Disable automatic updates

[Mike G.]

How can I prevent dropbox from automatically updating itself? The new dropbox 3 has a very anti-windows-7 UI that I don't like, so I reinstalled 2.10. How do I stop dropbox from continually installing v3?

[Fabrizio C.]

Hello Stefan F.

I have Windows XP Pro SP3 installed and Dropbox Dropbox 3.6.9 Offline Installer.exe installed.

I cannot find this path and this *.exe file on my win installation

"- Path : {YourPathToDropBox}\ .dropbox.cache\dropbox-upgrade-*.exe"

Can you please explain me how to stop auto updates ?

Thank you. Merci.

Fabrizio

[Peter S.15]

Hi Fabrizio

It took me a while to realize that {YourPathToDropBox} doesnt mean to the bin installation...it means the place where dropbox stores your stuff.  Lightbulb !

[Fabrizio C.]

Hi Peter.

Thank you for your answer.

I knew that was a path. As I said I can't apparently find in my Dropbox 3.4.6 fresh install over which I installed 3.6.9 an exe file bringing name "dropbox-upgrade-*.exe" or similar.

This is full search in my disk C: in  my Win XP Pro system with search string "dropbox" :

[Fabrizio C.]

Here I am again.

I uninstalled Dropbox from my system and deleted from disk any file reference to Dropbox but not my local files.

I installed Dropbox 3.6.9

I desabled two tasks :

C:\WINDOWS\Tasks\DropboxUpdateTaskMachineCore

C:\WINDOWS\Tasks\DropboxUpdateTaskMachineUA

I desabled two service in Win XP Services :

Servizio Aggiornamento Dropbox (dbupdate)

Servizio Aggiornamento Dropbox (dbupdatem)

I unticked in my Win XP registry  :

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current\Version\Run\Dropbox

Task Scheduler \ DropboxUpdateTaskMachineCore.job

I also added in secpol.msc 4 lines set as forbidden operations:

C:\Programmi\Dropbox\Update\1.3.27.29\DropboxUpdate.exe

C:\Programmi\Dropbox\Update\1.3.27.29\DropboxUpdateBroker.exe

C:\Programmi\Dropbox\Update\1.3.27.29\DropboxUpdateOnDemand.exe

C:\Programmi\Dropbox\Update\DropboxUpdate.exe

I hope this is enough to stop permanently Dropbox autoupdate which is messing up my system  with some new bugged crap versions which dont run in my Win XP Pro, such as the recent 3.8.5

Thanks to Stefan F. and sciensys .. for their suggestions.

[Stefan F.2]

Hi Fabrizio C.,

"dropbox-upgrade-*.exe" is not an existing file name, it is a wildcard matching all file names beginning with "dropbox-upgrade-" and ending with ".exe". This is to aim all versions setups (dropbox-upgrade-3.6.6.exe, dropbox-upgrade-2.9.1.exe...) which could be downloaded. You can't just browse your directories with secpol.msc, you have to actually type or copy/paste this.

And like _Peter S. _said, {YourPathToDropBox} isn't the installation path, but the data path you choosed when installing Dropbox and which appears in Preferences > Account.

Thanks to Kerio Personal Firewall, which was very helpful to find this *** path !

[Fabrizio C.]

Hi _Stefan F.
_

Thank you for your further explaination.

I have searched all my C: disk and I could'nt find any dropbox-upgrade-****.exe file anyway.

That's because before installing Dropbox 3.6.9 (I used Dropbox 3.6.9 Offline Installer.exe file to do that) I have cleaned all existing folders referring to Dropbox.

Thank you again.

[Frank Z.5]

Well the craziest part about this is that my update fails EVERY TIME.  I'd rather just block it!  I'll look at the security policy method...

[JOE K.17]

Has the other shoe dropped?  How often does it need it?

https://www.dropbox.com/help/9094

[Samuel L.4]

Disabling updates is crazy. Doing that makes you prone to security exploits, all at the cost of a "better UI."

You're better off sticking with updates, or move to another product.

[JOE K.17]

We're capable of installing updates manually. Automatic updates can cause problems in some situations that I won't regurgitate here.

DB isn't exactly dripping in security exploits, btw, is it?