We recently had a client that required Google Chrome for a web based app. Google Chrome is easy to download and install. Pretty straight forward and easy enough right? Wrong. Google Chrome installs in
- Win Vista/7 – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\
- Win Xp – C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\
by default. You would think Google would install it to Program Files by default like other applications but it does not.
This is a problem becuase multiple users would be logging onto these workstations. Google Chrome only shows up for the user it was installed under becuase of it being installed to the users local settings folder. We did not want to log onto every workstation with every user and install Google Chrome for them. Google Chrome does not give you an option during install to change the install directory.
There is a way around this. Go to http://pack.google.com/ and download Google Chrome here. When you download and install it from here it installs in Program Files or wherever you want to put it. BE AWARE bthis install by default wants to install a load of other applications hence the url pack.google.com. These extra applications are:
- Google Apps: Gmail, Calendar, Docs
- Google Desktop
- Adobe Reader
- Firefox with Google Toolbar
- Skype
- Google Earth
- Google toolbar for IE
- Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
- Picasa
- Google Talk
- Real Player
Installing Google Chrome only from the Google pack solved our issue. After this any user that logged onto these workstations could access Google Chrome fromt start all programs. That is exactly what we wanted.
