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software_reporter_tool.exe belonging to Chrome running at 100% cpu, fan full speed.

Deleting it doesn't fix anything, because it gets redownloaded again! Disabling "Protect me from bla bla" doesn't make it stop running.

Please anyone have any solutions?

Community
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waaaaaat
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5 Answers5

46

The Software Reporter Tool is found under the following path on Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows :

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\VERSION\software_reporter_tool.exe

While you can delete the content of the entire folder or rename this executable or destroy it in some way, this is only a temporary measure since it will return on the next update of the Chrome browser.

A better solution is to remove permissions so that no one may access the folder or run any program in it, as follows:

  • Right-click on the folder SwReporter and select Properties
  • Click on the Security tab
  • Click Advanced
  • Click on Disable inheritance and select Remove all inherited permissions from this object
  • Select Apply and when prompted click Yes.
  • Click OK and OK again

No group or user will now be able to access this folder, not even the administrators : The tool cannot be run anymore and updates cannot be applied to the folder.

If in the future you would like to undo the operation, enable inheritance again for the folder.

harrymc
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10

Another option is to disable it via group policy for the local machine. I like this option because I don't need to know my Chrome version or username.

I found a solution here.

Note: this is only "for Windows instances that are joined to a Microsoft® Active Directory® domain. or Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise instances that enrolled for device management."

Short version:

  1. Regedit, go here, go to

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome

  2. Create ChromeCleanupEnabled and ChromeCleanupReportingEnabled as DWord 32bit options, with a value of 0

  3. Kill the Software Reporting Tool via task manager, it won't come back

Community
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Kyle
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5

Sounds like group policy to the rescue.

You can use windows group policy to prevent certain applications from running.

Start -> run

gpedit.msc

In the MMC, navigate through: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System

In the right-side pane look for "Don’t run specified Windows applications". Double click it and set it to "enabled". I'm running win10 so I don't know how much different it's going to be on win7 but once enabled on my system there's a "show" button you can click to bring up the list of disallowed apps. Double click in the "value" area to edit and then type the name of your app "software_reporter_tool.exe" (without the quotes of course). I'm not sure if the GPO is applied right away or if a logout or reboot is needed. Try it and let me know how it works for you!

apocalysque
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3

According to the scans and analysis, software_reporter_tool.exe is a legit tool from Google (verified from its file properties and digital signature), so no scans will fix it.

Even-though there is/are a lot of fake/infected software_reporter_tool.exe(common infection name Sality), which lead to the strong assumption that the file is infected, the file residing on the OP's machine is clean.

Now, what's the purpose of `software_reporter_tool.exe`?<br>

This tools is probably related to resetting Chrome to factory defaults or removing the Chrome browser entirely.

You may be able to fix the problem by downloading and running the Software Removal Tool. Think of this as a “factory reset” of Chrome. It restores Chrome's original settings and removes programs that affect its behavior.

  1. You can uninstall SRT with Windows add/remove programs.
    Ref: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/bFhfVkR-ENo

Check in your appwiz.cpl if the software_reporter_tool or Chrome Cleanup Tool is listed there and uninstall it. That should make the problem disappear.

Please note that the file name and program name is different!
If the uninstall didn't help to fix the issue, its probably time to migrate to other browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Opera.

Why was it causing high CPU?<br>

May be because of some programmatic bugs in the tool.

Nikhil_CV
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2

This article would be help. Chrome Cleanup Tool a.k.a. Software Reporter Tool Running All the Time

Try to open software_reporter_tool.exe with text editor, then delete the contents and save it. Not delete the file itself, but the contents of the file. This will desable the function of software_reporter_tool.exe and it will never be shown up on process list.

The directory software_reporter_tool.exe located in is for my computer running Windows 7 is:

C:\Users\[USER NAME]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\4.30.1
Giacomo1968
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sam
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