Why didn't I do this before...?

[Salazaar]

Thanks to a small loophole in our ICT policy it seems that I am perfectly able to install Chrome and get rid of dreaded IE7 (which often and repeatedly crashes on me, particularly when I'm trying to use one of our 'wonderful' bit's of web based software).

It's so nice to be using a browser which opens and renders pages smoothly and can handle java heavy apps without falling over

[scaryjim]

It's so nice to be using a browser which opens and renders pages smoothly and can handle java heavy apps without falling over

I can tell you've not been using Chrome for long

To be fair, I'm generally happy with Chrome, but every now and then it has some kind of senior moment and takes about 20 seconds to redraw the screen. It also has an annoying glitch where it occasionally freezes the bottom 150px or so of one page, which then gets stuck across the bottom of all other pages. And I@m sure there are other little niggles I can't think of right now.

But yeah, it's not too bad. So what's the loophole? I need to make sure I don't leave one when I rewrite the IT policy here...

[Salazaar]

But yeah, it's not too bad. So what's the loophole? I need to make sure I don't leave one when I rewrite the IT policy here...

Well I don't know specifically but nothing stopped me installing Chrome where I would otherwise not have administrative privilages to install IE8 or Firefox, so I presume there's something slightly different about the way Chrome installs. I.e. by virtue of the fact that I can install it, I must be allowed to

IE7 was tending to have (very) senior moments every few minutes so even Chrome seems like a godsend by comparison.

[scaryjim]

... by virtue of the fact that I can install it, I must be allowed to

Oooh, dangerous precedent - "Because I can download this movie off the internet, I must be allowed to..."


oh, and p.s. I haven't used IE7 since IE8 became available. And I only used it prior to that for compatibility testing with my websites. I can't imagine why anyone would *choose* to use it...

[finlay666]

I.e. by virtue of the fact that I can install it, I must be allowed to

Nothing physically stopping you going into work naked, doesn't mean you should do it*





*Especially if you work with children or animals

[Salazaar]

It's Chrome and not some dodgy piece of warez filled rubbish, and it improves my productivity so I'm going to risk the wrath of ICT, it's probably more secure than IE7 anyway!

I can't imagine why anyone would *choose* to use it...

The argument goes along the lines of: It's too big a job to upgrade all the PCs, and to make sure all the other software we use remains compatible* so we won't until we absolutely have to.

*On our meagre and, recently, diminishing publicly funded budget.

[scaryjim]

Oh, I know why large corporations still use it (and there are compatibility issues with IE 8 with some of the web-based applications we use) - hell, last time I worked in the NHS we were stuck on IE6 because the expensive badly written ASP.NET applications they used wouldn't run under IE7!

But I know people who *choose* to keep using IE7 even when they know there are better browsers out there. That's what I don't get...

[Funkstar]

Well I don't know specifically but nothing stopped me installing Chrome where I would otherwise not have administrative privilages to install IE8 or Firefox, so I presume there's something slightly different about the way Chrome installs. I.e. by virtue of the fact that I can install it, I must be allowed to

Chrome installs itself to your user space by default, which is very naughty in my opinion. The only reason the devs would do this would be to get round restricted Windows profiles like yours. I think if yoiu take a look at the rules you have for your computer usage you'll find you are now breaking them, regardless of whether you were prevented you from installing or not.

This is also bad from a development point of view as it isn't protected by the UAC like other apps. So I guess a virus or trojan could manipulate Chrome without any Administrator privelages or UAC notifications.

An alternative would be Opera@USB, doesn't install so although you may still be breaking rules by running it, at least you are not installing it. I personally prefer Opera to Chrome. I don't know what it is, I just don't like the look and feel of Chrome.

[Salazaar]

I think if yoiu take a look at the rules you have for your computer usage you'll find you are now breaking them, regardless of whether you were prevented you from installing or not.

I probably am, but given the circumstances I'll stick with my decision for now. They can always make me uninstall it if they really don't like it.

[Funkstar]

See my edit in case you were replying while I changed my post

Or have a look here as well - Portable Chrome!
http://portableapps.com/apps/interne...hrome_portable

[TooNice]

*Especially if you work with children or animals

To be honest, I don't think the animals really care, and they are naked anyway. Of course, we have a habit of caring on behalf of others so the point stand I guess if you care about your reputation.

I use IE nowadays for anything that doesn't seem to play with FF (yes, it happens, recently iPlayer/ITV player stopped working on my FF install even though the likes of YouTube work fine, and I can't find a fix for it).

By and large it's okay but I wonder if Chrome would is lighter resource wise. Due to fan failure on my laptop, it is now heavily underclocked, and ITV player stutters a bit. It's really Flash that's eating those CPU cycles, but any reduction on the browser end would be welcome.

[Singh400]

Yeaaah done this ages ago. Always hated the fact that it in install to local settings, but this is one plus side. Not that it would have stopped me anyway, knowing the admin password helps alot

[jim]

I used to run Firefox off a USB stick fairly regularly when I was at school, along with Notepad++ and various other tools.

Although the most impressive thing anybody did was bringing in a linux livecd and booting from it to play tux racer... poor IT teacher confiscated the disk, then popped it into his Windows laptop and spent half an hour trying to work out how the hell it worked

[kalniel]

It's really Flash that's eating those CPU cycles

Update to the GPU accelerated version/drivers?

I used to run Firefox off a USB stick fairly regularly when I was at school, along with Notepad++ and various other tools.

They enabled USB drives on school computers?! I would not like to have been looking after that network...

[jim]

USB sticks were everywhere, everybody had them... virtually no other method of storage was used.

I agree though. A girl said to me once "Can I borrow your PC to print my coursework off?" - she was one of my mates so I said she could, then she popped the USB stick in and a Sophos message came up "Virus detected in autorun.inf". I turned round, looking shocked, and she said "Oh yeah, had a virus on this thing for months."

She went on to print it while I just sat there, open-mouthed. People have really bizarre attitudes toward things at times.

[chuckskull]

Not sure how old jim is, but when I was in school the security was laughable, it was run by the PE teacher, who'd done an afternoon course. Ran circles round it. We had unreal and 3D pool on all the workstations.

I got in the proverbial rather deep for that, when they finally hired someone who knew what they were doing

Back on topic, love portableapps myself, another vote for them. If you really have to do it, I'd stick to them rather than installing anything, as you never know when someone will come looking for an excuse to fire you, not nice, but it happens and breaching the ICT policy so obviously is just making it easy for them.