For me the correct way should be:

add " --disable-update"(No quote's, note the space)
to the target path of your shortcut

Ah, when that's all there is to it im fine with it, Opera must get revenue's somewhere keeping the software free.

I was afraid some of the extensions forced speeddail entry's in, that would be another ballgame.

Thanks for the clear answer, sgunhouse.

Using Opera Portable 39.0.2256.48 (Dutch)on several systems.
On all systems a http://www.Groupon.nl entry(Internet shortcut) appeared in Opera speeddial since last week.
When deleted i did not return sofar.

That it's possible to force spam/shortcuts into my speeddail is a serious security problem.

Win 7x 64
v.39.0.2256.48
Extensions:
Adblock
History Eraser
Ghostery
Tunnelbear
I don't care about cookies
Magic actions for Youtube

Yes, those are well, quite obvious and valid reasons.

Bottom line is the objective to serve the largest group of users.
More experienced users might stumble over these things more then them.

So in the advanced/power users settings section then for instance, i would vote for that.

Having said that - i do update manually and having portable makes backuping the whole lot a wink of an eye ofcourse.
So its not a specific problem for me, but i was just querious.

There are more sides to this discussion obviously then i anticipated.
Interesting nevertheless.

Agree Leo, that's the downside of the shortcut method.

Im using portable(not set as default browser) - so i don't know if for instance if you start from a email-link (having opera set as default browser) if upgrade is executed, im guessing it is, proving your point.

Then would be the question if opera's default startup behaviour can be altered,(with parameters). never checked that.

With the perspective that altering the exe filename, with effective the exe "cannot be found", is not the finest way preventing the update.

Then again.. im again baffeled that such an high end browser as Opera does not have a update toggle, be it in the advanced section or so. That can't be that hard to implement i should guess.

Not hijacking this topic,just discussing in between:

The OP's qeustion was "can someone tell me how do I prevent Opera from auto update"

For me the correct way should be:

add " --disable-update"(No quote's, note the space)
to the target path of your shortcut

Suddenly(?) all (available at opera extensions online!) themes are loaded/preview in the settings page, instead of the theme's previously installed.

I don't want/like to choose from those hundreds of themes at the settings page, just from my installed ones.

v 39.0.2256.48 (Portable)
Dutch
win7x64

Dutch/The Netherlands, same here but a Groupon button, already set to my province.

Two different systems occured Yesterday.

Only Opera used.

Version 39.0.2256.48

Win7 64

If an Opera initiative.. well must be i think, that would be a bad thing Opera dev´s should know better.

Hi lando242,

Aha! That's great, thanks for your info!

v34.0.2036.25

Hi,

The bookmarks (manager?)page has a navigate entry called "Other speeddialers"
(In Dutch it says "Andere snelkiezers" so im assuming it says "Other Speedialers" in English )

It seems i cannot do anything with that screen, like f.i. create a new speeddialerinstance, or drag and drop or add a bookmark?

Regards.

Great, thanks for the input.

It made me analyse several options.

Not as straight forward as i had expected.
(And more so primarily expected from Opera's ease of config)

In short i chose to junction the Opera dir in Program files(x86) to a portable (usb) install on the secondary partition.

Cleaned up the now obsolete conventional install Opera residu, but leaving the Windows (7x64) assets beeing the default browser setting and more.

There are several reasons for this approach. If one's interested we could eleborate on this, but for now im setting my issue as solved, and testing daily functionality.

Sofar the results are oke.

Thanks for the fast reply's!