Opera is now at version 38, but Opera's changelog page only goes to Opera 37, even though 38 has had several changes. The changelogs show a lot of issues with ad blocking, introduced with Opera 37

http://www.opera.com/docs/history/

so I decided to go with Opera 36 for now, but actually finding where to get older versions took a little digging

http://www.opera.com/download/guide/?os=windows&list=all

Hopefully Opera hasn't changed the autoupdate file layout. Here goes nothing.

@donq
The environment variable effectively adds that switch to launcher.exe, as indicated by the ..open/command registry key in my Feb 28 post. Unfortunately, it only works to delay updates.

IIRC shell open command registry key is not used, when launching Opera by shortcut. shell open command is used when you launch url (internet shortcut) or htm(l) page or similar - any registered document through shell (explorer) interface.

Well, I have not experimented myself and cannot be 100% sure.

No recent alterations except a sinister looking file named debug.log dated yesterday

[0227/235136:FATAL:launcher.cc(317)] Failed running the autoupdate client
[0228/235136:FATAL:launcher.cc(317)] Failed running the autoupdate client
[0229/235136:FATAL:launcher.cc(317)] Failed running the autoupdate client
[0301/235136:FATAL:launcher.cc(317)] Failed running the autoupdate client
[0302/235138:FATAL:launcher.cc(317)] Failed running the autoupdate client

All dates from when I renamed the autoupdate files. Yay!?

So now maybe I ask "Is there an update and is this actually an improvement?" on my terms rather than Opera's.

@donq

The environment variable effectively adds that switch to launcher.exe, as indicated by the ..open/command registry key in my Feb 28 post. Unfortunately, it only works to delay updates.

Like this:)

Noticed this yesterday.

The root Opera program folder didn't have any obvious configuration files except for a file named installation_status.xml, the first line of which is

install_log version="35.0.2066.82" copy_only="False" all_users="True" pinned="False" app_id="1445376192" ... path subfolder="35.0.2066.82"

So Opera does an incremental update that overrides the disabled auto-update, since another line of the XML has a registry entry

key path="Software\Classes\OperaStable\shell\open\command" clean="2" ... value name="" type="REG_SZ">"C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera32\Launcher.exe" -noautoupdate -- "%1"

as well as a list of Opera program files that includes

opera_autoupdate.exe

opera_autoupdate.licenses

opera_autoupdate.version

Opera runs using files in a subdirectory named after the currently installed version and then "hands off" to the next version in the update "pipeline" after some programmed interval.

Took no chances and renamed all of the autoupdate.* files in both the 35.0.2066.68 and 35.0.2066.82 folders. No issues except for Opera appearing to stall momentarily during start-up after the autoupdate files were renamed.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to stop Opera updating yet again, since "About Opera" now reports version 35.0.2066.82. Once a new version folder is created there is no way to keep Opera from using it as the new installation, which probably explains the hitch when I restarted.

And there appear to be issues (or at least unfixed bugs) with the 35.0.2066.82 version being reported in other Opera Forums threads. Great. The other reason I want control over updates.

Now a waiting game to see if the renames stop new versions from eating into my data allotment.

I noticed that my version had been updated in the background yet again even though the environment variable setting has update checking disabled. I started a thread specifically for keeping track of this. At that time "About Opera" reported

Version: 35.0.2066.37 - Update checker is disabled

even though the current version was 35.0.2066.68, so the environment variable setting was definitely working, but some other process is circumventing this, because checking today I have

Version: 35.0.2066.68 - Update checker is disabled

And it only gets worse, because checking the Opera program folder revealed a 35.0.2066.82 folder dated 2/25/2016. At 124 MB this is not cool since I'm on a metered connection now.

The program folder contents don't reveal anything that can be disabled/deleted to stop this.

I'm out of ideas on how to stop this. Might have to try emailing Opera directly.

This makes it even more awful that Opera doesn't contain a related option. Whatever.

I agree that this should be a choice, especially now that I have a very limited wireless internet connection. I have to buy fairly expensive data packs for any major installs.

Also helps to know that I have a new version when reporting apparent bugs.

The best way to block this seems to be the Windows environment variable technique

"You can also set the environment variable OPERA_AUTOUPDATE_DISABLED. This works on all platforms." [my emphasis]

From @avl in How to disable Auto-Update in the MacOS version, for those who need that. - Opera for Mac forums

Also in How to disable automatic updates in Opera? - superuser.com

There was a little confusion with other sources about having to assign a value with "= 1", but both of these recent sources indicate that one simply creates the environment variable without setting a value.

PS
Learned the hard way that underscore characters have to be preceded with backslashes in order to be visible in post comments Avoid common Markdown problems - Opera forums Help

I find it funny that, every time theres a new Opera releases, we get a half dozen people complaining about the auto update updating their Opera and another half dozen people complaining that the auto update isn't updating their Opera...

I find it normal instead. The first group is the people who would keep the autoupdate option set to "notify me that an update is available", the second group is the people who would keep the autoupdate option set to "update automatically". It's not surprising that some people prefer it in one way and other people prefer it in the other way.

BTW, for the record, I did not complain that my Opera autoupdated but that they removed the option for the user to decide when to update. I always update to the latest version (unless there are known issues with a certain version), I just want to be free to do it when I decide to.

Back to my point, I was not criticizing doing auto-update without asking. If the user leaves that setting on, good for him/her. I am criticizing not providing options to at least decide when to update (also not even informing the user that a new version is now in his/her computer, but this is just bad taste while the lack of an option has very practical ramifications).

In some cases, you can disable auto-update in the settings...

By saying that, you are saying that in all the other cases the user cannot even disable auto-update. I only encountered such behaviour in Opera so far (certainly not in Flash nor Skype). Can you mention which other products you are talking about that behave like Opera ?

Even they do know that. Through a simple option and not through a hack, you can set Windows Update to inform you when there is an update and let you decide when to install it. And that goes for absolutely any Microsoft product I ever used so far, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. It's true that Microsoft seems to be going to that direction starting from Windows 10, but still with related options available in the product itself, and in a very mild way compared to the severity of a complete lack of options in the product and zero information that an update took place.

I don't know if they changed something but i remember have read some news that they will start forcing autoupdate on Windows 10 depending on your "flavor" of it.

It's the default option btw.

I guess it will be the default behavior in the future. Software houses prefer people using newest versions since users with old ones may cost them money.

Don't tell Microsoft about that.

Even they do know that. Through a simple option and not through a hack, you can set Windows Update to inform you when there is an update and let you decide when to install it. And that goes for absolutely any Microsoft product I ever used so far, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. It's true that Microsoft seems to be going to that direction starting from Windows 10, but still with related options available in the product itself, and in a very mild way compared to the severity of a complete lack of options in the product and zero information that an update took place.

Forcing users to update and removing the possibility for them to decide when to update (f.ex. what about "not when I'm on a slow or expensive connection" or "not now that I'm in a hurry" or "not to that new version that my video driver is known to have an issue with" and so on ?) is a surprisingly fascist attitude, especially because this is done silently so most users won't even find out unless they routinely check the version. I thought this kind of mindset didn't belong in Opera. Even Windows 10 allows to prevent automatic download of updates on a connection basis, and it lets the user decide on which connections.

I have never had on any of my computers any single product that behaves like Opera in this regard. Actually I would be interested to know other products that do that.

davidr, thanks for the link; luckily I'm not a non-technical user so I can do that quite safely.

Google update plugin is unrelated to Opera autoupdate.

I edited my post after a minute (and you just answered after 5 min), but I mean - it's the same behavior

And yes, Opera autoupdates itself since a long time.
You can avoid it by renaming or deleting the autoupdate executable or by blocking its acess to the internet or by removing the autoupdate task.

Specific instructions in this post: https://forums.opera.com/post/86035.

Updating without user consent and without even informing the user afterwards is completely unacceptable and unheard of, so I don't think it works like that.

Don't tell Microsoft about that.

And yes, Opera autoupdates itself since a long time.
You can avoid it by renaming or deleting the autoupdate executable or by blocking its acess to the internet or by removing the autoupdate task.

In fact I'm sure that a few versions ago I could go to the About Opera page, see the current version, be told if a new version was available, and click an "Update Opera" button if I wanted to update to that version.

Last Opera with such behavior was probably 12.17.

tupac67, it is how all chromium-browsers updates works...
you can disable update - opera://plugins/ (google update)

Google update plugin is unrelated to Opera autoupdate.

In fact I'm sure that a few versions ago I could go to the About Opera page, see the current version, be told if a new version was available, and click an "Update Opera" button if I wanted to update to that version.

So there is really no normal / "conformist" way to disable automatic updates, or at least to get Opera to ask for user consent ? It can only be done by hacking into some files / folders ?

I realized the new behavior just because the Opera icon on the desktop suddenly looked different...

They changed it just recently.

As far as I know, all nuOpera (Opera since v.15) upgrades automatically - unless the user undertakes special non-conformist steps (meddling with files in the Opera folders etc.).