Disable auto update in ver 4.x for Windows

asked 2023-12-18 21:09:09 +0000

Mike69 gravatar image

  1. Installed 4.0.9 on Windows 10

  2. Changed gui.update.enabled to FALSE. Even after this, wireshark updated automatically to the current latest 4.2.0 after the interval specified in gui.update.interval elapsed. So it looks like setting gui.update.enabled to FALSE does not work.

Any other way to stop the automatic updates?

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Comments

There have been several reported instances of this behaviour, which isn't by design. Sometimes the culprit is external management software, do you run in such an environment

grahamb gravatar imagegrahamb ( 2023-12-19 08:16:49 +0000 )edit

no - this is a standalone laptop not linked to any corporate environment

Mike69 gravatar imageMike69 ( 2023-12-19 14:36:41 +0000 )edit

Not that it helps, but in our office managed by Intune, we have 58 instances of Wireshark installed and have to manually initiate every update. I would love to have auto-update.

grahamb gravatar imagegrahamb ( 2023-12-19 15:34:36 +0000 )edit

Everybody can have different requirements. In my line of work I use extensively custom dissectors and I was really unpleasantly surprised when the auto update upgraded my 4.0.9 version to the current 4.2.0 and as result I suddenly lost the ability use my dissectors because it turned out that in this version the developers decided to remove init.lua from the package without clear documentation how to proceed from there.

Mike69 gravatar imageMike69 ( 2023-12-19 15:50:40 +0000 )edit

The point I was (obliquely) making was that Wireshark does not, by design, auto-update. An update can be offered (if enabled) but still requires manual action to OK the update.

Yet, we have sporadic reports, such as yours, that an update "happens".

grahamb gravatar imagegrahamb ( 2023-12-19 16:36:21 +0000 )edit

Right. And the update happened in the background without any notification that it is performed. I started wireshark and noticed that it was upgraded without my knowledge. In general auto updates should be desirable but when developers make drastic changes to some components in newer versions, this is when such automatic updates are not very good. If I didn't figure out how to use my dissectors in 4.2.0 (thanks to the help from fellow posters here), it would have been a real pain to constantly downgrade wireshark every time it auto-updates itself in the background.

Mike69 gravatar imageMike69 ( 2023-12-19 16:50:06 +0000 )edit

Would it be possible to update the question with the output of wireshark -v or Help->About Wireshark:Wireshark.

Downloads (All Versions)

    Wireshark-win64-4.0.9.exe   2023-10-04 17:59    75M  
    Wireshark-win64-4.0.9.msi   2023-10-04 17:59    51M

When doing a manual install, do you use the .exe or the .msi?

Related issues:
Is there a way to automate updates on wireshark?
Still can't turn off auto-updates
How to disable auto update to v. 4.x.x

Chuckc gravatar imageChuckc ( 2023-12-19 18:43:55 +0000 )edit

When I installed 4.0.9, I used the .exe file. Currently I'm on 4.2.0 because it auto-updated and gui.update.enabled is still set to FALSE. We'll see what will happen when the next wireshark version is released.

Not sure if this is helpful but here is the "about" output from 4.2.0:

Version 4.2.0 (v4.2.0-0-g54eedfc63953).
Copyright 1998-2023 Gerald Combs <[email protected]> and contributors.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General ...
(more)
Mike69 gravatar imageMike69 ( 2023-12-19 20:17:52 +0000 )edit
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