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I am using Selenium and Chrome to write a web test, yesterday my Chrome updated to 44 and now my test does not work, I know that it is an issue with Chrome 44 and we need to wait till the new version is given out. So I am trying to go bake to chrome 43, i do:

1) Uninstall chrome 44

2) Install chrome 43

but as soon as the installation is done it automatically opens the chrome and it is 44 again !! I went to Run->Service.msc and disabled my chrome to update automatically, but it does not work. I remove the Update folder in User->Myname->AppData->Local->Google->Update but it does not work, and there is nothing related to updating at chrome://plugins.

I AM STUCK

PLEASE HELP :( I did all sulosion posted on line but non of them worked,

  • Have you tried solutions posted here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18483087/how-can-i-disable-google-chrome-auto-update? – alecxe Jul 29 '15 at 18:43
  • yes, and as I said there is no "Google Update" plugin there :( and I think if even it is there, it would not help because it prevent chrome from further updates after 44 –  Jul 29 '15 at 18:44
  • You could try to use a stand-alone Chrome (without installation). For version 43 it is https://dl.google.com/chrome/win/4ED6DD719811795B/43.0.2357.134_chrome_installer.exe (warning: this link may expire soon). After downloading the file unzip the file. You will get a file called `chrome.7z`. Unzip this again (using 7-zip) and you will have a portable version of Chrome (43). – Rob W Jul 29 '15 at 18:46
  • @RobW the link gave me this: "43.0.2357.134_chrome_installer.exe" and when double click it nothing happens –  Jul 29 '15 at 19:04
  • @SinaGolestanirad I said **unzip** it (twice). E.g. with http://www.7-zip.org – Rob W Jul 29 '15 at 19:43
  • @Robw I did it and now I have a GoogleUpdate.exe, what to do next? –  Jul 29 '15 at 20:21
  • @SinaGolestanirad What's the file size of 43.0.2357.134_chrome_installer.exe? It should be around 41MB, and does not contain GoogleUpdate.exe. – Rob W Jul 29 '15 at 20:24
  • @Robw It has: a folder called "43.0.2357.134" and chrome.exe and wow_helper.exe –  Jul 29 '15 at 20:40
  • @Robw what should i do now to get it used by selenium (JAVA), by the way your help means a lot to me, thanks indeed :) –  Jul 29 '15 at 20:52
  • @SinaGolestanirad Set the Chrome binary to the path to the chrome.exe within your directory. – Rob W Jul 29 '15 at 21:35
  • @Robw now it is throwing this error : INFO: Command failed to close cleanly. Destroying forcefully (v2). org.openqa.selenium.os.UnixProcess$SeleniumWatchDog@55040f2f Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: chrome failed to start .... –  Jul 29 '15 at 22:00
  • @Robw finally I got it working :) please post your comment as the actual answer –  Jul 29 '15 at 22:34
  • @SinaGolestanirad The link to the old version of Chrome that I've suggested will expire soon. So that'd make my answer a bit useless. You could however post an answer yourself and explain the steps that you've followed to get your setup to work (including how you've solved the last error). – Rob W Jul 30 '15 at 09:01
  • @robw Could you please tell me how and where I can find those links for stand-alone chromes –  Jul 30 '15 at 13:04

4 Answers4

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Have spent a loooong 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

... 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. A 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 becomes : 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.

Luds
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As per Chromium

Turning off Auto-Updates on Windows

To turn off auto-updates of Google Chrome on Windows, you need to instruct Google Update to not update it. To do this, you can either:

Use the Google Update ADM templates provided on this page or as described in this article.

Set the value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update\AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes to the REG_DWORD value of "0".

You can check for Mac and Linux in the first Link

Community
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Madhan
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To get rid of Chrome 44 and go back to 43 I downloaded a stand-alone version of chrome 43 which is an .exe file and I just double clicked on it and it was installed on my computer WITHOUT updating to Chrome 44, to find the link to Chrome 43 have a look to RobW comments to my question above and if the link is stale you can just Google for Chrome Stand-alone, or go to the bottom of this page Google Chrome 64-bit Offline Installer| 45.7 MB.

Have Fun :)

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Old question, I know, but perhaps someone else finds this useful.

Chrome accepts the following command line flag:

--simulate-outdated-no-au='Tue, 31 Dec 2099 23:59:59 GMT'

I don't know how you are initializing the chrome driver. Assuming Java, you should be able to add those startup options like: (Source: Selenium Chrome Driver Arguments)

ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--simulate-outdated-no-au='Tue, 31 Dec 2099 23:59:59 GMT'");
driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

It disables the update checks and notifications and should therefore prevent it from ever updating (as long as it's always started with this flag).
You can set a future date. This will let chromium think that it shouldn't be outdated until this date, and therefore won't show the outdated message.

Source:
By Adalbert Michelic adalbert@lopez.at "It's possible to silence this notification by faking the build date by using this command line parameter: --simulate-outdated-no-au='Tue, 31 Dec 2099 23:59:59 GMT'" https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=943668#15

Lukas Willin
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