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Fun fact, third party apps can't modify Chrome on Windows. If any third party app injects a Chrome extension into Chrome or alters a single Chrome setting... e

Fun fact, third party apps can't modify Chrome on Windows. If any third party app injects a Chrome extension into Chrome or alters a single Chrome setting... even just the homepage... Chrome will delete all extensions, all extension settings, reset the homepage to default, and reset the search engine to Google on next launch. A big downside is that your Chrome settings are basically tied to a specific PC, so forget about moving them to a new PC unless you sign in and sync to Google.

derefr 11y ago
> A big downside is that your Chrome settings are basically tied to a specific PC, so forget about moving them to a new PC unless you sign in and sync to Google. Even then. I'm not sure why extension config-data isn't transparently replicated between hosts, but it's a really noticeable problem when you have an extension installed that's as complex as XKit or RES. Even for uBlock, you have to copy-and-paste your whitelist rules between hosts, rather than having them just follow you around.
- AgentME 11y ago
  Chrome allows extensions to have automatically synchronized settings. Blame the extension if it doesn't use the feature.
arthurfm 11y ago
> Fun fact, third party apps can't modify Chrome on Windows. AVG managed to. [1] > When a user installs AVG AntiVirus, a Chrome extension called "AVG Web TuneUp" with extension id chfdnecihphmhljaaejmgoiahnihplgn is force-installed. I can see from the webstore statistics it has nearly 9 million active Chrome users. > This extension adds numerous JavaScript API's to chrome, apparently so that they can hijack search settings and the new tab page. The installation process is quite complicated so that they can bypass the chrome malware checks, which specifically tries to stop abuse of the extension API. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/detail?id=675 https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/de...
- JohnTHaller 11y ago
  Related fun fact: AVG tries to install Chrome as bundleware by tricking the user using dark patterns as part of upgrades and is paid by Google to do so. Addendum: In checking, I confirmed AntiVir and Avast both trick users into installing Chrome as I have screenshots of it (as well as Java, Adobe Flash, etc). I recall AVG doing it as well but don't have the associated screenshots.

derefr 11y ago

> A big downside is that your Chrome settings are basically tied to a specific PC, so forget about moving them to a new PC unless you sign in and sync to Google. Even then. I'm not sure why extension config-data isn't transparently replicated between hosts, but it's a really noticeable problem when you have an extension installed that's as complex as XKit or RES. Even for uBlock, you have to copy-and-paste your whitelist rules between hosts, rather than having them just follow you around.

AgentME 11y ago
Chrome allows extensions to have automatically synchronized settings. Blame the extension if it doesn't use the feature.

arthurfm 11y ago

> Fun fact, third party apps can't modify Chrome on Windows. AVG managed to. [1] > When a user installs AVG AntiVirus, a Chrome extension called "AVG Web TuneUp" with extension id chfdnecihphmhljaaejmgoiahnihplgn is force-installed. I can see from the webstore statistics it has nearly 9 million active Chrome users. > This extension adds numerous JavaScript API's to chrome, apparently so that they can hijack search settings and the new tab page. The installation process is quite complicated so that they can bypass the chrome malware checks, which specifically tries to stop abuse of the extension API. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/detail?id=675 https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/de...

JohnTHaller 11y ago
Related fun fact: AVG tries to install Chrome as bundleware by tricking the user using dark patterns as part of upgrades and is paid by Google to do so. Addendum: In checking, I confirmed AntiVir and Avast both trick users into installing Chrome as I have screenshots of it (as well as Java, Adobe Flash, etc). I recall AVG doing it as well but don't have the associated screenshots.