How To Make Google Chrome Your Default Web Browser In Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
I noticed that there were quite a few threads in the offical Google Chrome group with people asking about how to set Google Chrome as the default web browser on Windows Vista machines. There have been a mixture of responses here and there, but I never found one to work for me. It has been a few weeks searching for a solution. Google Chrome really appeals to me but I have never been able to set it as my default browser. I have tried on three different computers, two of which run Windows Vista. The third computer running Windows XP, I had no issues with.
With that said, I decided to fool around and attempt to resolve this issue myself. If you are having trouble setting your Google Chrome browser as default, simply follow these steps:
Step One: Right Click on the Google Chrome Shortcut icon found on your desktop and view propertise.
Step Two: Click the “Shortcut” tab and then click “Open File Location”. This should then open a new window with the following address:
AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/Application
Step Three: Right Click on the Google Chrome Icon listed in the folder. The contents of this folder should be something like this:
0.2.149.30/
Dictionaries/
Plugins/
Chrome
Run First
Step Four: Click the “Compatibility” Tab and check, “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and in the drop down menu select, “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)”.
Step Five: In the Privlege Level Section, check, “Run this program as an administrator” and then Click apply and then ok.
Step Six: Close the /AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/Application window and then proceed to open Google Chrome using the Desktop Shortcut Icon. A “User Account Control” window will pop up, simply allow access.
Step Seven: You will experience a “Windows – Application Error” with the following or similiar message: “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the application.” Simply click the OK button.
Step Eight: Google Chrome will load but the screen will display, “Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage. To continue, press Reload or go to another page.” From this point, simply click the TOOLS icon.
Step Nine: After you click the TOOLS option, then proceed to click the “Make Google Chrome my default browser” button. After doing so, The text above should appear green with the following message, “The default browser is currently Google Chrome.”
Step Ten: Close The Window and then Close Google Chrome.
Step Eleven: Right Click on the Google Chrome Desktop Shortcut icon and view Properties.
Step Twelve: Click the Compatibility Tab and UNCHECK the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” option.
Step Thirteen: In the “Privlege Level” section, UNCHECK the “Run this program as an administrator” option.
Step Fourteen: Click “Apply” and then click, “OK”.
Step Fifteen: Double The Google Chrome Desktop Shortcut icon and enjoy using Google Chrome.
Hope this works for you… it worked for me, but I am by far from being an expert in any form of programming or Google Chrome Tweaking. I am just very happy to finally have it set as my default browser. Sometimes little things like this bug me. Finally I can truly give Google Chrome a run for its money and see what it is all about. If you have any comments or questions, simply use the comment form below.
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32 comments
I haven’t had the chance to try Chrome out yet, but how is it? Comparable to FF or no?
-Mike
It takes a little bit of getting use to, but soon you’ll see it’s pretty cool. I have been using it most of this evening and already it is starting to grow on me.
Just want to thank you, I being looking for a week how to fix it even in the Google web site and they did not have the answer, thank you again and keep helping people like us.
That Did not work for me..
I still don’t know how to set Google as
default
Yea I Finally Got it to Work, I had to close google first. then unchecked the stuff
This time I got the error Message..
Then the Make defautl button worked.
Then It still set as safari..Then I used Safari to Change it Google..
click View click preferences Click general
default Web Browser Choose Google Chrome
And Now IT works for me
That’s What Works for me..
Thanks For Helping me get started…
Michael
Thank you for this — very well done. You finally solved the problem.
I needed one more stop, though.
Once I was done, I noticed that it still wasn’t the default browser when clicking hyperlinks from Outlook.
I then had to go to the Default Programs window in the control panel, and now I was finally able to see Google Chrome there. It said that it was the default program for 1 out of 9 programs — So I just clicked on make the default.
That fixed it.
Thanks!!
Thank you so much! This was so easy, and worked beautifully. I can’t wait for my Husband to come home so I can tell him I found a “geek solution” and did it myself! Yay! You rock!
Sincerely,
A happy stay-at-home-Mommy who now has Chrome as default~
You are very welcome.
Sorry to hear that. This worked for me and quite a few others. Make sure you follow all the steps very carefully and give it one more try.
Great news Michael. I am glad that you were successful.
Thanks for explaining that. I don’t use Outlook so it is good that you provided us with that last step for the folks who do.
Haha… you’ll love it too. It is really fast!
Glad I could be of help.
cheers, chrome so much better than ie and firefox put 2gether!!!!!!!!!
Hurray! You did it! It works! I have been looking for a solution for my Outlook/Vista/Chrome problem for weeks. I have been carefully copying and pasting hyperlinks from emails in order to keep using chrome. bravo!
Wow
it really works
thanks alot
that was anoying for a long time, not any more
cheers dude
I have been looking for this answer for a LONG time. Thank you so much! Merry Christmas!
I tried everything you told me and was really excited to get started with chrome but when I opened it up again it still prompted me for permission to continue and once I clicked continue and chrome opened, the initilization error showed up again. Any ideas of how I can fix this? I appreciate your help very much!
-Krysta
Many thanks Gary – I too have been frustrated by this for a while
I now also see Chrome in Vista’s list of default programs – I wondered why I couldn’t see it before… MS obstacles?
[...] with several issues that bothered me. One of the things that bothered me was not being able to set Google Chrome as my default web browser. The issues with the web browser being slow turned out to be some problems I was having with my own [...]
Thanks for the fix! works. You should add a worming though because most users with this problem could be reading the fix from chrome which means it would not work for them. Had to switch to explorer then go through all the steps for it to work.
Thanks a lot!
Just want to say: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Garry for that tip.
Pete
Hey Gary,
I am using a top end laptop. It is on the end caps at best buy and fries electronics. It is the one that has a cover that looks like red flames and is called a Qosmio. I had a very unique problem in comparison to the others who have commented. When I clicked ok on the error message Google Chrome did NOT open. I was super frustrated at this for a long time. I had to run it without compatibility mode but still as administrator and that allowed me to click the button and set as default.
Thanks for the help!
I appreciate your brilliant idea.
Thanks! Don’t know why that worked, but it did, and I’m grateful
Thank you for your help. It works very good.
Thanks so much for this! Google Chrome is faster on my computer than either IE or Firefox. But I had been having trouble making it my default browser. Today I decided to google “How to make Google Chrome my default browser” and came across this wonderful site. After two attempts, I have succeeded in making Google Chrome by default browser. And I have you to thank for this.
My problem is slightly different. Within Google, It says that my default browser is Google. If I change my default browser to IE whithin IE, Chrome does not recognize the change, while Firefox does. If I change the default browser to Firefox, Chrome does recognize it. I set it back to Chrome. I use MSN messenger, but when I click on the icon to see my mail, the browser that comes up is Firefox.
If I change it to IE the browser comes up IE. Could it be a problem with MSN that does not recognize Chrome as a Browser?
I started to get really annoyed after i encountered lots of problems while setting google chrome as default, until i came across with this blog post, its a great help.
wow thanks alot it works
[...] features, inability to auto discover RSS feeds, and huge complications with setting Chrome as the default web browser. these imperfections, while they might seems severe, were nothing compared to dealing with Internet [...]
Down with Microsoft! Finally ported over to Chrome, which is so much faster than IE! The Chrome OS is getting pooh-poohed in the press but if it's similarly better than Vista/7 and less cluttered and faster then I'm all for it. Google, bring it!
Great thanks on this, I’ve been looking for it over the whole internet!
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