Default Browser Setting, Where Art Thou?

discovered that Chrome doesn't exist according to Control Panel > Programs This is the typical result of running the Chrome installer without elevation, because as well as elevation being required for write access to Program Files, it's also required for write access to the registry keys that Control Panel -> Programs looks at. Using Run As Administrator on the standard Chrome installer (often tricky to find, because it's typically downloaded into a Temp folder in an attempt to hide the too-complicated idea of an "installer" from the unwashed masses), or using the "business" MSI instead, will get you a Chrome installation that Windows knows what to do with. Incidentally, so will installing Chrome via http://www.ninite.com?select=chrome which is hands-down the least-fuss way to install any of the software that you can install that way. Looks like something went wrong during the first install. Probably some funky business with Windows failing to come to a sensible conclusion about whether it should consider HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes to be the authoritative source for the http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724498%28v=vs.85%29.aspx keys concerned. Uninstalling Firefox would have scrapped the HKLM entries.

Not (and never will be) a windows 7 user but have you tried http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7413/how-to-make-google-chrome-your-default-browser/?

Yes, but thanks.

Have you tried running Chrome as an administrator? Right click on the Chrome icon in the taskbar then right click on the "Google Chrome" menu item and select "Run as adminstrator". My guess is that there's a bug in Chrome where it's trying to set itself as default but it doesn't realize that needs to elevate to do so.

Have you tried running Chrome as an administrator? Yep. flabdablet: I'll give your idea a try tonight.

OK, I went hardcore: uninstalled FF, discovered that Chrome doesn't exist according to Control Panel > Programs (which might be related), reinstalled Chrome, asked it to be Default when installing - which failed, and got the same message box. But this time, when I checked it, closed and restarted Chrome, it took. Looks like something went wrong during the first install.

Thanks, flabdablet - and I only think of Ninite for installing multiple programs. In the future, I'll consider it for single installs, I guess.

A wrinkle I've found that makes the free version of Ninite more convenient is bookmarking the "change apps" link that turns up on the download page for the generated installer. That link takes you to the main Ninite page with all the applications you selected last time preselected, so you can just add another application or two to your existing set without needing to remember all the things. That link is also easy to generate programatically because the format is really simple e.g. https://ninite.com/?select=7zip-chrome-classicstart-greenshot-vlc If you're going to use Ninite to install Dropbox, you'll still get a per-profile Dropbox installation by default. Here's a script I wrote to http://flabdablet.nfshost.com/windows-scripts/dropbox-all-users.cmd: put it in the same folder as the https://www.dropbox.com/downloading?full=1&os=win and launch it via Run As Administrator. Recent versions of the Dropbox installer include a pop-up warning, even when the /S switch is used for a silent install, about installations not working properly if the installer is run as an administrator. If you see that while using my script, it's safe to dismiss and ignore it. Having done a system-wide Dropbox install, Ninite will keep it updated correctly.