Problems running Chrome through shortcut on Windows 8

Question

all of a sudden, i can only run chrome as admin. it says the path to chrome.exe doesn't exist, but the file is there after i check.

update menu said i have windows updates installed last night, but when i look through all the updates i can't find anything that were installed last night.

when i right click on chrome.exe and Pin to Start, it doesn't pin it. But pin/unpin to Taskbar works.

even more strange, if i right click on chrome.exe and drag to desktop to create a shortcut, then double click on the shortcut, it works the first time. when double click again, it doesn't work anymore.

tried to re-install chrome but that didn't help either.

oh, double click on chrome.exe works every time but i like shortcut better.

all of above were done while logged in as administrator.

Solution

I ran into the same problem tonight. I was able to narrow the issue down to a the latest Chrome update (21.0.1180.79). This is not an issue with the previous version (21.0.1180.77). Specific versions of Chrome are available from filehippo.com

First check this UAC setting:

1. Run secpol.msc
2. Navigate to Local Policies->Security Options
3. Find the policy named "User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations" and set this to "Disabled"

This may alleviate the problem.

Steps to replicate:

1. Uninstall Google Chrome
2. Run the 21.0.1180.75 installer
3. Run the 21.0.1180.77 installer
4. Run the 21.0.1180.79 installer

The shortcut should now break.

Steps to fix:

1. Uninstall Chrome with 21.0.1180.79_chrome_installer.exe --uninstall
2. Reinstall Chrome with 21.0.1180.79_chrome_installer.exe

Alternatively, install the Chrome Browser for Business, which installs itself in Program Files, which is considered a "secure location".

Comments

[Ray Cheng]

I like your "User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations - and set it to Disabled" answer more.

[Brian Alexander]

Wasn't sure that was the real issue. I couldn't replicate it. I'll include some information about that.