Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Open Sources Updater

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the step-in-the-right-direction dept.

Jamie noticed the news that Google Update is now Open Source. The article acknowledges the privacy and security concerns of an application that is always running in the background of your machine, and authorized to install new software. And Google made the logically obvious conclusion that releasing the source code would alleviate those concerns.

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Re:For the love of god by Jamie's+Nightmare · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a wild and crazy idea. You could disable the Google Updater Service via Control Panel\Administrative Tools\Services. I know.... I know.... radical, but it actually works. Imagine that.

    --
    "When you see a unixer brainwashed beyond saving, kick him out of the door." - Xah Lee
  2. Re:For the love of god by dfm3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google has already provided instructions on how to uninstall the updater.

    Of course, it will be reinstalled within a few hours if you run another Google program. On my Mac I just changed permissions on the /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate and ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate folders to 000, and Google Earth no longer reinstalls the updater or asks me to do so. I never gave GE my password. I'm not sure what the workaround is for Windows.

  3. Re:For the love of god by Perseid · · Score: 5, Informative

    And don't forget to turn off the scheduled event to turn the service back on. And don't forget to do it all over again every time you install/update anything by Google. Also, the instructions to kill it don't seem to be the same all the time. Maybe it depends on exactly what app you're installing. Maybe it's just Google trying to screw with my mind. Google Update needs to die.