As good as Google’s Chrome browser is, it’s notorious for eating up too much RAM and CPU, especially on less powerful PCs, where it can be a real headache.
There are numerous reasons behind why this happens, one of them being the number of background applications it runs which are meant to enhance the overall browsing experience.
One such application is the Google Software Reporter tool that runs in the background and monitors processes that could potentially conflict with the browser. It also collects data about the said processes and sends it back to Google.
Disabling this tool can help you save on precious RAM and CPU resources. Since it reports back to Google with the monitored data, it’s also a privacy concern for a lot of users.
In this article, we’re going over how you can disable Google’s Software Reporter tool to save on your system resources.
There are a few ways to disable this tool, but they all require a bit of digging. Do keep in mind that the tool runs alongwith Chrome’s weekly updates so there’s a good chance it might just show up again.
Also read: How to fix the ‘Chrome PDF Viewer Not Working’ issue?
How to disable the Software Reporter tool using file permissions?
The simplest and the most effective way of disabling this tool is to just revoke its running permissions and here’s how you can do that.
Step 1: Navigate to the following path in Windows Explorer:
C:\Users\<yourpcname>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\87.250.200
Keep in mind that the last folder, which is the build number of the tool might be different for you. You might also have to unhide some folders to get to the aforementioned path.
Step 2: Right-click on the software_reporter_tool.exe and click on Properties.
Step 3: Head over to the Security tab and click on Edit.
Step 4: Remove all the Groups and Usernames from the list by selecting them first and then clicking the Disable button.
This will essentially remove all permissions from the tool and won’t allow it to run.
Also read:How do browsers work? The science behind rendering a webpage
How to disable the Software Reporter tool by deleting the tool?
If you don’t want to mess around with permissions, you can just go ahead and delete all the files in the aforementioned directory and it’ll have the same effect.
Do keep in mind though that the next time Chrome updates, the tool will reappear.
Also read: How to fix “ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE” in Google Chrome?
How to disable the Software Reporter tool using Chrome Policies?
If you aren’t comfortable deleting files either, you can simply modify Chrome policies in the Registry Editor.
Step 1: Press Windows key + R, type in Regedit and press Enter.
Step 2: Navigate to the following directory
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies
Step 3: Under Policies, head over to Google and then Chrome. Note that you may have to create these directories if they aren’t already there in your system.
Step 4: In the right side pane, right-click, then select New and create a new DWORD(32-bit)value.
Step 5: Name this key ChromeCleanupEnabled.
Step 6: By default, the value for this key would be set to 0, which means that the tool is disabled. You can set this to 1 to enable the tool at any time.
Also read: How to unblock downloads in Chrome? And should you?
