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.

Answer 1

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".

Answer 2

This problem appeared for me after a windows update was installed over night. I have searched and searched and I finally have it working, at least for now. The shortcuts stop working again for other users after a week and the workaround has to be done again. I posted the instructions here but another thing is that Chrome doesn't need to be ran as admin so I made sure to go to its folder (in Program Files x86) and deselect "run as admin" in the properties of chrome.exe

Here is the link:

https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chrome/agGUrplBu-Y/Gr5Yp2K4gnUJ

Hope this proves helpful! :)