The Software Reporter tool is a process that usually runs in the background along with Google Chrome. There’s an option to monitor its effects on the performance by using a Task Manager on a Windows PC. The process is related to an executable file (software_reporter_tool.exe) which comes with every Google Chrome installation.
Chrome has its own cleanup system, which it uses to deal with all sorts of malware and adware. For example, these could be modified startup pages and forced ads on the user’s homepage. The cleanup tool completely eliminates anything that is remotely messing around with the user’s browser.
Chrome Software Reporter tool
The tool operates by scanning the user’s PC drive at all times and sending that data to Google’s servers. The results of the scan are used to notify the user about the presence of any potentially harmful software in their system. Even though this sounds extremely beneficial to the user, there are several problems and inconveniences that could arise.
First of all, it could be slowing down the performance of your computer by overloading the memory as a background process. It affects both memory and CPU usage, and that increase is anywhere between 15% and 30%. Computers (especially those running on Windows) require all the available memory and CPU to work optimally. When they’re hindered by an additional process, the whole performance drops, causing inconvenience to the user.
Second of all, some people might regard the status report as an intrusion on privacy. People are quite paranoid nowadays with all these claims that most websites use their data for personal gain. That’s why many people are not content with the fact that their drive’s data gets uploaded to Google’s servers. However, Google addressed that issue by claiming that the software reporter tool only looks for Chrome-related data and nothing else.
How to disable the Software Reporter tool
People are growing rather suspicious of the software reporter tool which is why they’re looking for ways to block it. We’ll discuss this in the following section. However, keep in mind that blocking the tool might prevent Google Chrome from working properly. In addition, Google won’t be able to resolve and help the user with any potential problems. Instead of completely blocking the tool, why not just modify the permissions? We think that’s a better way of dealing with this situation, and it’s definitely safer.
There’s also an option to physically delete the Software Reporter tool files from the computer. However, that’s not a long-term solution because Google will add the tool again as soon as possible. In order to remove/modify permissions of the Software Reporter tool, the user needs to do the following.
- Right-click on the SwReporter folder and choose Properties.
- In the Security tab, the user should click on Advanced settings. Two boxes should appear.
- First, “Disable inheritance’’ needs to be turned off.
- Second, the user needs to select “remove all inherited permissions from this object’’
- The only thing left to do is to click apply and confirm the decision two times.
The Software Reporter tool won’t have access to anything anymore, and it won’t update itself. However, the users need to keep in mind that they might be at a disadvantage in case a third-party software attacks their Google Chrome if they do decide to disable it.