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Everything you should know about the Opera Browser Assistant

A lot of modern browsers come with extras these days: new tools, extensions, additional features, and more. Some of these are meant to collect diagnostics data while others ensure that pages load faster or keep the browser running in the background for a quicker launch.

The Opera browser is not an exception and offers a similar tool kit called Opera Browser Assistant. The assistant is automatically added when you install the Opera browser. It helps you simplify a number of browser operations. With that, however, it takes up quite a bit of resources. So, should one remove Opera Browser Assistant? This is what we will look into in this post.

What Is the Opera Browser Assistant?

The Opera Browser Assistant was launched about a year ago and is an official program made by Opera. The software is harmless and does not present any danger to your PC. It will automatically download as you acquire the browser from official sources. If you uninstall Opera, the assistant will be removed as well.

What does the Opera Browser Assistant do? The program is meant to make your work on the browser more efficient — and it does so in a variety of ways. However, if you check the Task Scheduler, you will see that it has a dedicated task related specifically to Opera’s assistant. It ensures that the Opera browser assistant stays updated to the latest version. It is named “Opera scheduled assistant Autoupdate 1584408358.”  It runs the following command:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Opera\launcher.exe –scheduledautoupdate –component-name=assistant –component-path=”C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Opera\assistant” $(Arg0)

What Opera has done with the introduction of the assistant is not particularly new — you can find similar tool kits on most browsers including Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Browser assistants preload webpages, ensure quick launches and more. However, there is also a possibility that these types of programs gather usage statistics (with the aim to improve your user experience with the browser) — if this raises your data privacy concerns, you may want to remove the Opera browser assistant from your system.

How to Disable the Opera Browser Assistant?

Unfortunately, the Opera browser doesn’t come with built-in settings that would allow you to disable the Browser Assistant. However, this can still be done.

There are two ways in which you can disable the Opera Browser Assistant. These are:

  • Disabling the tool from Startup
  • Removing or renaming Browser Assistant

Option One: Disable the Tool from Startup

Here’s how to disable the Opera Browser Assistant from Startup:

  • Right-click the Taskbar and select Task Manager.
  • In the Task Manager, go to the Startup tab
  • Right-click Opera Browser Assistant and disable it.
  • Once you have changed the tool’s status, it will no longer start when you boot your PC and it should not be taking up system resources. However, keep in mind that just because you have disabled the assistant from running on Startup does not mean that Opera cannot launch it independently. If the browser needs the assistant, the program will start.

Option Two: Remove or Rename Browser Assistant

Your second option is to delete the Opera Browser Assistant files from your PC. Here’s how:

  • Launch the Task Manager and navigate to the browser assistant program.
  • First, disable the tool from the Startup: right-click the Taskbar, select Task Manager, go to the Startup tab, right-click Opera Browser Assistant and disable it.
  • Then, right-click the Opera Browser Assistant and open the “Open the file location” context menu.
  • Here, you can choose to either rename or delete the file.
  • If, for some reason, you can’t delete the file, try rebooting your computer into Safe mode.
  • Once in Safe Mode, you should be able to easily rename or delete the file without any complications.

Unfortunately, there’s a catch. All of these methods are temporary. As soon as you update your Opera browser, the assistant program may get installed again and may also get enabled on Startup.

This is why it’s important to keep an eye on the tool’s status — especially after you’ve performed an update.

We hope that the instructions above have been helpful and you got to know more about the Opera Browser Assistant. Do you prefer to keep the program on your PC or remove it? Share in the comments below.

Just one more thing before you go. If you have started to notice that your system is not working as fast or as seamlessly as it used and you find yourself running into frequent errors and glitches on your PC, we recommend trying a performance-enhancing program like Auslogics BoostSpeed that will help keep your system in check. Once installed, the software will run a comprehensive scan of your system and locate any unneeded files (such as user temporary files, web browser cache, unused error logs, leftover Windows Update files, temporary Sun Java files, unneeded Microsoft Office cache and so on). They will then be safely removed from your system without causing any complications. This way, you will be freeing gigabytes of space on your computer and solving lots of errors and inconsistencies without overspending on expensive hardware upgrades.