Google Chrome LogoAs I mentioned on my personal blog recently, I’ve made the switch to 64-bit Windows 7 on my main home computer.  As someone who is used to using Google Chrome as his secondary browser, I was greatly disappointed when I found that Chrome doesn’t work on 64-bit Windows 7 out of the box.  Since making the switch to 64-bit back in March, I’ve been making do with Firefox, which I use as my primary browser, and Safari 4 Beta as Chrome’s replacement.  Both of those browsers work fine on 64-bit Windows 7, and in fact, there is even an x64 build of Firefox available, though I don’t use it personally because it feels too unofficial.

I decided to catch up on the issue today, though, hoping that maybe some progress had been made in getting Chrome working on 64-bit Windows 7.  A Google search on the subject led me to How to Run Google Chrome on Windows 7 64 bit Version, a post from the beginning of this year that apparently recommends opening up a security hole in order to get the browser to run correctly.  Luckily, though, since then, a couple of commenters have mentioned a much cleaner approach.  Paul, one of the site’s commenters, for example, recommends following the instructions in the Chromium Developer Documentation for updating to the latest “dev” version of the browser.

Upgrading to the latest “dev” build of the browser isn’t without its cons either, though.  In doing so, you are opening yourself up to any bugs or ill-conceived features that wouldn’t ever make their way into a normal, end user-oriented build.  However, for someone like myself who doesn’t mind playing around with risky builds, this is a small, acceptable price to pay for being able to run Chrome on my main computer.

Google refers to the upgrade process as “changing channels,” and the three available channels to choose from, using their Google Chrome Channel Changer, are:

  • Stable: Official Google Chrome releases (~ quarterly updates)
  • Beta: More stable releases (~ monthly updates)
  • Dev: The latest features and bugfixes (~ weekly updates)

After using the Google Chrome Channel Changer to change my channel to “Dev,” the next step involved opening the web browser, selecting the “wrench” dropdown, and going to About Google Chrome.  Initially, though, I didn’t see anything about upgrading to a new version in that dialog.  I ended up having to leave Chrome open and idle for quite a few minutes, with the About Google Chrome dialog closed (though I’m not positive this was a requirement), before I opened it again and found that the browser had upgraded itself to the latest “Dev” version (2.0.177.1 at the time of writing).

To my delight, despite the fact that I’m still unable to run the default version of Chrome on 64-bit Windows 7, I am now running Chrome on my main computer without any issues.  In fact, I’m posting this from Chrome.

If you’ve found yourself in the same position and your mileage has varied, or even if it’s been similar, drop a note here and let us know.

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