Chrome Software Reporter tool is a feature that unfortunately often requires a lot of memory. For this reason, it may seem more of a burden than a tool. So what exactly is it and how can it be disabled?
What is Software Reporter and what is it for?
The Software Reporter tool, commonly known as the cleanup tool, is part of the Google Chrome installation. This feature is responsible for monitoring for malicious software or tools that affect normal Chrome processing. Software Reporter removes malicious software and reports the collected data to Google.
It’s a background process, so you don’t need to configure it for it to work. Simply by opening Chrome, you will get this utility up and running on your system. Google designed this program in an effort to minimize crashes and improve the user experience while using Google Chrome.
Chrome uses a lot of plugins, extensions, and processes just to provide the best user experience. While Software Reporter serves a useful purpose, you may not appreciate its resource consumption.
To give you an idea of how much it consumes, here is an image of Task Manager taken from a computer with 12 GB of RAM.
Before the Software Reporter tool was enabled, CPU, memory, and disk usage was low.
After enabling Software Reporter Tool and restarting Chrome, there was a sudden spike in resource usage.
This is one of the main drawbacks of Software Reporter Tool, as you may constantly experience a drop in your system performance.
Is it safe to disable Chrome’s Software Reporter tool?
You may already be wondering if it’s okay to turn it off. Many users choose to disable it despite Google’s recommendation to keep it active.
It is not recommended to disable Software Reporter unless absolutely necessary. Make sure your computer’s operating system and security settings are up to date. Similarly, you should also pay attention to potentially harmful websites and links so that you can keep yourself safe from viruses.
How to disable the Reporter software tool
Warning: You’re disabling a security feature, so only do this if you’re sure you want it and know how to stay safe without it.
This is the easiest way to disable Chrome’s Software Reporter tool. Google Chrome has settings that can be easily turned off to prevent background processes from running. To access this setting, follow the steps below.
Start Google Chrome. If you are not already on your desktop, you can search for “Google Chrome” or “Chrome” and click on it.
With Chrome already open, click the Customize button or the three dots in the upper right corner of the browser. Next, click on the “Settings” option to view the Google Chrome settings.
Find the “System” setting. You can do this in two ways: using the search box or opening the advanced section.
In the side navigation of the Chrome settings page, click the “Advanced” dropdown button to see additional menus. From here, click on the “System” option. In the “System” section, uncheck the option that says “Keep running apps in the background when Google Chrome is closed.”
After that, Chrome will automatically activate the changes, so you can exit the tab when you’re done. Now your system memory can finally take a break as it doesn’t continuously run Chrome processes even when Chrome is closed.
One downside of this method is that when you accidentally reset Chrome browser settings, the settings to enable background apps are re-enabled. You can disable it again, but it can be irritating to do so often. To avoid this future inconvenience, the following method is more permanent.
With the Software Reporter tool disabled, you can speed up Chrome even more by looking for resource-consuming extensions.
