Google Chrome installer failed to start
TL;DR Manually delete Chrome uninstaller left overs on Windows to get rid off “Google Chrome installer failed to start” error during reinstall.
Some time last week Google Chrome browser on all workstations (Win7 x64) I use got their preference files corrupted and as a result I lost all my bookmarks, extensions etc.
Internet paranoid as I am, first thing for me was to scan for viruses, and luckily did not find any (just some friendly AdWare my beloved Lenovo has preinstalled for me but that’s another post). Just in case – I uninstalled Chrome and cleaned up registry using ccleaner before I do a clean install. One restart later, I was heading to google.com with my ol’trusty Internet Explorer in order to download and run Chrome installer.
What happened next was beyond everything I was prepared for – Google Chrome was unable to install throwing a undescriptive message: “Installation failed. The Google Chrome installer failed to start.“. Tried everything. Restarting, cleaning left over Chrome stuff manually from disk and registry, downloading and running alternate (offline) Google Chrome installer. No luck. Each time this irritating graphics slammed me:
The funny lol moment was reached when I googled for manual chrome uninstall:
First result, on Google support forum https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/111899?hl=en results in a – Page not available. *FACEPALM*
After hours of wasting my time googling I started considering a Windows re-install.
But at the end, digging through registry paid off. Found additional ‘special’ key which nobody mentioned nowhere for x64 os (Wow6432Node). After deleting it, I was finally able to reinstall Chrome.
First thing I did after I reinstalled it – I run ccleaner and – corrupted Chrome settings. Luckily I could repeat uninstall/reinstall procedure knowing what I was forced to learn. :)
Hope it will help somebody.
Solution
To fix “Chrome installer failed to start” issue, you have to manually delete Chrome uninstaller left overs:
1. Delete “%APPDATA%\Google” folder and all of it’s contents
2. Delete following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Google\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE \Google\
And the most important – for 64-bit Windows, delete also
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Google\
3. If you by any chance use ccleaner or any similar utility for deleting your browser/system cache, and you update your browsers regularly – be 100% sure to always update the cleaning apps to newest versions to avoid corruption of your browsers configuration.
15 thoughts on “Google Chrome installer failed to start”
January 24, 2014 at 10:57
It’s interesting how people still use Windows, despite all this crap.
July 8, 2015 at 01:08
wtf ?
there is nothing and there will never be anything stronger/better/nicer than windows.
January 27, 2014 at 23:48
it worked as sayed. thank you very much !!!!
February 4, 2014 at 13:14
TNX :*
solved
May 22, 2015 at 10:15
Yes, this worked! Thank you so much!
June 8, 2015 at 01:20
U da man!
All the other fixes didn’t have this step:
And the most important – for 64-bit Windows, delete also
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Google\
June 28, 2015 at 21:17
hey there….u r great…
just great….
i was struggling for the problem since 3 days and u just solved it in 5 mins…..
thanks a lot
July 4, 2015 at 17:10
works fine thanks
July 8, 2015 at 01:11
I’ve wasted 6 hours of my life figuring out a way to install the chrome. it was the first time this happened to me.
and finally I found thing page.
thank you thank you ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
July 15, 2015 at 16:26
HELLO,so i know this is old,but i just fixed my issue with it,i don t know what i did to do it but i did 3 things.The first thing i did was make sure it was ran by administrator,then i deleted my host file.Located here:c:\windows\System32\drivers\etc\hos…
it should be called a host,just host,and then if all that didn t work,i went to start menu,then typed firewall,and there should be an option to allow program through firewall,click on that,and then once open,just press on the button where it says change settings,and then allow the program,and then click on browse and find where your setup is.And then lastly find it in the firewall list and click on public and home for it in the list,that should work!Worked for me,your welcome in advance!Love you all! (not gay)
July 16, 2015 at 21:18
wow, so glad my post helped somebody! <3
fact that is 1.5 years old and this issue is still happening to people is - beyond me.
note to my self: update blog :)
July 17, 2015 at 20:18
it’s worked, thanks a lot
July 18, 2015 at 08:28
it working for me great job
July 23, 2015 at 15:40
Thank you
it worked for me
July 29, 2015 at 18:32
Thank you so much! The missing reg key was the difference. Appreciate your time and effort.