Did you know that Google Chrome is available to install on the corporate Windows desktop at the University of Lincoln, as an alternative to Microsoft/Windows Internet Explorer 7? I didn’t, until yesterday, but now I’ve just found out how to install it:
- Go to the Start menu and select the Control Panel;
- Double-click on Add or Remove Programs;
- When the ‘Add or Remove Programs’ window appears, select Add New Programs;
- Scroll down the alphabetical list until you see Google Chrome 10.0. Select it, and click on Add.
Once it’s been installed (which will take a minute), you should be able to find it in the Start menu, under All Programs > Google Chrome. You can create a shortcut by draging the icon to your desktop if you want.
N.B. unfortunately the way Chrome has been deployed means that it “doesn’t support Roaming Profiles properly and instead stores all user data in the Local Settings on the PC. This means bookmarks and other preferences will not follow users if they move between different PCs”.
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A version of Mozilla Firefox is also available on the corporate desktop: supplied “as an experimental trial” by ICT services, it uses a VMware ‘thin’/virtual application, so that you don’t have to physically install it on your computer: instead the application is delivered over the network every time you use it.
You can find it at P:\Firefox. The version available here is version 3 of Firefox; I don’t know if there are any plans to upgrade this to the current version. You can create a shortcut by draging the icon from the P: drive to your desktop.
Ooh, thanks for this post. I had no idea about the Chromey goodness.
Me either! Tim let it slip yesterday. I’ve never much bothered with Chrome, but I’ve been having some problems with Firefox lately, so I’m going to give it a go.
We’ve always been able to use Chrome on the corporate desktop
You just have to download the .exe and install it. Do you know whether the auto updates work from the version that’s installed the way you’ve described? That’s the problem with the Firefox that’s provided. It’s way out of date and therefore a security risk.
I don’t know (about updates), no. Leigh Haynes advises against downloading directly. I could install it ‘properly’, as I have admin rights. But I try to avoid using them unless absolutely necessary. “With great power,” etc. Also I have a tendency to muck things up.