Google’s Chrome OS operating system is kept as simple as possible and has an automatic update that always downloads and installs the latest version in the background – without the knowledge of the user. In fact, it wasn’t previously possible to stop these updates, but that’s about to change. A new flag indicates that automatic updates can be stopped manually.
Automatic updates are a great thing, at least for the mass of users. Android apps usually update in the background, Android downloads updates in the background, and Windows and Apple platforms do the same. All of these platforms allow automatic updates to be disabled permanently or at least temporarily, but this has not been the case with Chrome OS so far. But that will change soon.
A new flag has appeared, which cannot be used yet, but is already being prepared for its introduction. This should prevent automatic updates:
Allow Consumer Auto Update Toggle
Allow enabling the consumer auto-update toggle in settings
#consumer-auto-update-toggle-allowed
If users decide to do this, there will be a new setting option that will finally disable the updates (see screenshot below). If the switch is flipped, a warning message appears warning of possible safety hazards.
Turn off automatic updates?
Your device may no longer work properly, and you may experience security and performance issues.
There is only one switch that disables all updates. There is no technical separation between security update and version update and it would certainly not be expedient for a permanently activated switch. There are actually no real reasons for the permanent deactivation, at most a temporary stop when faulty updates have become known. However, Google itself will then stop the updates. And in the long run, there is no getting around updates.
Technically, the option to stop the updates has existed for a long time but was only offered in administrated environments. Admins could turn off updates on Chromebooks they oversee. It is not known why this is only now being introduced for all users. There has not yet been an official announcement apart from the developer sources. Apart from the admin interface, the update stop was only possible through offline use, which is of course pointless, especially with a Chromebook.