After using Google Chrome for like about 10 minutes today, Symantec AV displayed a pop-up in the notification area with the text 'softwarereportertool.exe is safe'. I was not consciously downloading anything from the internet at the time and decided to take a look at the details of the notification.
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After using Google Chrome for like about 10 minutes today, Symantec AV displayed a pop-up in the notification area with the text 'software_reporter_tool.exe is safe'.
I was not consciously downloading anything from the internet at the time and decided to take a look at the details of the notification. It turns out that Google Chrome had downloaded an 854Kb executable named 'software_reporter_tool.exe':
I was not able to find much of any information on what this tool does.
Does it check what software I have installed and report that to Google?
Or something else?
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3 Answers
Autodesk inventor 2012 download. Taken from this forum:
Oh, I see - that is the .exe process for the software removal tool. This is a safe file.
You can simply remove the SRT app from your computer if you'd no longer like to use it. However, it is the most affective way so far to combat malicious redirection Malware in Chrome.
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AnonAnon
The link provided in @Anon 's answer is useful but doesn't really say much about why a web browser scans the user's hard drive in folders that have nothing to do with Chrome, and taking up CPU and battery resources in the process.
They provide a bit more detailed sentence here:
It runs in the background checking for the malicious software and alerting you to run the clean up tool to remove it
Still it doesn't give out much information about how and why that program is there or how to avoid having it scanning your hard drive. So I wouldn't consider it safe, only because it comes from the vendor.
golimargolimar
Uninstalling or deleting or renaming the file will not work because it will simply come back when Chrome is updated. But it can easily be disabled as shown in the following link..
Engineer10388Engineer10388
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by Martin Brinkmann on January 20, 2018 in Google Chrome - Last Update: June 21, 2019 - 121 comments
If you run Google Chrome on a Windows PC and monitor processes that run on the machine, you may notice the Software Reporter Tool process eventually.
Software Reporter Tool, the executable file is software_reporter_tool.exe, is a tool that Google distributes with the Google Chrome web browser.
It is part of the Chrome Cleanup Tool which in turn may remove software that causes issues with Chrome. Google mentions crashes, modified startup or new tab pages, or unexpected advertisement specifically. Anything that interferes with a user's browsing experience may be removed by the tool.
Chrome Software Reporter ToolSoftware Reporter Tool High Disk Usage 100%
The Software Reporter Tool scans the computer's drive and reports these scans to Google. Google Chrome uses the scan results to determine whether it should prompt the user to remove unwanted software from the computer as it impacts the browsing experience.
Google Chrome users may have two main issues with the Software Reporter Tool:
A Google community specialist mentioned that the tool scans folders related to Chrome only, but its scope is not exposed to the user in any way.
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You find the Software Reporter Tool under the following path on Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows: C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataSwReporterVERSIONsoftware_reporter_tool.exe
The Version changes regularly, it was 24.137.203 when this article was published initially, and 42.206.200.3 at the time it was updated.
Block the Software Reporter Tool
Note: Blocking access to the program may prevent Google from removing problematic software from the system or informing you about it. You may use other software, antivirus software for instance, to remove threats or potentially unwanted programs from the system.
While you can delete the content of the entire folder or rename the executable file itself, doing so offers a temporary recourse only as Google will push the Software Reporter Tool to the system again when the web browser is updated.
A better option is to remove permissions so that no user (or Google) may access the folder or run the Software Reporter Tool.
No group or user should have access anymore to the Software Reporter Tool.
The advantage of this method is that the tool cannot be run anymore and that updates cannot be applied to it anymore either as long as its folder or names don't change.
Using Chrome Policies
Google introduced support for policies that administrators may use to configure certain Chrome features; one of the available policies manages the Software Reporter Tool of the browser.
ChromeCleanupEnabled's value determines whether the Software Reporter Tool may run on the system.
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ChromeCleanupReportingEnabled's value determines whether the results are reported to Google.
Closing Words
Unless you run into problematic third-party software regularly that interferes with Chrome, you may not need the Software Reporter Tool. Its disadvantages, high CPU load or privacy implications, may be reason enough to block it from running.
Now You: How do you handle the Chrome tool?
Related articles
How to block the Chrome Software Reporter Tool (software_reporter_tool.exe)
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If you run Google Chrome on a Windows PC and monitor processes that run on the machine, you may notice the Software Reporter Tool process eventually and may have asked yourself why it uses this much CPU or what it is all about.
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