In native Windows 8 mode, Chrome places the shelf at the bottom of the screen for easy access to Google services.Īpart from the appearance of the shelf and the disappearance of the Windows taskbar, the browser functions identically in desktop and native-Windows 8 mode, as far as I could tell.
Other shelf shortcuts open your Chrome apps and various Google services: the Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and YouTube. Click the button to the far left of the shelf to open your apps window. The first thing you notice is the browser's full-screen view, which places the Chrome OS's shelf in the bottom-left corner of the screen and a simple clock in the bottom-right corner. (You can revert to your previous default browser after making the switch.) To set Chrome to its native Windows 8 mode, click the settings icon in the top-right corner of the browser window and choose "Relaunch Chrome in Windows 8 mode." If Chrome isn't already your default browser, you'll have to choose it in the dialog box that appears.
Set Chrome to open in the browser's native Windows 8 mode by choosing this option on the settings menu.Īnalysts such as InfoWorld's Serdar Yegulalp speculate about Google's strategy of enticing Windows users to adopt the Chrome OS by giving them what amounts to a free trial version that runs inside Windows 8.1.Īfter switching between the desktop and "native" Windows 8 versions of Chrome for several days, the clear winner for me is the new Chrome OS-style interface - despite the fact that the revamped browser continues to generate the shutdown-failure error message. The silver lining of my weekend spent launching, relaunching, and re-relaunching Chrome - interspersed with trips to various system folders and settings dialog boxes - is a new appreciation for native Windows 8 apps over their classic desktop alternatives.
New Chrome for Windows 8.1 may get you off the desktop.and onto a Chromebook? Fields once said, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Eventually, Chrome's failure-to-relaunch message would resurface.Īs W.C. One forum denizen suggested typing about://conflicts in Chrome's address bar to troubleshoot problems with third-party apps.įor me, deleting the browser's Preferences file and renaming its Default system folder both worked - for a time. Then there were those that swore by updating Chrome's extensions, or clearing your history and cookies, or uninstalling and then reinstalling the browser. Several said they solved the problem by unchecking Chrome's option to remain running in the background when the browser closes. Other helpful souls suggested deleting the entire user profile and then letting Chrome recreate the profile when you sign back into your Google account.
Microsoft fixes Windows 8.1 glitches in February update.
A dual Windows-Android machine: PC industry savior or non-starter?.Windows 8 designer: Why Microsoft forced Metro on us all.Another recommended renaming the Default folder in the Chrome system-folder path so the program would recreate it. The first proposed solution I found entailed deleting the Preferences file in Chrome's User Data system folder.
Your choice of potential Chrome-shutdown fixes The only thing my investigation determined is that the problem dates back years and occurs on every kind of hardware that Chrome runs on, including the new Windows 8.1 "Metro" version 32 of the browser (more on that program below). Having nothing better to do over a holiday weekend, I decided to look into the matter. Who's got the time to figure out what's causing the browser to hiccup when it closes? Just go the restore route or start the browsing session afresh. I'm then prompted to click the Restore button to reopen the tabs that were active when Chrome last closed. When diagnosing PC problems, sometimes it pays to take the easy route.Ībout every other time I open Google Chrome lately, an error message alerts me that the browser failed to close correctly.