Chrome crash on startup

[TooNice]

Couple days ago, my Windows Update completely froze midway, forcing me to force a restart and the system has not been as stable since then. I just tried to roll back to a previous restore point and that seems to have made things worse. Now Chrome won't start at all, I'd get a "Google Chrome has stopped working" as soon as I start the application. It just crash before anything shows up.

A full system install is likely overdue but I don't have time for that right now. For the time being, I just want to re-install Chrome without losing my settings (bookmark abd plug-ins, less bothered about browsing history). Is there an easy way to do that?

And while I am at it. Wear and tear has rendered the CoA sticker on my laptop mostly unreadable (didn't notice it until just now). No idea if I wrote it down elsewhere but I suspect that I haven't. Can anyone vouch for an application to recover the Product Key from my system? Quick Google shows people suggesting Magic Jelly Bean and Belarc Advisor amongst others, but it would be nice to have some re-assurance than those are legit products.

Edit: Actually, a simple reinstall fixed the issue. But the faded CoA issue remains as it could make a reinstall troublesome. I suppose that I could just wait until the day I do the reformat, disconnect my PC before running those apps to make sure they aren't doing anything more than they should..

[peterb]

Magical jelly bean seems to be recommended by a few reputable sites (such as PC World) and the MJB site itself seems OK.

Iirc (which I don't vouch for!) the product key is stored in one of the registry database files, but I don't think it is plain text.

MJB is probably as safe and as good as anything else, but it isn't something I have used myself.

[watercooled]

Key finders may not work with OEM installations - many systems from the same manufacturer will return the same key and this cannot be used to activate Windows. (In fact if you search for a small snippet of an OEM key you'll often find the exact same key posted by a load of people online. E.g. one I have to hand starts with 2TYBW-XKCQM - there are pages of results on Google containing the same exact key.)

The CoA sticker is a different key which can be used for phone activation.

In your situation, you can back up certain files from the drive to activate the new install, which are usually tied to the system firmware. These are generally in the OEM folder but it would be wise to test it while keeping a backup of the original system to make sure you have the right files.

Edit: Depending on the version of Windows you're using, you may need a certain version of the install media - a commonly-available retail DVD may not work.

[jag272]

I've used Magic Jelly Bean previously for Windows XP and can vouch for it. I was under the impression it didn't work on 7 however it may have been updated since to work correctly.

[ApophisXP]

As others have pointed out, MJB is good. But for the time being with your chrome issue; Why not use IE to just redownload chrome? I had an issue where I couldnt load chrome at all anymore. I downloaded the beta version and installed ontop of current one and everything works fine. Settings etc all stayed.

Also, did you have chrome syncing to your google account?

[gurj1979]

Try going into Windows Safe Mode. Run Chrome, then delete Chrome User Profile (You will lose all bookmarks). Then reboot into normal Windows and try Chrome again.