[Fix] Opera Downloads and Fails to Upgrade to Version 96 on Windows 7 and 8.1

This article will help you in disabling automatic updates in Opera web browser and using the browser forever in unsupported Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.

Opera team has released Opera 96.0 version which comes with no support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. All Chromium-based web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Opera have stopped supporting Windows 7 and 8.1 OS and no new version updates of these web browsers will be released for these outdated operating systems.

Opera 96.0 version is the first version of Opera web browser which doesn’t support Windows 7 and 8.1 OS. Technically it should not arrive on Windows 7 and 8.1 devices and users should not be notified about this new version if they are using unsupported Windows versions.

But many Opera users are complaining that their browser is continuously detecting the newly released 96 version and downloading the update. After downloading, Opera asks to restart the browser.

Following screenshot shows Opera 96.0.4693.20 version detected and downloaded by Opera 95.0.4635.46 version on Windows 7 64-bit device:

Once the user restarts Opera, the browser still shows version 95.0 installed. After some time, Opera again detects the new version and the same process is followed. It happens when the user opens About Opera page.

It seems a bug which should be fixed by Opera team in coming days but in the mean time, you can force Opera to stop checking for new versions.

You can disable or block the automatic updates feature in Opera to prevent it from checking for new versions. It’ll stop Opera from detecting the new 96.0 version and it’ll never annoy you to install the new version which always fails to install as the version is not supported by these older Windows versions.

Long time back in 2016, we posted a tutorial to disable auto update feature in Opera which still works in latest Opera version and can be used to block automatic updates in Opera older versions and use them forever in Windows 7 or 8.1 operating systems.

If you also want to disable new version updates in your Opera browser and want to stop the constant checking and failed attempts to upgrade to 96.0 version in your Windows 7/8.1 device, following article will help you:

[Tip] How to Disable or Block Auto-Update Feature (Opera_AutoUpdate.exe) in Opera

You just need to delete a scheduled task of Opera auto-update and rename or delete Opera auto-update EXE file as mentioned in above article.

Once you disable automatic update in Opera, it’ll stop checking for new versions and the continuous loop of check and fail to new version will stop happening.

The browser will not be able to check for new version updates and will show error message “An error occurred while checking for updates”.

Now you’ll be able to use older version of Opera forever in your computer system.

Also Check:

What is Opera Browser Assistant? How to Disable or Remove it?

[Tip] Disable Opera Auto Run When Computer Starts