How to block or remove Chrome Software Reporter tool

Chrome is a web browser developed by Google and launched in 2008. The browser uses a software reporting tool that runs in the background and checks your system for harmful files.

It also contains software that causes hindrance in the smooth running of the browser and removes them. It is a subset of cleanup tools and not an anti-virus program. The installation is integrated with Google Chrome and is an essential and functional tool.

There can be reasons why you want to remove or disable it, like high power usage or it causes a privacy concern. Well, whatever the reason, you can remove it if you want to, and here’s how you can do it.

See also: How to get rid of Bing on Chrome, IE, and Microsoft Edge.

Disabling using the chrome settings

Open your Chrome web browser and go to settings. You can access this from the three dots on the top right of the web page. Once you have entered the settings page, go to the bottom and click on advanced. Scroll down again to find the system settings and turn off the running of background apps. Select the Cleanup Computer option and on the next screen, turn off the 'reports sent to Google’ option.

Using the file permissions

To do this, you will have to follow this path ‘%localappdata%\google\chrome\User Data\SwReporter\81.234.200\’ and right-click on the executable tool file. Afterward, select the ‘Edit’ option in the Security flap, and from the list, clear the groups and the users. Clear all permissions from the exe file. To remove the inheritance permissions, you must go to the advanced menu in the ‘Security’ section. From there, press the ‘Disable Inheritance’ button and clear them individually. If you cannot remove the permissions, click on deny on the list. It will also disable the tool.

Deleting the .exe file

This is not a permanent method because the tool will be installed again when the web browser is updated and is an excellent way to get rid of the file causing high CPU usage. This method won’t cause any loss of data.

Replacing the executable file

If you replace the exe file of the tool with another file in the same format, it will also work for you. Copy any additional file into the "SWReporter" folder and change its name to the same as the tool’s file name. It will run the other file you copied instead of the reporter tool, preventing your system from sending personal data.

Disabling using chrome policies

The company recently introduced a support feature to help you control your system settings on your browser. To use this, search your computer and click Regedit to launch the editor. Now, go to ‘Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies’ and under the policies tab, go to ‘Google\Chrome.’ There is a chance that these files are not there on your device, so you will have to generate them. Once you enter the chrome folder, right-click to create a new folder named ‘ChromeCleanupEnabled.’ Add 0 for the disabling function and 1 for enabling. After this, create another folder called "ChromeCleanupReportingEnabled" and use the same 0 and 1 algorithms.

Disabling using chrome clean up on windows

It is a suitable method for an administrator who wants to disable the tool on all devices on the network by utilizing the editor used for the group policy. To do this, download Google’s policy templates and decode them into a new folder. Now, copy "Google.admin" and "Chrome.admx" to the policy definitions folder in the C drive. Also, copy ‘Google.adml’ and ‘Chrome.adml’ to the same folder. To run the policy editor, click on ‘gpedit.msc’. For the last step, disable the "Chrome Cleanup" in the browser.

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