GoogleUpdateTaskUser.exe in the scheduled task list.

google-updater     

4. Remove GoogleUpdateTaskUser from the scheduled tasks.

How to Remove GoogleUpdate.exe in Vista

1. Go to Start >> Control Panel

2. Open Administrative Tools >> Task Scheduler

task-scheduler     

3. Click Task Scheduler Library, locate GoogleUpdateTaskUser.exe

google-updater-service

4. Right click on it and select disable

disable-google-update 

5. That’s it! Done

4 replies on “How to remove invisible googleupdate.exe or google updater from windows”

In XP-Pro/Control Panel it’s “Scheduled Tasks” not “Task Scheduler”

Thanks for all your help!!
-Fred

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but this does NOT get rid of googleupdater. It will re-activate even if its removed from scheduled tasks. You need to uninstall the update tool completely in order to get it off your system. add/remove programs… If any of you have done what’s stated above, you will see a reboot later, that its running on your system. START->RUN->SERVICES.MSC->FIND THE 2 ENTRIES AND RIGHT CLICK->PROPERTIES->DISABLE.
Then go to add/remove programs and uninstall it completely. Otherwise it will come back. Good Luck.

Even Add/Remove will not remove the program.
The best way is to search your registry: google*update*
Delete Everything,
Search your HDDs : googleupd* and gupd*
Delete Everything,
Run a registry cleaner to clean up any redundant folders/files left over.
Best of Luck!

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