When you install Chrome, Software_reporter_tool.exe also gets downloaded and will be visible in Chrome app data folder under SwReporter folder, and can be reached by running this command from the Run dialog: %localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter.

No, you don’t need to worry about this as this component is digitally signed by Google has a description Chrome Cleanup Tool when you check its properties.

Software Reporter Tool and Chrome Cleanup tool, what the difference between them?

FYI, to find and remove programs that cause trouble to Chrome, Google developed standalone Chrome Cleanup Tool (formerly known as Software Removal Tool) for Windows, this has been discontinued, no longer available for download.

Role of SRT/ what does it actually do?: Yes! Both Software Reporter Tool and Chrome Cleanup tool are same. But the former one installed with Google browser and resides in Chrome app data folder has a different task do.

According to Google, this tool runs once a week, doesn’t have network communication, lets Chrome know about the scan results. To elaborate, it reports about unwanted software detection to Chrome so that it prompts user to run Chrome Cleanup tool.

Google employee said this as a reply to a user reported in a forum thread when asked Chrome cleanup tool installed automatically without his consent:

“software_reporter_tool.exe is an executable that is signed by Google and downloaded as a component under Chrome’s application data folder. It is used to report whether unwanted software is present on the computer so that Chrome can prompt the user to run the Chrome Cleanup Tool (which used to be named Software Removal Tool, aka SRT).”

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“Note that the reporter doesn’t have any network communication. It just lets Chrome know about the results of the scan. For Chrome users that opted-into metrics reporting, some of these results will be included in the metrics sent back to Google.”

You may want to check the information sent by Chrome Cleanup tool to Google, to see that, when the tool is running click on ‘information about your computer’ (check the above screenshot), which opens the log file. FYI, you can find the Chrome Cleanup Tool log file here :%localappdata%\Google\Chrome Cleanup Tool.

Update: Now that Google has added Chrome Cleanup tool to Chrome Settings, which you can find in Advanced Settings > Reset and Cleanup > Cleanup computer,

You may want to disable the ‘Report details to Google’ option.

Search giant updates the Chrome Cleanup Tool’s unwanted software database regularly, you can know which programs does the tool can remove here.

Now read How to block or disable Google Chrome’s Software Reporter tool

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