How to Install Google Chrome to a Custom Location on PC

Normally Google Chrome cannot be installed on different drive or directory as it installs itself on a default location, no matter you downloaded a web installer or full standalone installer! But it may happen that you need to install Chrome on a different location on different drive. In that case, you need to alter the directory of the installation. Though the official Chrome installer program never comes with this functionality, you can do this by using a “Symbolic linker”. Symbolic Linker will assign symbolic link between two file or folder locations. For symbolic linking, Chrome will think it is installing on its default directory, while installing on your custom directory!

Step by Step on Installing Chrome on Different Directory

Step 1: If you already have Google Chrome installed on PC, uninstall it.
Step 2: Create a folder named Chrome on the location you want to install Google Chrome. I created it in E: drive!
Step 3: Download Symlink Creator. It’s a free and open-source tool. Launch it (make sure it is running with administrative privilege). Now from the Symlink window, choose “Directory Symbolic Link” from Type of link drop down menu.

Step 4: Now the most important part is choosing destination link and source link. Destination link is the directory where Chrome installs by default. And source link is your custom location. Another thing you have to understand that, Chrome uses two different locations to store installation files. If C: is your System directory, Chrome installs its application data in C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome and User Data files in C:\Users\ \AppData\Local\Google\Chrome where is your Windows username. For example, my windows username is rijans. So by default chrome user data will be installed on C:\Users\rijans\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome.

Symlinking Application Folder: Paste the address “C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome“ in the Destination (link) field without quotes. Or locate this location by clicking on “Browse”. While browsing, if you don’t find the location, manually create it! Now in Source (Target) field, Enter the address of the custom location you created. For me, I’ll put “E:\Chrome” without quotes as it is my custom location! You don’t have to do anything with command window if you don’t understand it. Then hit Create Link.

Symlinking User Data Folder: To avoid confliction, relaunch the program Symlink Creator. Now in Destination, put your Chrome’s default User Data location. I’ll put “C:\Users\rijans\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome” without quotes where “rijans” will be changed by your windows username (you may go to C:\Users to find it). Source should be same as “E:\Chrome“. You put according to your location. Then hit Create Link. You are done! Exit Symlink Creator.

Step 5: Download latest version of Chrome and install it. Now it should install on your new custom path.

Alternative tools: If you face any problem with Symlink Creator tool, you can try Symlinker.

This tutorial is inspired by a command line workaround by Matt Skaggs. I have made this guide to make the process more easier for all. Let me know if it worked.

Note: For the lazy ones, I think downloading portable version of Chrome would be best idea to install Chrome on custom directory.

Author: Jaber Al Nahian

Jaber is a Programmer and Tech Enthusiast Geek from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is the founder and Chief-Editor of TechGainer. While he is away from his keyboard, either he’s fishing or messing with wildlife. In case, you can contact him at rijans[at]techgainer[dot]com.

What is default location of ChromeDriver and for installing Chrome on Windows

I need to install chromedriver on Windows OS. In the article below they specify:

«. ChromeDriver expects you to have Chrome installed in the default location for your platform. «

But I’m not sure what is the default location ?

On Mac OS it’s /usr/local/bin .

With this I don’t have to specify path explicitly or setup system path either.

How to achieve the same on Windows OS?

5 Answers 5

For any driver that Selenium must use to open the browser ( chromedriver , geckodriver , etc), you don’t have to worry about where it is installed, as long as it’s set in the PATH variable.

If you have it set in the OS PATH variable, you must be able to run it from the command or cmd (it’s always good to make sure it’s working).

Here’s how you can set it (append to the existing value):

Then you can just instantiate it as follows:

Hope it’s somehow helpful.

These are two interrelated important questions as follows :

• Default location of ChromeDriver
• Default location of Chromium/Google Chrome

ChromeDriver

You can download the recently released ChromeDriver from ChromeDriver — WebDriver for Chrome page and place it any where within your system. When you initialize the ChromeDriver you need to pass the absolute path of the ChromeDriver binary.

Additionally, you can also help WebDriver to locate the downloaded ChromeDriver executable through the following steps :

• Include the ChromeDriver location in your system PATH environment variable.
• (Java) Specify the location of ChromeDriver through the webdriver.chrome.driver system property
• (Python) Specify the location of ChromeDriver when instantiating webdriver.Chrome()

Chromium/Google Chrome

The most important fact is you need to ensure that Chromium/Google Chrome is installed in a recognized location as per the ChromeDriver — Requirements as the server expects you to have Chromium/Google Chrome installed in the default location for each system as per the snapshot:

Note : For Linux systems, the ChromeDriver expects /usr/bin/google-chrome to be a symlink to the actual Chrome binary. You can also override the Chrome binary location following Using a Chrome executable in a non-standard location .

Google Chrome Path in Windows 10

Google repeatedly changed the path to the .exe of Chrome. Sometimes it’s hidden in %APPDATA%, in Version 35/36 they changed the path back to program files. There are also differencies across the Windows versions.

Where is Google Chrome located in Windows 10?

5 Answers 5

Please see the screenshot which gives you the ability to seek for the current path of google chrome path or any other application Task Manager — Windows 10

Windows 10:

• %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
• %ProgramFiles%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
• %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe

Windows 7:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Application\chrome.exe

Vista:

• C:\Users\UserName\AppDataLocal\Google\Chrome

• C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome

There are also Registry Keys and environment variables to use. Check out this post for universal use for programming.

The answer I am writing is applicable for any software/application installed on windows.

Click on windows button and search for the application, in this case Chrome. Right click on application name and click on «Open file location».

You will reach at location of the shortcut of that application. Again right click on the application shortcut and then click on «Open file location». right click on shortcut demo picture

And you will get your path for desired application. Picture showing path of application being highlighted

PS: Doesn’t works for apps installed from windows store.

How to Install Chrome on a Different Drive in Windows

My PC has a small hard drive, so I have only allocated 25GB of space to the C drive (system drive) and store all my data in other drives. Everything works fine – except for Chrome. In case you don’t know, there’s no option to install Chrome on any other drive except the system drive (i.e. the C drive). And even if you move the Chrome application to a different drive, its data is still recorded in the system drive which easily accounts for GBs of space over time.

After a bit of research and experiments, I managed to find a simple method to beat Chrome in its own game. With the help of junctions in Windows, you can make Chrome think it is still on the system drive even though its content will be on a different drive.

If you are also looking to move Chrome to a different drive, then keep reading and I’ll show you how to do it.

1. Delete previously installed Chrome

First, you need to delete the contents of any previous Chrome installation and also create a destination folder on a different drive where you want to install Chrome.

Uninstall Chrome and move to the below-mentioned location in your PC:

C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

In the above location, replace Your Username with your actual username. In my case, it’s Administrator.

When you reach the Google folder, delete the Chrome folder inside it. Make sure you don’t delete the Google folder.

Afterwards, go to the drive where you want to install Chrome and create a folder in which you want Chrome to reside. I have created a folder with the name Chrome in D drive.

2. Download and install the Junction app

Although junctions is a Windows built-in feature, but Windows natively doesn’t ship with an application to create junctions. You’ll need a third-party junction app available on Microsoft website. Here’s how to install it.

1. Download Junction app from the Microsoft website.
2. It would be in ZIP format. Open the zip file using your preferred extraction tool (like 7-zip) and extract the junction.exe (or junction64.exe if you have a 64-bit system) file in C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Make sure you install it in the System32 folder inside the Windows, otherwise it won’t work.

3. Create junction using the Junction app

Now you need to create a junction to redirect data from the default Chrome destination to the new one. It’s a command line tool, so we’ll have to use Windows Command Prompt to create the junction.

Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog and type cmd in it to open the Command Prompt.

Here you need to enter the below-mentioned command accordingly.

junction.exe «Default location of Chrome» «Your destination location»

You need to replace the locations accordingly in the above command as I have mentioned and make sure you add the quotes (“”) as well. In my case, the actual command looks like this:

junction.exe «C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome» «D:\Chrome»

Hit enter and you will see a confirmation that the location has been targeted.

4. Download and install Chrome

Now go to the Chrome website and download and install Chrome as you normally do. The Chrome application will be installed in the default location in the system drive, but its data folder will be made in the new location that you created in a different drive.

There is no need to move Chrome application to the new destination as well. It is hardly 300MB in size after installation and will not grow in size over time. However, if you don’t want the Chrome application on the system drive as well, then follow the below instructions.

1. Go to C drive > Program Files > Google. Here right-click on Chrome folder and select Cut.
2. Now move to the destination folder where you want Chrome and paste the Chrome folder.

Note: If you’ll move the Chrome application, its desktop shortcut will become unusable. You’ll have to create a new desktop shortcut from the new location of Chrome.

To remove the junction

In the future, if you need to install Chrome again in the default location, then you’ll have to remove the junction first. Here’s how to do it.

Uninstall Chrome and open the Command Prompt. Afterwards, enter the below-mentioned command as described.

junction -d «The default location of Chrome where you created the junction»

Fill the required field accordingly. In my case, it looks like this.

junction -d «C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome»

Conclusion

The above process might be a little cumbersome, but it will surely be able to fool Chrome and make it work from a different drive. It’s good to know that you can also use the above method to move Chrome to a different drive instead of installing it from scratch.

To do so, instead of deleting Chrome’s data folder, cut it and move it to the new location and then create the junction. Do let us know in the comments if you have any questions.