Google Chrome Browser Extentions: Install/uninstall Process

[Saint_Michael 3]

We all know that that when Chrome first came out, there was no extension support, but now with 2.0.180.0 it is now possible to create and run extensions on Chrome and the process isn't pretty. Unlike Firefox, you have to old school the activation of Chrome extensions by adding the following line to the command line of Google Chrome:

 

--enable-extensions

 

Now to get to command line of Google Chrome, you right click on the Chrome Icon and then select properties and you will get the following window

 

 

As you notice you need to aff --enable-extensions after the quote and then click ok. Then restart chrome if you have to and then you ready to go. As for extensions there is not many, however, to get them going you have to a drag and drop those extensions to get them installed, but unlike Firefox, you don't have to restart the browser for them to take effect. Hopefully in the coming months that they improve on the installation and activation on Chrome extensions by at least matching how Mozilla implements extensions into Firefox.

 

Also there is another way to run extensions in chrome and that is by adding the user script into your bookmark bar and to it add it all you do is drag the link into the bookmark bar. Chrome Dual View uses this method in order to run that extension an there are other scripts as well that do this and so make sure you check your links as you will either be seeing a .crx extension or a long Javascript code, and if you see that Javascript code that is what you add to bookmark bar.

 

So lets get down to the extensions so far that can be used.

 

Gmail Notifier

 

Just like Firefox extension, this extension alerts you on how many unread emails that you have in your gmail account.

 

Google Reader

 

This extension is used to subscribe to RSS feeds to your Google Reader account and you do is go to the RSS feed and click the subscribe button down below.

 

Chrome Dual View

 

With this Chrome extension, it gives you the opportunity to split the Chrome tab into two and be able to visit two websites at once. The only downside to this extension is that you need to know the links you want to use because you cannot select which window to change and if you go to a new site within that tab you lose the dual view. So it is not reccomend to run two search engines at once or you will go back to one window.

 

Adsweep

 

This extension is used to block ad's that appear all over the web, just like Adblock for Firefox. Of course, there is a Adblock extension for chrome that you can get right here

 

So those are just a few of the extensions being made and I have consolidated a list of websites that are nothing but Chrome extensions.

 

blogote.com

 

Chromeplugins.com

 

Now one of the big problems right now of which I hope Chrome fixes eventually is the ability to uninstall Chrome extensions, because right now you have to go through this small little process to delete the files:

 

Uninstalling Chrome Extensions

 

To uninstall an extension, you need to delete its folder and restart Chrome. The extensions that you download from this page are stored under the profile folder.

 

Find your profile folder. It's the directory named Default that's in your user data directory.

Go to the Extensions folder under your profile folder. You'll see a bunch of folders with names like 7868865ecc233b0400abe5d38d88355c03c4bb1a.

Figure out which folder corresponds to the extension you want to uninstall. You can usually tell by looking at the names of the files under the folder. For example, the BuildBot Monitor has the file 7868865ecc233b0400abe5d38d88355c03c4bb1a\0.1\buildbot.html.

Delete the folder.

Restart Chrome.

User Data Directory Locations

 

Windows XP

 

Google Chrome: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

 

Chromium: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data\Default

 

Vista

 

Google Chrome: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

 

Chromium: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Chromium\User Data\Default

 

Linux

 

Chromium: ~/.config/chromium/Default

 

Hopefully when they have a fun extension support that this is one of the areas they cover and hopefully thats soon and of course have a consolidated extension website as well. In other words, Chrome needs to act like Firefox in terms of extension support and soon or Chrome will be an after though to a lot of users and to the browser wars.

[k_nitin_r 8]

Hey, thanks for the tip!I believe Google left extensions hidden away so the casual surfer doesn't start using it just yet. They probably intend to put some sort of security or sandbox in place to keep browser extensions from taking over the system.It's been taking Google quite a while to add new features into Chrome, especially since there are so many open-source components that it can pick up to add to it's inventory.BTW, I was quite surprised to know that Opera has a larger market share than Chrome, especially seeing how much hype is around "Google's Chrome web browser". I'm guessing Opera's popularity is mainly because it was pre-installed on cellular phones running Symbian OS.Regards,Nitin Reddy