{"id":2960,"date":"2017-02-10T17:52:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T01:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=2960"},"modified":"2022-03-27T23:54:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T06:54:00","slug":"disable-mt4-auto-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/disable-mt4-auto-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Disable Automatic Updates when Running MT4 as a Windows Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-lazy-load\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/metatrader4.webp\" title=\"MetaTrader 4 (MT4)\" alt=\"MetaTrader 4 (MT4)\" width=\"560\" height=\"327\" border=\"0\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metatrader4.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MetaTrader 4<\/a> (affectionately called MT4) is a very popular Forex trading platform. Several of our customers run the <a href=\"\/products\/AlwaysUp\/Apps\/RunMetaTrader4AsAService.html\">MT4 client as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp<\/a>, ensuring that their trading platform operates continuously during trading hours.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Automatic Updates can cause Trouble!<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>MetaTrader will automatically update itself on your PC whenever the folks at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metaquotes.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MetaQuotes Software<\/a> produce a new and improved version. This is a great feature when you start and run MT4 normally on your desktop, but the situation is a bit more complicated when MT4 is launched unattended in the background by software like AlwaysUp.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>What happens if there is a problem updating and MT4 becomes corrupted?<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>Or suppose the update happens at an inconvenient time and causes you to miss an important trade?<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>Or maybe you&#8217;ve heard some horror stories about the new version and you want to stick with what you already have!<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For these and other reasons, uncontrolled updates should be viewed with suspicion in your 24&#215;7 environment. As the saying goes, &#8220;if it ain&#8217;t broke, don&#8217;t fix it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Disable Auto-Updates when Starting MT4 from AlwaysUp<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Fortunately there is an easy way to prevent MetaTrader from automatically updating itself. Simply invoke it with the &#8220;\/skipupdate&#8221; command line parameter.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve that in AlwaysUp:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p>Open your MT4 application settings in AlwaysUp (by double-clicking on the entry or selecting <b>Application &gt; Edit<\/b> from the menu).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>On the <b>General<\/b> tab, in the <b>Arguments<\/b> field, enter <b>\/skipupdate<\/b>:<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/images\/mt4-add-skipupdate-parameter.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" rel=\"zoomgroup noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Add the \/skipupdate Parameter\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/mt4-add-skipupdate-parameter.png\" title=\"Add the \/skipupdate Parameter (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Add the \/skipupdate Parameter\" width=\"425\" height=\"604\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Save your settings.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>That&#8217;s it. Next time AlwaysUp starts MT4, it will no longer attempt an update.<\/p>\n<p>Now don&#8217;t forget to update MT4 manually every now and then &#8212; but at an appropriate time when the markets are closed.<\/p>\n<p>Happy trading!<\/p>\n<!-- relpost-thumb-wrapper --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-wrapper\"><!-- filter-class --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-container\"><style>.relpost-block-single-image, .relpost-post-image { margin-bottom: 10px; }<\/style><h3>You may also like...<\/h3><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><!-- relpost-block-container --><div class=\"relpost-block-container relpost-block-column-layout\" style=\"--relposth-columns: 3;--relposth-columns_t: 2; --relposth-columns_m: 2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/dropbox-software\/how-to-fix-opengl-problem\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Start Dropbox whenever your PC boots\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dropbox-logo2-150x150.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">How to Fix the &quot;OpenGL&quot; Problem when Running Dropbox as a Windows Service<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/close-dialog-boxes-nircmd\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Q&amp;A: Can AlwaysUp Close Dialog Boxes From My Application?\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dismiss-dialog-boxes-150x150-1.webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Q&amp;A: Can AlwaysUp Close Dialog Boxes From My Application?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/customers\/visual-approvals-alwaysup\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Visual Approvals Relies on AlwaysUp to Run Dropbox and OneDrive 24\/7\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/visual-approvals-150x150-1.webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Visual Approvals Relies on AlwaysUp to Run Dropbox and OneDrive 24\/7<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><!-- close relpost-block-container --><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><\/div><!-- close filter class --><\/div><!-- close relpost-thumb-wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MetaTrader 4 (affectionately called MT4) is a very popular Forex trading platform. Several of our customers run the MT4 client as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp, ensuring that their trading platform operates continuously during trading hours. Automatic Updates can cause &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/disable-mt4-auto-updates\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,34,105],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alwaysup","tag-alwaysup-tag","tag-auto-updates","tag-mt4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11093,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions\/11093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}