back to article Latest Chrome adds Chrome OS flavor to Windows 8 'Metro' mode

Google on Tuesday delivered a new stable version of Chrome that offers a few features previously only available in beta versions, as well as giving a major overhaul to the UI of the browser's Windows 8 mode. The new version is the first mainstream release to include a feature that allows users to quickly locate tabs that are …

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  1. king of foo

    missed a trick...

    All google need now is a "start" button at the bottom left corner... Ha

    1. king of foo

      Re: missed a trick...

      Wait... It DOES have a start button at the bottom left...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: missed a trick...

        Google is the new Microsoft...

  2. Decade
    Facepalm

    Chrome is now unstable and unusable

    If you're using a non-touchscreen, then if you try to reach that start button in the bottom-left, the Windows start button appears and covers up the Chrome start button.

    The Metro mode doesn't work properly with Windows 8.1 Snap view. It doesn't resize the windows to fit half the screen, so it's sort of useless.

    Furthermore, now I'm seeing Chrome crash while editing Google Drive. Does anybody at Google actually test Chrome on Windows anymore?

    1. bigtimehustler

      Re: Chrome is now unstable and unusable

      I think the icon appearing over the screen like that, covering up whatever is underneath is kind of an OS design issue, rather than an application design issue. But still, you wouldn't place things there if you knew it was going happen...at least I wouldn't...maybe they wanted to point out how stupid the appearing start button really is though.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: Chrome is now unstable and unusable

      @Decade -

      >"If you're using a non-touchscreen, then if you try to reach that start button in the bottom-left, the Windows >start button appears and covers up the Chrome start button."

      Not on my machine - it's working fine. It's an app menu.

      >"The Metro mode doesn't work properly with Windows 8.1 Snap view. It doesn't resize the windows to fit >half the screen, so it's sort of useless."

      You are doing it wrong - the Chrome resize button is not the snap view. If you want to get into snap view, grab the top of the screen and drag down a couple inches - Chrome will snap into half the screen. You can resize it to about 3/4 of the screen. I'm typing this in snap view right now, with the Win 8 Store in the other half.

      >"Furthermore, now I'm seeing Chrome crash while editing Google Drive. Does anybody at Google actually test Chrome on Windows anymore?"

      Not crashing for me. I opened a spreadsheet and two documents at the same time in different tabs and have been editing all three. It's working fine.

      Maybe you should try uninstalling and then re-installing a clean copy of Chrome? Sounds like you've got some glitches going on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Chrome is now unstable and unusable

        "If you want to get into snap view, grab the top of the screen and drag down a couple inches - Chrome will snap into half the screen."

        Huh? I thought Snap was Left/Right in Windows 8 - how does dragging from the top get you a left/right split?

    3. Tom 38

      Re: Chrome is now unstable and unusable

      Furthermore, now I'm seeing Chrome crash while editing Google Drive. Does anybody at Google actually test Chrome on Windows anymore?

      Probably not that much. They have a "developer" track of chrome that lots of IT types voluntarily use in order to be alpha testers, and Google have always treated regular users as beta users - and by and large, the users are happy to go along with this.

      In general, you get the polish you pay for. Google software is free*, so don't expect much polish.

      * allegedly free - their may be stains on the soul that do not appear until later

  3. Jim Willsher

    <pedant>

    It's the register .CO.UK, can we have flavour instead of flavor please. Thank you, I'll get my coat.

    </pedant>

    1. ISYS
      Pint

      Not pedantic - just preserving correct English.

      A pint of real beer to you.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Facepalm

        That's the wrong color and flavor. You Brits drink that dark beer don't you? What do you call it - Guinness Stot? Snot?

        1. ISYS

          Guinness is Irish not British........

          1. Tom 38

            Guinness is Irish not British

            Technically, Irish is British, Ireland being one of the 6,000+ islands that make up the British Isles.

            Although I'm sure anyone who considers themselves Irish would vehemently disagree.

            1. Test Man

              "Technically, Irish is British, Ireland being one of the 6,000+ islands that make up the British Isles."

              Nope. The island of Ireland is part of the British Isles (a group of islands, although the Irish would beg to differ on even that point). This is not where the description of nationality of objects comes from.

              "British" is an adjective that describes objects, etc. that have come from a specific area whose component parts were once the Kingdom of England (England and Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland (Scotland) and was subsequently combined to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

              "The Irish" is an adjective that describes objects, etc. that have come from a specific area, that is Ireland, which once was the Kingdom of Ireland and was subsequently joined with the Kingdom of Great Britain to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (and the last part subsequently "Northern Ireland).

              Being "British" confers the object geographical status related to "Great Britain". This does not and never has been conferred to anything with a geographical status relating to anything located in the island of Ireland.

              1. king of foo

                "British" is a word created by the English so they can try to steal some of the glory of their neighbours in the context of sporting events. Us Scots are usually shite at sports but on the rare occasion someone does does do well...

                Wikipedia:

                Frederick John "Fred" Perry (18 May 1909 – 2 February 1995) was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams.

                On 7 July 2013, (Andy) Murray won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships, becoming the first British man to do so since Fred Perry, 77 years previously.

                I rest my case.

            2. Stephen Channell
              Pint

              British & Irish isles, but Guinness/Stout/Porter is English!

              The Irish American name now used by the British Loins Rugby (not ones for politcal corectness: Tripple Crown is for the Crowns of England, Ireland & Scotland).

              Stout comes from old London Town, specifically Covernt Garden and only moved to Dublin for clean water

              1. Test Man

                Re: British & Irish isles, but Guinness/Stout/Porter is English!

                Stout might have been invented in London but Guinness specifically was started in Dublin, Ireland.

                What you are saying is as silly as claiming "Club Premium Lager", a Ghanaian drink, is European.

  4. elyl

    Any way

    to get rid of the Chrome OS crap, so I just have a full-screen Chrome browser? No? Google just being awkward for awkward's sake and trying to prove some crappy point about Windows touch apps. Internet Explorer is actually the preferred browser on my tablet, well done Google. Well done.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: Any way

      @elyl - "Any way to get rid of the Chrome OS crap, so I just have a full-screen Chrome browser?"

      F11 works. Also, you can put your mouse up at the top of the screen and right-click -- that will also take you into full-screen mode, and the Chrome shelf will disappear.

    2. Test Man

      Re: Any way

      Just use the Maximise button when in "Desktop" mode, as you have been able to do since the year dot.

      1. elyl

        Re: Any way

        That's not Metro mode, though.

  5. Tannin
    Thumb Up

    unwanted audio

    > The new version is the first mainstream release to include a feature that allows users to quickly

    > locate tabs that are playing unwanted audio.

    YAY! At last! I very much dislike Chrome - it's the airline rubber chicken of the browser world - but this is a feature I have wanted to see for years. The only really surprising thing is that it wasn't invented (like nearly everything else that's any good in browsers) by Opera, back in the days when they made wonderful web browsers instead of buggy fifth-rate Chrome clones.

    Rather against my will, consider me impressed.

  6. Wheaty73

    Now do a RT version

    Go on Google. I dare you.

    1. Test Man

      Re: Now do a RT version

      Can't - browsers are the one thing that is not allowed as an "RT" version.

      1. Jordan Davenport

        Re: Now do a RT version

        I don't know that browsers are explicitly disallowed as they are from the Apple AppStore, though I'll be honest and say I've not read the Windows Store application guidelines. As far as I'm aware though, they just can't hook into the necessary APIs to make a web browser fast enough to use. Furthermore, it would have to be rewritten entirely to use the WinRT APIs.

  7. Semtex451
    Go

    Someone had to

    A pint of Stout to the person that sucks the Chrome off my laptop

  8. Sandtitz Silver badge
    Joke

    "Supervised Users"

    I thought Google had that from the get-go on all their products.

    1. Test Man

      Re: "Supervised Users"

      No, they only introduced the "users" function in a build last year.

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