That's my gut feeling... I think the Vive will have more features but won't actually have good image reproduction compared to the Rift.
Time will tell.
Yes, you can block Chrome from updating, you just need to get the .admx files... that's what we do here.
Computer Policy - Google/Google Update/Preferences = Disable all auto-update checks (not recommended)
You are correct... they can only use Chrome when logged into one machine at a time.
We took the view that moving Chrome out of profiles improved login's for everyone and not just the few who may want to use two machines at once.
This may or may not be the same issue but we had a problem with a recent version of Adobe and PowerPoint 2013 a couple of months back... a quick Google found these here or here.
I got the email to try it but there is no files inside the zipped folder except for lots of instructional word documents... still reading through them but it's funny to see Windows 8.1 isn't supported until next Q1 next year!!!
EDIT
Found the link for the executable in the instructions.
We've always been quite impressed with their support as well... I think we had to wait a day once due to time zone differences but that was the only time in about a dozen support requests.