How to Remove or Disable GoogleUpdate.exe in XP / Vista

Contributor Icon Contributed by David Kirk     
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows  

GoogleUpdate.exe is installed with several google applications. In runs in the background and checks for updates to google’s programs. Many people do not like extra, unnecessary processes running. Here are the directions for disabling this pesky, reoccurring application.


In google’s defense, windows does not have a good system for finding updates on non-Windows applications. Because of this, many applications install these background processes to detect when updates occur. Unfortunately, any background application will use a little CPU and memory. Therefore, many people want all, nonessential background processes removed. Here is how to do it.

The same directions will work for vista and xp. Depending on your security level, you may have to jump through a few more dialog boxes in Vista.

1. In the Control Panel go to Scheduled Tasks

2. Select GoogleUpdateTaskUser

3. Then click on the Delete link to remove it. Confirm when the dialog box appears. This will prevent the task from relaunching itself.

remove google from scheduled tasks

4. To remove the active process, right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager from the context menu.

5. Within task manager, select GoogleUpdate.exe and press the End Process button. Confirm when the dialog box appears.

googleupdate kill task

 

13 Comments -


  1. nafnosseb said on October 17, 2008

    Cool, i had 2 google update processes running. No longer.

  2. albcoe said on October 22, 2008

    Nice, thanks

  3. kbywg said on October 22, 2008

    In my Windows XP Task Manager there was also a Google Updater Service.exe which I also deleted.

  4. Rod said on October 31, 2008

    YIKES! In Vista I finally found the Task Manager in the Control Panel under the Administrative Tools but can’t find anything entitled “Google Update”. Obviously this task is more complicated with Vista. The Task Manager has a “Library” with a sub-heading of “Microsoft” with a sub-heading of “Windows” and 26 sub-files beneath that – none contain Google Update.
    The only place I found GoogleUpdate.exe was in the program files and I am afraid to delete that. What if I want it back someday?
    Maybe my “Vista Manager” program already disabled Google Update as an unnecessary program.

  5. Ozh said on November 11, 2008

    Does not work. After some time I noticed the task was back again.

  6. anton said on April 19, 2009

    Thanks broo, your tips simple but powerfull…

  7. m said on May 1, 2009

    thank man

  8. a name to comment said on May 8, 2009

    These instructions do NOT work for Vista. There is nothing called “Scheduled Tasks” in the vista control panel. When you find the task in the task explorer, you get a message, “Error opening process, denied”. No description about this either. Next link.

  9. durdy said on May 11, 2009

    Type in “Administrative Tools” in your search bar and it’s called “Task Scheduler” for Vista.

  10. stine said on June 15, 2009

    I think they changed the name of the task to “GoogleUpdateTaskMachine”

    I set mine to run after 600 minutes of idle time pretty much insuring that it will only run saturday morning at 11am

  11. Anonymous said on September 25, 2009

    There are no scheduled tasks shown in my control panel Scheduled Tasks applet window.

  12. Poed said on June 13, 2011

    This will not work bozo.

  13. Xeolyte said on October 12, 2011

    right click on my computer
    click manage
    click Services and applications
    click services
    right click on google in the list
    click properties
    click start up type & choose disable

 

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