Update: finally over 2 years after I wrote this, there is a better way of doing this. Use the Chocolatey Chromium package.
The folks at Chromium make it unnecessarily hard to install the Chromium browser. This post from ghacks.net does a good job of explaining the basics.
Here’s what I’ve done to install it for Windows.
Windows
- download chrome-win32.zip (http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-continuous/Win/221974/chrome-win32.zip) [updated 9 Sep 2013]
- unzip it
- move it to your Program Files directory
- run C:\Program Files\chrome-win32\chrome.exe
N.B. the link should be updated based on the current release number.
To make sure you have the latest release read on…
Note: I am using the Continuous builds which have gone through more tests than the snapshot builds as used in the ghacks.net post – at least that’s the impression the Chromium Snapshot Monitor extension gives once you install it (Further note: that extension is broken – I’ve made an attempt at fixing it in a separate post).
The first thing you need is the current release number. This can be found at: http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-continuous/Win/LAST_CHANGE. This changes on a daily basis.
Then use this release number to get to the latest download page. Currently [13 Sep 2013] it is http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-continuous/index.html?path=Win/221974/.
Alternatively (but the page is slow to load) you can find the same folder by scrolling to the bottom of this page (http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-continuous/index.html?path=Win/) and click on the bottom folder.
You want the chrome-win32.zip file from the download page, which contains the following files:
chrome-win32.test– IGNOREREVISIONS– IGNOREchangelog.xml– IGNOREchrome-win32-syms.zip– IGNORE- chrome-win32.zip
devtools_frontend.zip– IGNORE- mini_installer.exe
I find the mini_installer.exe to be second rate – it doesn’t install it in the Program Files directory. I’m not sure why they can’t create a proper nullsoft installer for it.
So as per the start of this section, your best choice is to:
- download chrome-win32.zip [updated 9 Sep 2013]
- unzip it
- move it to your Program Files directory
- run C:\Program Files\chrome-win32\chrome.exe
Upgrading
As Chromium gets updated quite a lot you may want to upgrade it. As any extensions that you install get stored outside the main Chromium installation directory you can delete all the files in the installation directory and replace them with the contents of the latest zip file.
- download chrome-win32.zip [updated 9 Sep 2013]
- unzip it
- delete all the files from your installation directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\chrome-win32\ as above)
- move the files from the unzipped chrome-win32 directory to your installation directory
chrome(chromium) is not meant for the typical install — if you just dump all the files somewhere the exe will run fine. This is to “help” those of us who don’t have admin rights and cannot modify protected file system areas.
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Hi @willem, thanks for the comment. I find it frustrating though, almost every major open source project will produce a stable download, with an installer. Sourceforge and Github are full of them. I don’t see why Chromium can’t do the same.
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Thank you this is a life saver! Stuck with IE 6 at work. I placed this on my desktop and it worked with no issue at all! Passed Virus scan no problem. Instantly synched with Chromium book marks, etc!
Perfect!
Cannot than you enough!
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@scrosler74 glad you found it useful. The number of companies still using IE6 is quite disturbing. Hopefully your company won’t block the chromium website.
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I would like to mention that Google Chrome is Chromium for Windows and other platforms. Besides many Linux distribution have their builds of Chromium. This project is like Linux project. They improve but not maintain end binaries. You can compile it if you like or use compiled version by someone.
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“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Google Chrome is not “Chromium for Windows”. Chrome is based on open-source Chromium, but with additional CLOSED-source code from Google, including user tracking functions. Google Chrome is as corporate as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Apple Safari.
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Thanks @przemo_one, that’s an excellent analogy. Unfortunately the concept of a Linux distro means nothing to most Windows users. I’m sure that Linux users will have no trouble downloading and installing Chromium. I’m currently only using Windows, so this post is purely from my experience and expect that its Windows users that need more help for finding ways to install Chromium.
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If you want to know the diff between the two read http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/ChromiumBrowserVsGoogleChrome
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@SomeDude Thanks for that, an useful comparison. Its different from what I’d seen elsewhere. I guess the big fear is the User metrics section, just the fact that its there even if its turned off by default.
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There is some additional info here as well:
http://bluedesk.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-manually-install-chromium-on.html
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You can easily get the latest version from the official repository here :
http://downloadchromium.com/
Simple and efficient…
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Thanks for this. I’d had Chromium before but this time it had me beaten. Google did not return this website but fine with DuckDuckGo. There’s a message there somewhere!
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I haven’t got any Windows machines to test on. Is this still fairly accurate?
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I doubt it, I haven’t maintained this for years. I just use chocolatey now (https://chocolatey.org/packages/chromium) and it handles all updates for me.
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