Disabling auto updates, saving certificates, displaying full url and grouping tabs?
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lem729 last edited by
The more knowledgeable the person is, the less the burden of making the decision. For me, I see constant windows updates, browser updates (all of browsers) (Opera 20 and Opera 12.17 are my prime but I have all of the other major browsers on my computer -- Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome), I have 20 extensions alone :)in Opera 20 , almost as many in Firefox and Chrome (some even in Opera 12.16) (So let's say 60 in all) (wow, no way do I want to deal with all of the updates. I choose "automatic" in order to keep "sanity" and let the flood come and sweep me away if it will. I accept that. For others -- who limit the extensions they take (and the browsers they have on their computer) -- it might be relatively easy to make an instant decision and no big deal. The choice should be with the user. And those users who have the background and knowledge to exercise it well are the ones who ought to be most concerned about having the option. And as I indicated, occasionally I have in the past and might in the future -- if I had the choice -- opt to review an update. Finally, users who choose not to take an update may risk losing security protection -- even if only a week or two while they test the waters to see what people are saying about the update before making a decision on whether to install it.
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blackbird71 last edited byI certainly think the option ought to be with the user. If one has the option, I can think there are two views on whether to use auto-update. Quite frankly, I just have no time to manually deal with automatic updates across the board (and if I tried to (if I added this additional work to my life) I think I'd have a breakdown :). Further, even if I see the update sitting in my inbox (for my decision on installation or not), it would be hard for me to have any idea whether it is harmful or not. In most cases, if I have the choice, I will, therefore, hell be damned, auto-update. (And I believe, probably 95 percent or more of users would choose that course). I do it with Windows, with my browsers and with extensions. I have on occasion been burned
...I use my computers quite heavily, and I believe in being largely in control of them and what they do. One of the major problems with auto-updates is that they occur at a time of the software creator's choosing, not the user's. This is one of the key problems that eventually turned me from a "bold' user into an "old" (experienced) user. The last thing I want, right in the middle of an intensive or critical computer operation, is for a piece of unrelated software to decide to auto-update itself - particularly if that involves rebooting. In the same vein, I want to be there at the computer when updates do occur to observe if any hiccups happen, especially upon a reboot, so using a task scheduler to delay auto-update to the dead of night has its own associated problems (assuming the software even allows scheduling its update checks).
The other major problem, of course, is that updates sometimes break systems. Most of the time, I wait about 1-2 weeks after an update is issued to test the waters about early-updaters' experiences... that's what Google is for. I'd much rather be a little late to the party with updates than risk crashing my systems the day of release. In the case of Windows, for example, every 2nd/3rd patch Tuesday or so, there will be reports of some patch that causes various users certain sometimes-major problems, and these can be easily avoided when I manually update. This has saved me from literally dozens of hiccups over the years. Likewise for AV program major updates, and so on.
Obviously, other computer users may have different thoughts about this. But I'm where I am on this because of hard lessons learned over the years. The most important lesson being that I, as a user, am the one who pays the full price of lost time and data when a flawed update is auto-pushed my way and crashes my systems or files. I simply will not accept that risk, and I know many others feel the same way. After all, they are my computers, not the software makers', and I am responsible for and in control of what is done to them. So I watch the effects of updates on others before committing my systems (and resources) to them. Hence it is essential that all my software have some means of disabling forced updates; that, or I will either find an "unofficial" but effective way to block updates or else remove the software off my system. Software creators can notify me that updates exist, but they must let me choose when or even if I will allow the updates to occur.
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A Former User last edited by
You can also use an environment variable to make Opera auto-updates stop.
Go to Windows's System / Advanced System Settings, in the Advanced tab click the button to manage the Environment Variables and add one called "OPERA_AUTOUPDATE_DISABLED". Done.
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lem729 last edited by
@rafaelluik
Do you know if that would include automatic updates for extensions (both the Opera ones, and the chrome ones that work in Opera)?
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samkook last edited by
And which value do you put inside? Does it matter?
Edit: Putting the same thing inside does work at least so that's good.
It's less easy if we do want to update at some point than the command line switch, but it has the benefit of blocking updates however opera is opened. -
blackbird71 last edited by
You can also use an environment variable to make Opera auto-updates stop. ...
Thanks! That's one more tool for the toolchest...
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tzo2k15 last edited by
The problem with the disable option from a shortcut is that this option only works when using the shortcut. If you open Opera from an email web link or link form another program (such as Keypass)then update will be active.
Which is precisely the reason why I am so opposed to auto-updating schemes that can't be turned off by a user from within a program itself. There may be a hundred legitimate reasons why a user wants/needs to block updating, but there are dozens of ways around his blocking unless it's done within the program itself, by design. Probably the most assured method of blocking Blink Opera currently is to change the updater file extension to .xxx or something similar... but even that has some risks attached (a repair re-install, for example).
Yeah, well it seems all custom functions are getting phased out/changed without our input, even opera's very own help page has inaccurate information....That, and the DRM built into this browser hereby marks my departure, and deletion of this program...
I will, however still remain here to see if this browser is made in the future for the actual user base rather than for administrators/office managers, as I don't use this browser to surf the Internet at work..
So goodbye Neo-Chromium, hello Vivaldi as my actual Opera!
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starry001 last edited by
All this is great, but none of the suggested methods work in the MacOS version. Or if they do, I haven't figured it out yet.
I don't allow anything to auto-update, this is my machine, I will choose what to put on it, thank you. If I can't choose by official or unofficial methods, I won't use it.
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starry001 last edited by
I found a way to disable the auto-update feature in the MacOS version of Opera.
Go to the Applications folder and click on the Opera.app while simultaneously pressing the "Control" key you will get a pop up menu. From that menu, select "Show Package Contents" which should be your second option.
Then a window opens with a folder that says "Contents." Open that and then you will see a bunch of files and folders. Open the folder that is labeled "MacOS."
Inside you should find a set of "exec" files. There is one called "opera_autoupdate"
I renamed that to "opera_autoopdate," (just one letter wrong so I can change it back if doing so did something bad) and then closed everything and launched Opera as usual.
When I opened the opera://about page the app said it was checking for updates for about 5 minutes then displayed "An error occurred while checking for updates."
The app behaves normally in every other way.
So apparently I accidentally found the way to disable updates on the MacOS version of Opera. I was just fooling around and didn't think it would work, but it does.
Hopefully this will help others.
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starry001 last edited by
This is an three month old thread in the Windows forum. You must want to post in the Mac forum
I searched the site for help on disabling auto-updates, this is the thread I was sent to. I wasn't even aware there was any specification regarding OS, just a general discussion. I would have specified Mac OS in my search if I was provided the option to do so.
