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Why Does Portable Chrome Install a Startup Task on Any Machine It Is Run On?

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ncouch
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Why Does Portable Chrome Install a Startup Task on Any Machine It Is Run On?

Running portable Chrome on a machine that does not have Chrome installed causes a Chrome startup task to be run, for all future boots, on that clean machine. Can this be prevented?

John T. Haller
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Can't Reproduce

I just installed Google Chrome Portable onto a completely clean Windows XP VM and ran it. It left nothing behind and no scheduled tasks were created.

Please provide the following: Windows OS version, full install path, channel (Stable, Beta, Dev) and version of Google Chrome Portable, new install vs upgrade, what specific files in what locations you're seeing left behind, what changes (if any) you made to the INI configuration, etc.

Also note that if you run chrome.exe directly, set it as your default browser, or run any Chrome "Apps", it will run in local mode.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

ncouch
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<> New Win 8.1 Machine. Just

>

New Win 8.1 Machine. Just ran Chrome from thumb drive via portable app launcher
Chrome Version 35.0.1916.153
Original Install Path (D:\PortableApp\) The thumb drive has been upgraded multiple times, always with latest stable release.
No remembered changes to any INI files.

Here is the concerning key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
V a l u e 0

N a m e : F 5 8 1 D C 1 2 D 8 3 D C B 9 A F F 6 0 A F 1 1 8 6 0 E 9 E E A B 5 B 2 5 C 6 6 . _ s e r v i c e _ r u n

T y p e : R E G _ S Z

D a t a : " D : \ P o r t a b l e A p p \ P o r t a b l e A p p s \ G o o g l e C h r o m e P o r t a b l e \ A p p \ C h r o m e - b i n \ c h r o m e . e x e " - - t y p e = s e r v i c e - - u s e r - d a t a - d i r = " D : \ P o r t a b l e A p p \ P o r t a b l e A p p s \ G o o g l e C h r o m e P o r t a b l e \ D a t a \ p r o f i l e "

>

Does that mean if someone had attempted to set Chrome as default, using this thumb drive, that all subsequent users will have Chrome running in local mode?

Thanks,

Norris

John T. Haller
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Tried on Windows 8.1

I just tried a fresh install of Chrome Portable 35.0.1916.153 on Windows 8.1 without Chrome installed locally. No key was created within HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run on first or second run. No key was created when I set Chrome to the default browser (which you shouldn't do).

Setting it as default only affects the currently logged in user.

Is there some other extension or something else you have configured to run in the background within Chrome? Keep in mind that some Chrome 'apps' are installed locally and not portable, leading to unexpected behavior.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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