Manage GWMMO & GWSMO updates

Use an administrative template to install and define policies for Google Update. Microsoft Windows 7 and later supports both ADM and ADMX templates. Download the appropriate Google Update policy template for your Windows network:

Microsoft Windows XP:

1. Download the administrative template (ADM).
2. Copy the GoogleUpdate.adm file into the Policy Definitions folder. (Example: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions)
3. Open Group Policy and go to Computer ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative TemplateGoogleGoogle Update to verify that the template loaded correctly.

Microsoft Windows Vista and later:

1. Download and unzip the administrative template XML-based (ADMX).
2. Open the GoogleUpdateAdmx folder.
3. Copy google.admx and GoogleUpdate.admx and put them in your Policy Definitions folder. (Example: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions)
4. In the GoogleUpdateAdmx/en-US folder, copy the google.adml and GoogleUpdate.adml files and put them in the en-US folder in Policy Definitions. (Example: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US)
5. Open Group Policy and go to Computer ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative TemplateGoogleGoogle Update to verify that the template loaded correctly.

Using Group Policy

We recommend that you keep auto-updates turned on so that your users receive critical security fixes and new features as they become available.

In Group Policy (Computer or User Configuration folder):

1. Go to Google Google Update Applications.
2. Enable the Update policy override default policy.
3. Under Options, choose Always Allow Updates (recommended).
4. Go to Google Google Update Applications.
5. Select your app. 
6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make sure auto-updates are also always allowed.

You can optionally override this setting for an individual app by using the Update policy override policy in the specific app folder.

If a release causes an issue in your organization, you can turn off auto-updates until the issue is resolved. You can also turn off auto-updates if your organization wants to push updates manually.

Manage updates for the browser

In Group Policy (Computer or User Configuration folder):

1. Go to Google Google Update Applications.
2. Select your app. 
3. Enable Update policy override.
4. Under Options, choose Updates disabled.

You can prevent auto-updates from occurring during certain time periods, such as during your organization’s peak working hours.

Using Group Policy

In Group Policy (Computer or User Configuration folder):

1. Go to GoogleGoogle UpdatePreferences.
2. Enable Time period in each day to suppress auto-update check.
3. Under Options, set values for Hour, Min, and Duration to prevent Google Update from checking for updates during the time you specify.
   Note: Duration is the only required field, and you must enter at least 1.

You can prevent Windows computers from updating beyond a specific version of the app.

Using Group Policy

In Group Policy (Computer or User Configuration folder):

1. Go to Google Google Update Applications.
2.  Select your app. 
3. Enable Target Version Prefix Override.
4. Under Options, enter the release number of the latest version you want users to receive. For example, enter 4.0.16.0 to prevent updating past version 4.0.16.0.

You can delay auto-updates to help reduce peak bandwidth use within a network. However, to minimize the total bandwidth used for updates, we recommend that you don’t delay updates.

Using Group Policy

In Group Policy (Computer or User Configuration folder):

1. Go to Google Google Update Preferences.
2. Enable Auto-update check period override.
3. Under Options, in the Minutes between update checks box, enter a value between 1 and 43,200 to specify the number of minutes between updates.

Use Preferences policies to control the default behavior of Google Update.

Using Group Policy

In Group Policy (Computer or User Configuration folder):

1. Go to Google Google Update Preferences.
2. Turn on the policy and set the Options that will govern all the apps listed in Group Policy. (Examples below)
   Note: If conflicting policies are set at the app level, these policies can be overridden.

Applies to Google apps only.

Use app policies to control how Google Update interacts with some Google apps. Per-application policies override default policies.

Change default app policies

1. In Group Policy, go to GoogleGoogle UpdateApplications.
2. Open, turn on, and set the policy options for all apps (details below).

Change specific app policies

The Applications folder in Group Policy contains all the Google apps that use Google Update. You can set policies for specific apps.

1. In Group Policy, go to GoogleGoogle UpdateApplicationsapp name.
2. Turn on the policy that you want to change (details below).

If you have trouble with your updates, support might ask you to gather logs to troubleshoot the problem. To generate Google Update logs:

1. On your Windows computer, create a text file called GoogleUpdate.ini.
2. Save the file on the drive root, C:\.
3. Include the following content:
   [LoggingLevel]
LC_UTIL=6
LC_SERVICE=6
LC_CORE=6
LC_NET=6
LC_OPT=6
[LoggingSettings]
EnableLogging=1
ShowTime=1
LogToFile=1
AppendToFile=1
LogToStdOut=1
LogToOutputDebug=1
LogFilePath=GoogleUpdate.log
4. If the issue is with:
   • A new installation or a manual update (a manual installation of a new version)—Try the installation again.
   • An automatic update—Wait until the next auto-update attempt occurs (usually within a few hours, but this depends on Google's update policy for the latest version).

In C:\ProgramData\Google\Update\Log\GoogleUpdate.log, you should see a log file with details about attempted updates. See below for information about common log entries.

[Ignoring group policy][machine is not part of a domain]—Google Update does not believe your computer is joined to a Windows domain controller. Only domain-joined computers will honor policies set for the computer by Group Policy or the registry, such as disabling auto-updates.

[Send][url=https://tools.google.com/service/update2][request=>?xml...—Google Update sent a request to Google's servers to see if any updates are available. The request contains details, such as current app version and platform. Google's servers use the details to respond with the correct update.

[Send response received][result 0x0][status code 200][<?xml... ...status="noupdate"...—The update check was successful, but Google's servers have no updates that match the client's request.

[Send response received][result 0x0][status code 200][<?xml... ...<url codebase="...—The update check was successful and Google's servers recommended an updated version of the app. The response includes the updated version number as well as a number of URLs that the client can use to download the update binary.

The app sends requests to multiple URLs when it’s checking for and downloading updates. The order of requests is determined dynamically at runtime. Both HTTP and HTTPS protocols might be tried. The following URL list of hostnames and paths can change at any time without notice:

• google.com/dl/*
• dl.google.com/*
• google.com/dl/*
• *.gvt1.com
• tools.google.com/service/update2
• clients2.google.com
• update.googleapis.com/service/update2
• clients4.google.com

Note: Although caching the app to download on computers across your organization isn’t officially supported, you can use the first 2 HTTP URLs in the list to cache the update files for your organization.