Bitwarden Password Manager

Bitwarden is a fantastic password manager for personal and business environements; the ability to share passwords with other employees/groups, and also send self destructing notes is so much more secure than sticky notes / printouts / sharing credentials over chat platforms.

Disabling Auto Updates Nag:

• On Startup, Bitwarden will show a popup prompting users to install an update if there is one available, but to actually install the update the user needs admin privilages.
• This is a useless nag that cannot be disabled any doesn’t provide any benefit at all when Bitwarden is installed/automatically pushed out through Chocolatey.
• The below workaround disables the ability for Bitwarden to auto download updates itself, which will also ensure the “install update” popup will not appear anymore.
• This workaround is automatically put into place whenever Bitwarden is installed through the Windows Toolbox Setup Script

Windows [Source]

Delete (if exists) the following folder
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\bitwarden-updater

Then re-create it as a write-protected empty file instead.
Now Bitwarden won't be able to update itself.

Automatically using powershell:

# Get the current user's username
$username = [Environment]::UserName

# Define the folder path to delete/recreate
$folderPath = "C:\Users\$username\AppData\Local\bitwarden-updater"

# Check if the folder exists
if (Test-Path -Path $folderPath) {
    # Delete the folder if it exists
    Remove-Item -Path $folderPath -Recurse -Force
}

# Create the folder as a write-protected empty file
New-Item -Path $folderPath -ItemType File -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path $folderPath -Name IsReadOnly -Value $true

Last updated on August 16, 2024. For any questions/feedback, email me at blog@zinchuk.xyz.