So, I just reloaded the laptop, and installed Google’s Chrome browser. (I’d rather not, but being in the web development world it’s best to have a variety of browsers installed.)
I installed under the local user, then I joined my corporate domain. When I logged on as a domain user, I couldn’t find the Chrome executable. Looked in C:\Program Files, then searched the C: drive. Nothing. WTF? Where did Chrome go?
So I went over to my desktop to see what my shortcut was pointing at. Ah. The answer.
C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
Again. WTF?
Apparently Chrome installs itself to the user’s AppData folder (which is hidden – thus not searched – by default). After reading a bit online it seems that it installs this way so users without Admin privileges can install the application.
Great for people in the corporate environment who want to get around IT, not great for those IT departments. Also not OK for people who set up, say, their parents, with non-admin access to their own PCs so nothing gets “accidentally” installed resulting in a long-distance service call.
I had no idea you could just bypass the admin requirement by installing to a different location. Not cool.
This install scheme means that if you and your wife share a computer, but have unique logons, each of you would have your own version of Chrome installed. So you’d each have to update your instances separately.
There may be some merits to “user-based” application installs, but I’d rather not have Google make that decision for me, without my knowlegde or consent. But I suppose that’s their style, isn’t it.
“Hey baby, we’re not evil! Trust us!”
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Am I jumping ahead to think that if they did it first, then it’s only a matter of time before viruses and other malware try this?
Yeah, that’s enough for me. I’m boycotting it aside from testing purposes. I’m way against their installation scheme. Too bad. Oh well, the new Firefox might not be the fastest, but it’s no longer behind by much at all, and for it’s track record/extensibility, pretty solid. Opera has some interesting surprises, but I would never recommend it as a default browser until they take their focus from extra functionality to clean up lagging reliability. Every 20th website has some glitch or takes way too long. It’s odd.
Also, this one of the reasons it’s so easy to make malware for Windows and one of the reasons I dislike working with it so much. It’s like a virtual Russian roulette game of permissions and forbidden directories. Parents shouldn’t have to know which hkey to edit if they want to protect small children from, ya know, the vast majority of the internet. It’s really not child-friendly … come to think of it, it’s not even me-friendly.