Software Reporter Tool in Chrome: what it was and why it’s gone

What the Software Reporter Tool was

Chromium’s own documentation describes two pieces. The Software Reporter looked for unwanted software (Google calls it UwS, such as programs that change your search engine or inject ads) but could not delete anything. If it found something, Chrome offered to download the separate Chrome Cleanup Tool, which removed the software only after you agreed. Many articles treat the two as the same thing; they weren’t.

Chrome delivered the reporter through its component updater, not as a Windows scheduled task. The files lived in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\<version>\, and Chromium’s source code set the gap between runs to seven days. Chrome itself started the scan, which is why it showed up in Task Manager while the browser was open. Users commonly reported high CPU or disk activity during a run, which is what led most people to search for it.

Google removed it in Chrome 111

On March 8, 2023, Google’s Security Blog announced that it would begin to turn down the Chrome Cleanup Tool starting in Chrome 111. Users could no longer start a scan from Safety Check or from Reset settings and clean up on Windows, and Chrome would stop the periodic background scan, which was the Software Reporter’s job. Google said only about 0.06% of scans in the most recent month had found known unwanted software, and pointed users to Safe Browsing and Enhanced protection instead.

A Chromium code change from January 2023 shows how this was done: Chrome stopped requesting the Software Reporter component as the first step of removing the whole feature. Two things follow from that:

• A current Chrome won’t fetch a new copy, so there’s nothing left to switch off.
• The change stopped new downloads; it doesn’t say anything about deleting files already on disk. A PC that had Chrome before 2023 may still have an old SwReporter folder. That’s our reading of the change, not something Google states.

The chrome://settings/cleanup page and the “Report details to Google” checkbox that many guides mention are also gone from current versions.

Seeing it running today? Check this first

Because current Chrome no longer runs it, a live software_reporter_tool.exe process is worth a closer look. There are two likely explanations:

• Chrome is very out of date. Open chrome://settings/help in the address bar to check the version and install updates. Anything below 111 is far behind on security fixes as well.
• The file isn’t Google’s. Malware sometimes borrows the name of a familiar process. Check the file as described below.

To see where the running copy lives, open Task Manager with Ctrl + Shift + Esc, go to the Details tab, right-click software_reporter_tool.exe and choose Open file location. If high CPU or disk use continues after it’s gone, see how to find what’s causing 100% disk usage or System interrupts high CPU.

How to check the file is genuine

The real file only ever lived in your profile’s Chrome folder:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\<version>\software_reporter_tool.exe

Right-click the file, choose Properties and open the Digital Signatures tab. The signer should be Google LLC (older builds may show Google Inc). You can also check from PowerShell; replace the path with the one you found:

Get-AuthenticodeSignature "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\<version>\software_reporter_tool.exe"

A Valid status with a Google signer means the file is genuine. Treat it as suspicious if:

• it’s in another folder, such as System32, Temp or AppData\Roaming;
• it has no Digital Signatures tab, or the status isn’t Valid;
• it keeps running even though Chrome is version 111 or later.

In any of those cases, run a full scan with Microsoft Defender before deleting anything. Our guide on how to scan for malware on Windows 11 and 10 covers the full and offline scans.

Remove a leftover SwReporter folder

If the file is genuine and Chrome is up to date, the old folder is just leftover data. Deleting it is safe because nothing in current Chrome uses it, and it shouldn’t come back since Chrome no longer requests the component. Before 2023, deleting it only worked until the next component update, which is why older guides call it temporary.

1. Close Chrome completely, including any icon in the notification area.
2. Press Win + R, paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter and press Enter.
3. Delete the version folders inside, or the whole SwReporter folder.
4. If Windows says a file is in use, end the process in Task Manager first, then try again.

If you previously removed the folder’s permissions to block the tool, you may get Access denied. Right-click the folder, choose Properties > Security > Advanced, select Enable inheritance, apply, and then delete it.

Old registry and Group Policy settings

The official way to control the feature was two Chrome policies, ChromeCleanupEnabled and ChromeCleanupReportingEnabled, usually set as DWORD values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome. Chromium’s policy definitions mark both as deprecated and list support for Chrome on Windows from version 68 to 118. They also applied only to PCs joined to a domain or managed by an organisation, so on many home PCs the registry tweak never did anything.

On a current Chrome these values have no effect. You can check what Chrome sees by opening chrome://policy. If either still shows up there on a home PC, you can delete the two values with Registry Editor. On a work PC, leave registry changes to IT, since the values may be pushed by a domain policy. Admins can remove the settings from the GPO in the Group Policy Management Console and update any security baseline that still checks for them.

Older disable tricks you no longer need

Guides written before 2023 suggest blocking the tool by removing inherited permissions on the SwReporter folder, emptying the .exe in Notepad, swapping it for another program, or adding an Image File Execution Options entry. None of these were official, and on current Chrome they solve a problem that no longer exists. The Image File Execution Options trick in particular can confuse later troubleshooting, so if you applied one, it’s tidier to undo it and delete the folder as described above.

Related guides

• How to Scan for Malware on Windows 11 and 10 (Free, Built-In Tools)
• 100% disk usage on Windows 11: how to find the cause and fix it
• System interrupts high CPU in Windows 11 and 10: what it is and how to fix it
• Group Policy Management Console on Windows 11: how to install and open it

Official sources

• Thank you and goodbye to the Chrome Cleanup Tool (Google Security Blog, March 2023)
• Chrome Cleanup Tool and Software Reporter (Chromium documentation)
• ChromeCleanupEnabled policy definition (Chromium source)