How to permenantly disable the Java autoupdater

If you have a legacy application that requires a specific version of the Java RE, you need to disable the autoupdater but that alone is not enough as the java system tool bar will continue to nag about a newer version of java being available which is annoying as hell.

Sun Microsystems has instructions on how to disable the autoupdater here but it failes to prevent the system toolbar applet from nagging.

You could try creating a deployment.config file in the folder C:\Windows\Sun\Java\Deployment, which would contain the following line :

deployment.system.config=file\:C\:/WINDOWS/Sun/Java/Deployment/deployment.properties

and then create a new deployment.properties in the folder C:\Windows\Sun\Java\Deployment which would contain the following lines

deployment.javaws.autodownload=NEVER
deployment.javaws.autodownload.locked=

Local administrators will still be able to update via control panel, and will also be notified of available updates.

The easiest way to disable the updater is to rename the jucheck.exe and jusched.exe located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update or C:\Program Files\Common Files\Java\Java Update on a 32bit installation.

With these two programs gone java will not update and it also prevents a user, who may have local admin rights from updating Java.