Installing google chrome

[fafster]

How do you go about rolling this out to all machines in a domain? With IE6 no longer supported by a number of major players, plus the security issues that continually crop up, I'd like to see how users get on with Chrome. The trouble is, Chrome by default installs itself to the application data folder in the user profile. Any way to install it to Program Files?

[morganw]

Might be worth looking at SRWare Iron or SRWare Iron Portable rather than the Chrome install.

 

SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future

[Arthur]

These instructions list how to install Google Chrome to your Program Files folder. To set the default homepage (among other things) you may want to look at the various switches you can add after the target path of the shortcut e.g.

 

--homepage http://www.google.co.uk/ --disable-extensions --in-process-plugins --start-maximized --disable-new-tab-first-run --disable-web-resources --no-default-browser-check --no-first-run

 

As mentioned above by Morgan, Chromium (latest version available here) or Iron are good alternatives to the version Google offer though. I use Chromium now, since the author of Iron is only interested in making money from it. This is pretty obvious from the massive interstitial ads that scroll across the screen when you visit his website.

 

By the way, one thing I have noticed with the portable version of Iron when I last used it is that you need to use an alternative launcher because the standard one doesn't pass the working directory to Chrome.exe correctly. This causes problems with certain programs which need to pass parameters to the browser via the command-line. For example, a student will receive an error if they try to preview a webpage in Iron using Dreamweaver CS3.

Edited February 10, 2010 by Arthur

[Arthur]

It's also worth mentioning that the Google Pack enables you to install Chrome (v4.0.249.78) to the Program Files folder, but this installs other unwanted apps like the Google Updater. Edited February 10, 2010 by Arthur

[mac_shinobi]

It's also worth mentioning that the Google Pack enables you to install Chrome (v4.0.249.78) to the Program Files folder, but this installs other unwanted apps like the Google Updater.

 

what about firefox as per this thread

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/42484-deploying-firefox.html

 

As I know there is the ADM to lock firefox down - wonder if opera would be any good ?

[Arthur]

what about firefox as per this thread

That does sound like an easier option since Michael's done the hard work already.

 

There are ways to setup/restrict Opera too. IIRC, you have to edit an .ini file.