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Get Google Chrome Installer – Microsoft Store

bearcobra 9y ago
I don't get why they bothered to create this. It just seems hostile to users and normalizes a behavior that could expose them to malware.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  If you go into the Store, the now prominent way to get apps on a new Windows PC, searching for Chrome shows a lot of low quality apps like "Chrome Guides" and such. Putting the official installer (even as just a link) in the Store will help people find Chrome who don't realize it isn't in the Microsoft Store. I'd argue Microsoft could benefit from doing this for a variety of common apps users are looking for, if they want the Microsoft Store to become the default/canonical place people look for software for their PCs.
  - PascLeRasc 9y ago
    That's actually rather mature of Microsoft to do. It'll be nice to get to open IE zero times instead of once to install Chrome on a new PC now.
    - WorldMaker 9y ago
      There is no IE anymore. In Windows 10 you already open IE zero times. There is still a blue E icon, but Edge is not IE.
      - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
        This is false. If you had ever switched default browsers on Windows 10, you'd notice Internet Explorer not only still exists, but is on every Windows 10 PC. Most businesses which use Windows 10 still default to it. Beyond that, Edge is definitely a fresh UI, but it's still based, at it's core, on the last version of IE. Some of the same particularly odd IE quirks (particularly with SVGs) still exist in Edge, though it's much more standards-compliant than older IE versions.
        WorldMaker 9y ago
        I think its increasingly disingenuous to refer to Edge as IE. IE11 only exists in Windows 10 because Edge hard forked enough that the majority of weird quirks only work in the zombie IE11. Any business switching the Windows 10 default browser to IE11 is definitely doing something wrong. Any consumer that opens IE11 even once is probably doing something wrong.
        ocdtrekkie 9y ago
        Sure, I wouldn't refer to Edge as 'IE', but the notion that IE "doesn't exist" is equally silly. I think you'd be shocked to discover: Most corporate environments still default to IE, including if they use Windows 10. This is mostly because of archaic things like Java applications which tend to insist on it, or even in some cases, dependencies on ActiveX controls in legacy software. I think everyone in the corporate space is counting the days until they can switch, but the light at the end of the tunnel still seems somewhat far off.
Spivak 9y ago
So what's preventing them from shipping directly from the store?
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  Microsoft requires Store apps use the OS's JavaScript engine/browser components. So Chrome on the Store would have to be a wrapper for Edge, basically. This isn't unique to Microsoft's Store, of course. On iOS devices, Firefox and Edge have to use Apple's browser components to meet Apple's policies, and on Android, I know Edge voluntarily uses Chromium rather than porting their own over.
  - WorldMaker 9y ago
    Microsoft has never had a requirement that Windows apps use the OS's JS engine and browser components. They originally required you to use the WinRT API rather than the Win32 and cross-compile for ARM processors, and suggests XAML as your UI layer, but you've always been able to access WinRT from C/C++ and program directly against DirectX buffers if you wish. They've even relaxed both the WinRT and ARM requirements by allowing Win32 apps in the Windows Store. The only thing stopping Google from putting Chrome on the Windows Store is Google.
    - SyneRyder 9y ago
      Nope, it's section 10.2.1 of the Windows Store guidelines: "Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform." https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/store-policies https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/st... [Also, it was a new rule introduced on January 17, 2017: "Added Security (10.2.1) to cover requirements for browser functionality."] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/store-policies-change-history https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/st...
      - WorldMaker 9y ago
        Interesting. I thought I half-remembered something mentioned in one of the BUILD sessions that they wanted Chrome and Firefox in the Windows Store, but I could easily be misremembering and/or that could be a classic crossed-wire situation where the platform security team is overriding other parts of the platform engineering team.
dkonofalski 9y ago
Can someone explain what this link is trying to highlight here? I'm viewing this on a Mac and it just gives me a "Not available on your device" button...
garganzol 9y ago
I find an amusing number of strange reviews on that page. Like this one: "Google : We will never make app for windows." - Ahmad. It looks like Microsoft is trying to game the reality there. Google Chrome is a Windows app. The real one, not that walled garden WinRT crap.
poizan42 9y ago
This gives me a 404. Here is the google cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/google-chrome-installer/9n1kzwv3trgh http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...
- theandrewbailey 9y ago
  It's been taken down. Turns out that MS wasn't impressed: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16797358/microsoft-google-chrome-windows-store-removal https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16797358/microsoft-googl...

I don't get why they bothered to create this. It just seems hostile to users and normalizes a behavior that could expose them to malware.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
If you go into the Store, the now prominent way to get apps on a new Windows PC, searching for Chrome shows a lot of low quality apps like "Chrome Guides" and such. Putting the official installer (even as just a link) in the Store will help people find Chrome who don't realize it isn't in the Microsoft Store. I'd argue Microsoft could benefit from doing this for a variety of common apps users are looking for, if they want the Microsoft Store to become the default/canonical place people look for software for their PCs.
- PascLeRasc 9y ago
  That's actually rather mature of Microsoft to do. It'll be nice to get to open IE zero times instead of once to install Chrome on a new PC now.
  - WorldMaker 9y ago
    There is no IE anymore. In Windows 10 you already open IE zero times. There is still a blue E icon, but Edge is not IE.
    - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
      This is false. If you had ever switched default browsers on Windows 10, you'd notice Internet Explorer not only still exists, but is on every Windows 10 PC. Most businesses which use Windows 10 still default to it. Beyond that, Edge is definitely a fresh UI, but it's still based, at it's core, on the last version of IE. Some of the same particularly odd IE quirks (particularly with SVGs) still exist in Edge, though it's much more standards-compliant than older IE versions.
      - WorldMaker 9y ago
        I think its increasingly disingenuous to refer to Edge as IE. IE11 only exists in Windows 10 because Edge hard forked enough that the majority of weird quirks only work in the zombie IE11. Any business switching the Windows 10 default browser to IE11 is definitely doing something wrong. Any consumer that opens IE11 even once is probably doing something wrong.
        ocdtrekkie 9y ago
        Sure, I wouldn't refer to Edge as 'IE', but the notion that IE "doesn't exist" is equally silly. I think you'd be shocked to discover: Most corporate environments still default to IE, including if they use Windows 10. This is mostly because of archaic things like Java applications which tend to insist on it, or even in some cases, dependencies on ActiveX controls in legacy software. I think everyone in the corporate space is counting the days until they can switch, but the light at the end of the tunnel still seems somewhat far off.

Spivak 9y ago

So what's preventing them from shipping directly from the store?

ocdtrekkie 9y ago
Microsoft requires Store apps use the OS's JavaScript engine/browser components. So Chrome on the Store would have to be a wrapper for Edge, basically. This isn't unique to Microsoft's Store, of course. On iOS devices, Firefox and Edge have to use Apple's browser components to meet Apple's policies, and on Android, I know Edge voluntarily uses Chromium rather than porting their own over.
- WorldMaker 9y ago
  Microsoft has never had a requirement that Windows apps use the OS's JS engine and browser components. They originally required you to use the WinRT API rather than the Win32 and cross-compile for ARM processors, and suggests XAML as your UI layer, but you've always been able to access WinRT from C/C++ and program directly against DirectX buffers if you wish. They've even relaxed both the WinRT and ARM requirements by allowing Win32 apps in the Windows Store. The only thing stopping Google from putting Chrome on the Windows Store is Google.
  - SyneRyder 9y ago
    Nope, it's section 10.2.1 of the Windows Store guidelines: "Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform." https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/store-policies https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/st... [Also, it was a new rule introduced on January 17, 2017: "Added Security (10.2.1) to cover requirements for browser functionality."] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/store-policies-change-history https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/windows/agreements/st...
    - WorldMaker 9y ago
      Interesting. I thought I half-remembered something mentioned in one of the BUILD sessions that they wanted Chrome and Firefox in the Windows Store, but I could easily be misremembering and/or that could be a classic crossed-wire situation where the platform security team is overriding other parts of the platform engineering team.

dkonofalski 9y ago

Can someone explain what this link is trying to highlight here? I'm viewing this on a Mac and it just gives me a "Not available on your device" button...

garganzol 9y ago

I find an amusing number of strange reviews on that page. Like this one: "Google : We will never make app for windows." - Ahmad. It looks like Microsoft is trying to game the reality there. Google Chrome is a Windows app. The real one, not that walled garden WinRT crap.

poizan42 9y ago

This gives me a 404. Here is the google cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/google-chrome-installer/9n1kzwv3trgh http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...

theandrewbailey 9y ago
It's been taken down. Turns out that MS wasn't impressed: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16797358/microsoft-google-chrome-windows-store-removal https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16797358/microsoft-googl...