Upgrade StorageZotero 8.0.2 (Upgraded from 8.0) installed as SYSTEM how to disable Auto Updater?
Hello,
Background:
We have been long term Zotero users (on Windows) since at least v5.0, Zotero software is installed onto a handful of our users devices and is installed as SYSTEM to ensure it has Admin rights during installation, we deploy all software to our users devices using Microsoft Intune.
As with most organisations that adhere to cyber security best practice; we do not allow users to install software themselves as a) we want to prevent malicious software being installed on our devices and b) our users (who do not hold admin rights) are also blocked from installing software.
Therefore, We maintain all software on our users devices, pushing out updates on a regular basis so the software versions are fully maintained centrally, which ensures consistent versioning across our estate and a better support offering.
We install Zotero using the 'undocumented' silent install advice, similar to this historic guidance here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/475345 to install the software unattended - Common practice when using Intune, SCCM or other software deployment plaforms.
N.B. It would be really helpful for admins who deploy Zotero to your users to include some instructions for silent / unattended installation on your installation page:
https://www.zotero.org/support/installation
We wrap the installer in the PowerShell App Deploy Toolkit (PSADT), so we can prompt users to close the Zotero app (and Microsoft Word) if they are running when the install commences so the install / upgrade can succeed without breaking an existing install.
FYI: There is an example PSADT script to do this here: https://silentinstallhq.com/zotero-install-and-uninstall-psadt-v4/
The Problem:
Since I have deployed the latest version of Zotero 8.0.2 to my test machine (which had previously had v8.0 installed), it is now displaying a User Account Control (UAC) prompt EVERY TIME I launch Zotero - possibly because Zotero had detected there was an update available when v8.0 was installed and queued it for install at next launch, but as I have now pushed the latest version to the machine, there is no update currently available. As our Users do not have admin rights (mentioned above) they will be unable to action this UAC prompt. Cancelling this prompt allows Zotero to launch, but this prompt will display again on every subsequent launch of Zotero.
Within the "Zotero Sotware Updater" UAC prompt, expanding the 'Show more details' link it displays:
Verified publisher: Corporation for Digital Scholarship
File origin: Hard drive on this computer
Program location: "C:\Program Files\Zotero\updater.exe" 3 C:\ProgramData\Zotero\updates\A88A7A0EE6B236CF\updates\0
"C:\Program Files\Zotero" "C:\Program Files\Zotero" second 10940 "C:\Program Files\Zotero" "C:\Program Files\Zotero\zotero.exe"
Requiring users to cancel this prompt every time is not something I wish to ask our users to perform. Instead I would like to know how we can disable the Zotero 'Auto-Update' feature entirely - Ideally you may be a ble to point me towards an undocumented installation switch that will allow us to disable this feature during installation (e.g. '/DISABLEUPDATER') or you can point me towards a registry setting or config file we can modify post install to turn this feature off?
If you could also document this somewhere with your Install instructions, as this may be useful information for other software administrators / Zotero users too.
N.B. Our devices are all running Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2 (64-bit), running the very latest Windows Updates
Thanks in advance.
Background:
We have been long term Zotero users (on Windows) since at least v5.0, Zotero software is installed onto a handful of our users devices and is installed as SYSTEM to ensure it has Admin rights during installation, we deploy all software to our users devices using Microsoft Intune.
As with most organisations that adhere to cyber security best practice; we do not allow users to install software themselves as a) we want to prevent malicious software being installed on our devices and b) our users (who do not hold admin rights) are also blocked from installing software.
Therefore, We maintain all software on our users devices, pushing out updates on a regular basis so the software versions are fully maintained centrally, which ensures consistent versioning across our estate and a better support offering.
We install Zotero using the 'undocumented' silent install advice, similar to this historic guidance here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/475345 to install the software unattended - Common practice when using Intune, SCCM or other software deployment plaforms.
N.B. It would be really helpful for admins who deploy Zotero to your users to include some instructions for silent / unattended installation on your installation page:
https://www.zotero.org/support/installation
We wrap the installer in the PowerShell App Deploy Toolkit (PSADT), so we can prompt users to close the Zotero app (and Microsoft Word) if they are running when the install commences so the install / upgrade can succeed without breaking an existing install.
FYI: There is an example PSADT script to do this here: https://silentinstallhq.com/zotero-install-and-uninstall-psadt-v4/
The Problem:
Since I have deployed the latest version of Zotero 8.0.2 to my test machine (which had previously had v8.0 installed), it is now displaying a User Account Control (UAC) prompt EVERY TIME I launch Zotero - possibly because Zotero had detected there was an update available when v8.0 was installed and queued it for install at next launch, but as I have now pushed the latest version to the machine, there is no update currently available. As our Users do not have admin rights (mentioned above) they will be unable to action this UAC prompt. Cancelling this prompt allows Zotero to launch, but this prompt will display again on every subsequent launch of Zotero.
Within the "Zotero Sotware Updater" UAC prompt, expanding the 'Show more details' link it displays:
Verified publisher: Corporation for Digital Scholarship
File origin: Hard drive on this computer
Program location: "C:\Program Files\Zotero\updater.exe" 3 C:\ProgramData\Zotero\updates\A88A7A0EE6B236CF\updates\0
"C:\Program Files\Zotero" "C:\Program Files\Zotero" second 10940 "C:\Program Files\Zotero" "C:\Program Files\Zotero\zotero.exe"
Requiring users to cancel this prompt every time is not something I wish to ask our users to perform. Instead I would like to know how we can disable the Zotero 'Auto-Update' feature entirely - Ideally you may be a ble to point me towards an undocumented installation switch that will allow us to disable this feature during installation (e.g. '/DISABLEUPDATER') or you can point me towards a registry setting or config file we can modify post install to turn this feature off?
If you could also document this somewhere with your Install instructions, as this may be useful information for other software administrators / Zotero users too.
N.B. Our devices are all running Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2 (64-bit), running the very latest Windows Updates
Thanks in advance.
https://mozilla.github.io/policy-templates/#disableappupdate
Creating a policies.json file in C:\Program Files\Zotero\distribution with DisableAppUpdate set to false seems to work for me. (It may still display a cached update once, but shouldn't after that.)
Creating a new folder "C:\Program Files\Zotero\distribution"
Creating a new (blank) policies.json file and adding the following content:
```
{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": false
}
}
```
Saving the file and then relaunching Zotero continues to show the UAC prompt EVERY time Zotero is launched.
But, If I cleared the Zotero update cache -
Delete everything below the "C:\ProgramData\Zotero\updates\" folder
Zotero now successfully launches again without the UAC prompt
Hopefully this extra info is something you can add to your Install guide or Knowledge Base?
Thanks again
Branching off of Adrian's OP, is there a way to configure Zotero to disable this auto-update feature via Intune distributions? After the recent update to 8.x a UAC prompt is being presented every time a member of my research team launches Zotero AND if they cancel through the prompt Zotero won't allow for citations in Word.
Like Adrian, none of our staff have local administrator rights.
Based on Adrian's findings above, it looks like the ONLY way (for now) to have 8.x stop prompting my staff for an update (they can't install) is to delete the contents of the C:\ProgramData\Zotero\updates\folder?