Google Chrome only running as admin user

[woreilly]

Yesterday I ran into a very strange problem. Google Chrome was failing to launch for a standard domain user. However, it ran perfectly if you right-clicked the icon and "run as administrator" and entered the credentials of an admin user. It also ran perfectly if I was logged in as "administrator". When trying to launch as standard domain user, it didn't even show me chrome.exe in Task Manager.

 

For obvious reasons this is not what I want and not what the school want. Has anyone ever come across this issue?

 

I tried uninstalling chrome and reinstalling. Tried fresh downloads of up to date EXEs & MSIs and still had the same issue.

 

They are 2008R2 to 64-bit windows 7 clients FYI.

[bald_pig]

Are you using the enterprise version of chrome or standard? standard installs per user IIRC

[woreilly]

I deploy the MSI downloaded from https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/business/browser/admin/

 

So yeah, its the Enterprise version, think I also tried just downloading the exe from https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html as well and was met with the same error/issue.

[JoHimself]

Is it all restricted users or just one?

[woreilly]

Is it all restricted users or just one?

 

Seems to be all users, had 3 different people report that they couldn't open Chrome. Admittedly I didn't check 2 of them to make sure it was the same issue **cue messages about assuming things**

[JoHimself]

Has it just started today?

 

If you run Chrome as admin then close it will it then run for restricted users?

 

Is Chrome prevented from updating in any way?

 

Are these users signed in to Chrome using their personal Gmail accounts?

[woreilly]

Has it just started today?

 

It started yesterday when I was at the school, unfortunately I am only there for half a day fortnightly (they're a small first school with 3 classes).

 

If you run Chrome as admin then close it will it then run for restricted users?

 

Can't quite say for sure but I believe it still didn't run

 

Is Chrome prevented from updating in any way?

 

I have not made any deliberate attempts to prevent Chrome from updating

 

Are these users signed in to Chrome using their personal Gmail accounts?

 

To my knowledge they won't have signed in with personal accounts. They are however a Google school for emails but again I don't think they will have signed in with those accounts.

[JoHimself]

OK, my thinking around the questions was that something required admin access as a one off either a Chrome update or an extension being synced to their account which required some kind of admin access. Since it's happening all over it may be Chrome update related but if you can run it as an admin and it still doesn't work I'd suggest this isn't the issue.

[woreilly]

OK, my thinking around the questions was that something required admin access as a one off either a Chrome update or an extension being synced to their account which required some kind of admin access. Since it's happening all over it may be Chrome update related but if you can run it as an admin and it still doesn't work I'd suggest this isn't the issue.

 

Sorry for the delayed response. A colleague on our Service Desk fielded a call from the school's resident volunteer technician regarding this. It would appear that the group policy I had set to redirect User Data to a "Google Chrome" folder in their home drive was causing it. As soon as my colleague removed this, the user was able to open Chrome. In fact, I've just checked myself and I've never seen Chrome open so quickly! I've never had this in other schools I've put it in either.