
Get Google Chrome Installer – Microsoft Store - theandrewbailey
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/google-chrome-installer/9n1kzwv3trgh?rtc=1
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bearcobra
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.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
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
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
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
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
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
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.

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

~~~
ocdtrekkie
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
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
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/st...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/legal/windows/agreements/store-policies)

[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/st...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/legal/windows/agreements/store-policies-change-history)

~~~
WorldMaker
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.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Bear in mind though, Microsoft has, with Edge, created a wrapped for both iOS
and Android which implements their browser features (and data sync) on top of
the OS's browser components. Even though in Android's case, that's not a
requirement.

In that respect, Microsoft may want "Firefox" and "Chrome" in the Windows
Store, but believe that all browsers should use the rendering engine of the
OS, similar to Apple's position with iOS.

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poizan42
This gives me a 404. Here is the google cached version:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/store/p/google-chrome-installer/9n1kzwv3trgh)

~~~
theandrewbailey
It's been taken down. Turns out that MS wasn't impressed:

[https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16797358/microsoft-
googl...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16797358/microsoft-google-
chrome-windows-store-removal)

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dkonofalski
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...

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garganzol
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.

