Java is constantly prompting users to upgrade and, when they do, it tries to install all sorts of other things which we must uninstall. Lately it installs a backup program called Carbonite.
We’ve banned Java unless the user has a specific reason why they need it. Those people are getting upgrade prompts with “ride along” software.
How can we stop this?
- What site is it contacting to see if there’s an upgrade? It should be easy to block that at the firewall. (We did the same thing with RealPlayer.)
- Is there a registry entry or group policy that can stop it?
To disable the auto-update notification you should be able to set the dword value at HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy\EnableJavaUpdate to 0 and HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy\NotifyInstall to 0.
Here is a fragment from on of my startup scripts.