Opera Assistant is garbage.
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rastanz last edited byWhat is this mess? Installs itself in the notification area, slows down loading of Opera GX browser tiles.
Has over half a dozen incidents running in the background that causes browser delays and weird taskbar notification behavior.Complete garbage, when I removed it Opera went back to normal speeds and taskbar no longer glitching out. The entire Folder is 13MB of crap-ware.
Opera GX is better off without it.
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
If you use a standalone installation of Opera GX instead, the assistant won't be installed.
Or, you could use this method (for browser_assistant.exe instead of opera_gx_splash.exe) to block execution of the assistant. See https://forums.opera.com/post/409763 for more info.
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rastanz last edited by
@burnout426 Thanks for the suggestion about the stand alone version, not too familiar with that one so I'm curious if some of the features might not be available on it.
I'll probably just remove it manually as I have been doing as it's a good way to do a bit of clean up in the Opera folder which honestly ends up being quite a mess after every update.
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@rastanz The only catch with the standalone version is that you can’t set it as the default browser without extra work.
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rastanz last edited by
@burnout426 Probably a better solution rather than having to remove it every time Opera auto updates as it just did a few minutes ago and the assistant reinstalled itself.
There should be an option in the settings to remove or disable it from the notifications area but there isn't, so it's really annoying that I have to close it from the notifications area, disable it via the task manager then delete the folder manually from the Opera directory.
Simply removing it from the notifications area doesn't do much as it comes back on start up regardless of disabling it in the start up folder.
Devs! Make this an option because right about now, Microsoft Edge is looking real good.
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burytomorow last edited by burytomorowIt's an absolute red flag what this browser does. 100% with you on this one, OP.
On every update, it reinstalls the assistant - of course, without even telling you.
Not only that, it also re-enables its privileges to autostart on windows login, EVEN IF PREVIOUSLY DISABLED.
This is next-level intrusion. This browser used to be nice. Now it's getting insanely bloated and comes with free spyware.
I'll try that standalone install posted above. I wonder if updating it causes the assistant to install as well. And I'm not really sure on how to make it the default one.
If I fail, both Vivaldi and Brave are already installed. I'm just one click away from getting rid of this trash forever and never come back, as I did with Chrome.
Utterly tired of the enshittification of things.
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susanm last edited by@burnout426 true, but there is a tool named Portable Registrator (on Github) that handles the registry changes needed, it makes it easy.
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burytomorow last edited by
@dordob Nope. Today it has granted itself startup permissions without asking me. It was previously disabled.
Thank you for trying, but this is it. I'm trying a different browser. This, paired with the amount of useless, bloat-esque things that are getting aded to OGX, are enough red flags.
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johnymacclen last edited by
That re-enabling itself is exactly the frustrating part — disabling it once clearly is not enough if an update puts it back in Startup.
On your question about the standalone install: no, updating a standalone install should not bring the Assistant back. The Assistant is only bundled with the standard installer, which is why burnout426 suggested a standalone install in the first place. Its own updates update Opera itself; they do not re-run the standard installer.
So if you do try that route, install it standalone in its own folder and do not run the installer as administrator, then check Task Manager > Startup apps and Settings > Apps > Startup after the first update, just to confirm it has stayed off. The trade-off burnout426 mentioned still applies: a standalone install is not registered as the default browser, so you would need the Portable Registrator tool susanm mentioned if you want it as your default.
If you stay with the standard install instead, I would check Startup again after every Opera update, since that is when it seems to come back for you.
