To recap the steps required to disable Chrome auto updating are as follows:
1) Insure the following registry key exists and if it does not exist, create it:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google
2) Insure the following registry key exists and if it does not exist, create it:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update
3) Insure the AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes registry value exists with a value of zero under the previous key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update
The code to perform this is as follows:
[string] $softwarePolicyPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies'
[string] $googleKey = 'Google'
[string] $googleUpdateKey = 'Update'
[string] $autoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutesValueName =
'AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes'
[int] $autoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutesValue = 0# If you are using pre-PowerShell 6.0 use this line of code instead
# [string] $softwarePolicyGoogleUpdatePath =
# Join-Path `
# -Path $softwarePolicyPath `
# -ChildPath $googleKey
[string] $softwarePolicyGooglePath = Join-Path $softwarePolicyPath $googleKeyif (-not (Test-Path $softwarePolicyGooglePath)) {
Write-Host "Creating: $SoftwarePolicyGooglePath"
New-Item `
-Path $softwarePolicyPath `
-Name $googleKey | Out-Null
}# If you are using pre-PowerShell 6.0 use this line of code instead
# [string] $softwarePolicyGoogleUpdatePath =
# Join-Path `
# -Path $SoftwarePolicyGooglePath `
# -ChildPath $googleUpdateKey
[string] $softwarePolicyGoogleUpdatePath = Join-Path $softwarePolicyGooglePath $googleUpdateKeyif (-not (Test-Path $softwarePolicyGoogleUpdatePath)) {
Write-Host "Creating: $softwarePolicyGoogleUpdatePath"
New-Item `
-Path $softwarePolicyGooglePath `
-Name $googleUpdateKey | Out-Null
}# create or update
Set-ItemProperty `
-Path $softwarePolicyGoogleUpdatePath `
-Name $autoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutesValueName `
-Value $autoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutesValue
The Join-Path cmdlet shown above was reviewed in the previous post, PowerShell: Join-Path Joining Multiple Children.
The following cmdlets were used to access the registry and create the appropriate entities required to disable Chrome's auto update feature:
- Test-Path: tests is a registry key exists
- New-Item: creates a registry key
- Set-ItemProperty: update a registry value if the value already exists or creates a registry value of the value does not exist