Use Chrome in primaries as default browser

[SimpleSi]

I'm just sitting here at the cusp of changing my own main browser from Firefox to Chrome (due to perceived memory isses with Firefox - I've got a zillion Chrome tabs open and 4 tabs within firefox - Chrome taking up 283/102k virtual/working - firefox using 357/208k )

 

Anyway, it came to me (through the whisky saturday night geek process) that Chrome would be ideal for my pupils on netbooks instead of IE7/8.

 

1. It only has 2 rows at the top - giving more room for content.

2. The address/search is combined in one space so much simpler for pupils to search (less clicking and since all other browsers going same way - no problem.

 

Anyone come up against any problems using Chrome on edu sites?

 

Si

[sted]

im just looking into chrome. And so far its a damn site easier to set up enterprise settings than firefox (and after one of their engineers rants i dont really want to use it and tbh if it wasnt for the spellcheck at home id go back to ie) my main issue is with bookmarks i cant see a way of using ies favorites like i could with firefox (plain old favorites plugin) and as atm i dont intend to use it as a primary browser cant see a way of syncing the 2 so favorites are consistent (i also dont entirely like the way it handles bookmarks)

[pantscat]

Just as an aside - you can get adm files for Chrome now: Policy Templates - The Chromium Projects

[AngryTechnician]

1. User settings don't get stored in roaming/redirected AppData, so you will get the new user run every time the pupil uses a different machine unless you suppress it. Even if you do, any settings (including bookmarks) will not migrate between machines unless you set up and use a Google Account with every user.
    
   
2. Updates are a pain. Either you give the users permissions to the install folder so the auto-updater can run, or you have to push out a new MSI roughly every 2 weeks. The MSI is also just a wrapper for a legacy installer and the default detection rules for WSUS sometimes can't tell the difference between versions, so will think the newer version is already installed unless you actually uninstall the older one first.
   

[mthomas08]

I still need to seriously test Chrome my self, but every laptop that had managed to install it (Staff have Power User access for SIMs) had endless amount of issues. Some sites didnt work (it was one of the first reported issues) sharepoint/email sites some times had issues and our latest one was SIMs stopped working. Not sure how or why but as soon as we got rid of Chrome all the above issues magically stopped working.

We are very heavily in to IT here so things must simply work regardless, it is why we stick to IE7/8 here, we have yet to go to 9 because I had an issue with it. Wish I noted it all down because all the above is down to memory of over the last 6 or so months. I do see Chrome as being much faster but I think it lacks security? I might be wrong there but as I said every laptop that has had chrome installed we have had to remove it to fix the laptop. Being profile based as well upon installs, which I am not impressed with.

 

All my experience so far which has been about 8 installs (all staff laptops) and Steve the IT Manager who tested it and lasted for about 1 hour before returning to IE.

[sted]

just seen that it stores its bookmarks in

 

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

 

for some bizare reason wonder if it can be redirected to %homedrive%\chrome

[AngryTechnician]

wonder if it can be redirected to %homedrive%\chrome

 

The user settings folder can be relocated, but only in its entirety - meaning it relocate the cache folder as well, which will likely take up masses of disk space.

[sted]

ahhh phoey might look into a batch file that copies it to suer area at logoff then copies it back at logon bit of a kludge but should work. Only other think ive seen is hard linking which im not going to do lol