What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

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BobH
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What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by BobH »

In the last day or so I noticed that some links I followed were being opened in Chrome instead of Firefox, my browser of choice. Trying to figure out how Chrome even got installed on my computer, the only thing I could come up with was the recent upgrade to CCleaner that I installed.

I don't recall seeing a box to check or clear to prevent installing Chrome. Because it was CCleaner, a product I've used for years, I didn't look any more closely than usual - meaning that I cleared the Start Menu install option.

Did I get this from installing CCleaner's update or could I have gotten it simply by following a link in Fx?
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HansV
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by HansV »

It's quite possible that it came with CCleaner - there'd be a check box to install Chrome that was ticked by default.
Best wishes,
Hans

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BobH
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by BobH »

Thank you, Hans!

I must have fallen asleep again.

After removing Chrome (via CP | Add/Remove) I find now that every link I click asks me to choose a browser. I'm at a loss to figure out where to set Firefox as my global preference.

Can you help?
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HansV
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by HansV »

Start Firefox.
Click the Firefox button, then click Options, or select Tools | Options...
Activate the Advanced tab.
Click the "Check Now" button in the System Defaults section.
Select Yes.
If that doesn't help, see Setting Firefox as the default browser does not work - What to do.
Best wishes,
Hans

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DaveA
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by DaveA »

Uninstall Chrome does not restore the defaults that where changed.

So I have found that once Chrome is installed, just let set in the corner and be ignored.

But if you must clean things up, go to http://www.slipstick.com/problems/this- ... strictions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have a read "Edit Registry Part2".

Then click on the blue word "File" and do as instructed.

[quote]Edit Registry, Part 2

If you received this error after uninstalling any application that takes over the HTML open command (including, but not limited to, Chrome & Firefox browsers) you may also need to change the HTM/HTML association in the registry.
1.Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2.Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.html
3.Right click the value for the .html key and select Modify…
4.Change the value from "ChromeHTML" to "htmlfile" (or from FireFoxHTML to htmlfile)

Repeat these steps for htm and .shtml keys if they exist. You may also want to check the xhtml and xhtm keys. Don't want to edit the registry? Download this file (right click and choose Save target as…) Then double click on the file to run. From After uninstalling Google Chrome Links in e-mail don't work any more
{/quote]
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BobH
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by BobH »

Thanks, guys!

I've done the Check in Firefox and it now says that Firefox is my default browser.

I also opened Start|Set_Program_Access_and_Defaults and looked at the options there. The Custom button was active so I looked at the drop down menu and changed the default browser to Firefox, the default email client to Thunderbird, and the default media player to WMP leaving all the other options the same.

I checked Firefox options again and the default remains Firefox for my browser.

I tried to open a link in an email and found that I had to choose a browser program still.

So, I did the regedit thing but I don't know how to finish up. I changed the registry entries that showed "FirefoxHTML" (not Chrome) to the recommended "htmlfile" but I've done nothing to save the changes. I am assuming that the changes to the Registry do not take effect until I import them. Is that correct? How should I proceed?

The problem with having to select a browser persists despite having shut down Firefox and restarting it, if that matters. I haven't shut down the machine thinking that I need to do something about the regedit changes first.

Thanks again for you help! This makes me even more adamantly opposed to all things google and I hope that it will make me far more vigilant when upgrading even long-used, trusted apps.
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BobH
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UPDATE!!

Post by BobH »

Rebooting seems to have resolved the issue!
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HansV
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by HansV »

Did you change the values in RegEdit? If so, they should already be saved.
Or did you download the .reg file from the web page DaveA mentioned? If so, you need to open (double-click) the .reg file and confirm that you want to import the settings.

After that, restart Windows to see the effect.

Oops, I see that rebooting helped
Best wishes,
Hans

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BobH
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by BobH »

FWIW - I just ran REGEDIT from the command line in RUN.

Thanks again for your help, Hans!
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Claude
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Re: What Installed Chrome When I Wasn't Looking?

Post by Claude »

I've just installed an upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Reader on a customer site and, without asking, it went and installed Chrome.

I'm about to uninstall Chrome myself because it's very memory and resource hungry, in my experience on 64 bit Windows 7 Pro.
Cheers, Claude.