If you install any of the Google Software in Mac it might behind the scenes install a program called Google Software Update.

This program from time to time checks for Software Updates and prompts the user to install them. Although this is a nice feature that helps to keep your software’s up-to date, I personally prefer to update manually.

Moreover the dialog (refer below) is annoying and appears time to time once you login into your mac computer.

Uninstall Google Software Update on Mac

The problem is there is no user-friendly way of uninstalling through an UI. But there is good news, thanks to the update program which by itself ships with a ksinstall command that comes to the rescue.

How to Uninstall Google Software Update Program?

Just open a terminal and run the following command (and it’ll completely remove the annoying software updater)

sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall –nuke

Note: Once you successfully run the above command, this won’t work anymore since the entire package including the command itself will be nuked.

Besides nuke (which removes entire update installation), there are also other options available that you may try. For e.g install, uninstall, etc.

To find usage and all supported options, just run the following

sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall

Here is the output and possible options for the above command

$ sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall
Password:
-[KeystoneInstallTool main] Google Software Update installer requires install, uninstall, or nuke.
-[KeystoneInstallTool usage] ksinstall:
[–install=PKG] Install keystone using PKG as the source.
[–uninstall] Remove Keystone program files but do NOT delete
the ticket store.
[–nuke] Remove Keystone and all tickets.
[–interval=N] Set installed agent to wake up every N seconds.
[–lockdown] Prevent Keystone from ever uninstalling itself.
[–force] Perform operation even if it is a downgrade.

Does this help to get rid of the annoying software updater? Share your thoughts below.