Chrome 100% CPU usage, again - software_reporter_tool.exe

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?

Solution 1:

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.

Solution 2:

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

Solution 3:

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!