the acwebbrowser saga -- a solution & and lighten Acad-2017 install by 2.4gb

[Anonymous]

A saga as no-one seems to be able to come up with a solution -- as to [1] why acwebrowser and Acwebrowser are necessary, what do they actually do and [2] how to disable them. I have managed to get my "Acwebrowser.exe" and "acwebrowser.exe" down from seven running processes to just two. In this post i will also tell how i have reduced the install size of my Autocad architecture from 4.5~ to 2.1gb~... !!!!!! NOTE i have disabled info-center in the registry, and did not install Autocad 'desktop app' or 'Autodesk 360'

My method is a little brutal, and may require some trial and error depending on install and user.

In autocad Architecture 2017, There are two 'ACWEBBROWSER.EXE' EXECUTABLES:

I will refer to them as "Acwebrowser.exe" and "acwebrowser.exe".

"Acwebrowser.exe" can be found in the "program files\autocad~\Acad2017~\Acwebbrowser" folder. [the path may differ depending on installation]. 

"acwebrowser.exe" is best found by opening task manager and right click+select  'show process' and in the 'process tab' right click+select "open file location"

[1] why "Acwebrowser.exe" and "acwebrowser.exe". are necessary?

answer:

a]   "acwebrowser.exe". seems to be a 'general' gui program, which shows the 'start-up / splash screen' , ie.,: the organisation of the program as it is loading. I cannot find a way to start the program without the splash, ie, run the splash in the background, or load the program without the splash. in all likelyhood, this is all it does, plus collect some metadata which autodesk would use to improve end user experience.

== i wont defend autocad, but an objective look at this tells you that a program can only get better if the developer knows what needs improving, for example if one was to log and collect data on the most common 'help searches' one would know what functions people find the most difficult, and may be able to improve their usability somehow.

b]    "Acwebrowser.exe"  is not needed to open and run Autocad Architecture. It does however run the pretty 'welcome screen' where you will find the 'new drawing tab' and the 360 stuff. If this is not needed by the user then there will be a way to disable all  "Acwebrowser.exe" processes and limit the acwebrowser.exe"  processes to TWO..... [see the attached jpeg files for what it will look like]

[2] how to disable them:

****** BACKUP registry and all folders, perhaps even licence folders******

open the "Acwebrowser.exe"  folder, copy all files and folders to a zip folder for backup.  Remove all files and folders except the "Acwebrowser.exe" file. In the properties Dialogue change all permissions on "Acwebrowser.exe"   to deny and read only for all users. Always backup these files in case of problems.

-- Acadarch2017 will now run without any "Acwebrowser.exe"  processes running. 

the next trick will require some trial and error by end user.

Using the task manager, navigate to the "acwebrowser.exe" folder. There are two in my case, "mvchap 12 and 11?" but only one seems to ever run. Make a backup copy of all files and folders. One by one send the files and folders to the recycle bin. With each remove start the program. At the end there will be about seven "dll" files which you will not be able to remove, as the program will either not start or crash. However, using this method i was able to reduce the running processes of "acwebrowser.exe"  to TWO which take up about 11000 and 12000 kb of memory each. 

In total my Autocad arch 2017 uses about ~300mb of RAM on opening an new drawing file, which i think is acceptable. Remember i have no A360, Infocentre

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lighten Autocad Arch 2017 size on disk by 2+ gb.

Using the above delete / start program method, navigate to 'program files and send various folders to recycle bin". i started with the ones that take up the most space and seem to offer things i do not need. You will be able to remove about 2gb this way. 

I do not use the material library -- all 3d modelling and rendering i do in Rhino, Autocad i only use for linework. As i was not able to uninstall the material library without uninstalling Autocad, i simply navigated to the 500mb 'materiasl' folder and removed it, zipped it onto my external hard-drive. 

the program runs without any error {except for one}::::

each time the program starts i will receive one error on the first command i type something like "unable to check spelling no dic file"... However!!! it does check and correct my spelling, and give me the same 'near command' list to choose from, so heck knows.

ENjoy !!!!

[Anonymous]

An attached screenshot showing the disk size save by removing bloat from my already 'minmal' autocad install:

 [I use 7zip to zip the folders afterwards]

[zzz144]

Why is noone at AutoDesk listening? 
Stop this marketing garbage! 

[Victoria.Studley · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for posting your question here in the community regarding multiple instances of the acwebbrowser.exe *32 (Chromium Host Executable).

There is an article on AKN that explains what these do, why there are often multiple instances of them, and some method for minimizing some of them:

Multiple instances of acwebbrowser.exe *32 (Chromium Host Executable) running in Windows Task Manager

Could you please take a look and let us know if this helps clarify the process for you?

If a particular post helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the post(s) that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.