When you download Chrome from the official website, it downloads a tiny installer that later downloads the actual files and automatically installs it on your PC. However, if you want to install Chrome on more than one device without having to separately download on each device, or want to have a Chrome installer offline with you on a USB, then the official installer won’t work. Thankfully, Chrome also offers offline installer on the official website, but it is hidden. If you want the offline installer, here is a post listing all the latest offline installers for Chrome.
If you need to access a particular website often — say your workplace website — then you can create a shortcut of it on your desktop to directly open it in Chrome when you want to launch Chrome. This is very similar to bookmarking, but you won’t have to separately open Chrome and then open the website from the bookmark, basically skipping a step. To do so, click on Chrome’s main menu and select “Create shortcut” from the “More tools” option. Now click on the “Create” button when the confirm pop up comes, and the shortcut will be created.
If you have a password-protected PDF file, then you can remove its password with Chrome and make it available to everyone (you must know the password already). All you need to do is open the PDF file in Chrome and then Print (Ctrl+P) a new one that will not be password protected. Here are step-by-step instructions to remove the password from a PDF using Chrome.
Chrome can also be used as a file explorer to access files on your PC. You can particularly use this feature to access files inside a corrupted USB drive that your PC explorer is unable to access. To do so, type USB drive address such as “E:/” or “F:/” and click on file:///E:/ that shows in the search results. Basically, enter the USB drive letter and add a colon and slash at the end to access it. This will open all the contents of the USB drive. Just drag and drop the files from Google Chrome to the destination folder in your PC, and they will be copied there.
With evolving web, more and more websites now offer a responsive design, which eliminates any need to zoom into the content. But what if there’s a caution message that is too small to read, or something in an image that catches your eye (maybe a bird, eh?) and you wanna dive in deep. With Chrome, you can enable the old pinch-to-zoom functionality on every web page, and zoom as much as you would like. Go to Chrome Settings > Accessibility and check the Force enable zoom option.
This Chrome for Android trick can be useful when downloading large files. Parallel downloading essentially divides the file in multiple parts for simultaneous downloading. This technique increases overall speeds, making your life less stressful.
Some websites don’t have apps, or maybe you would rather not use them. Pages and web apps can often work better and a shortcut in your home screen would be the ideal solution. Chrome for Android makes this possible with a few taps.
Reader mode will simplify a website and provide a cleaner experience for those who want to focus on text. Images, videos, font variations, and other unnecessary elements will be slashed. This mode can be forced on in the Chrome flags settings.
Not being the best with numbers I often resort to double-checking my sums using a calculator. In Chrome you can subtract the hassle of opening an app, launching a website or reaching for your phone by using the Chrome App Launcher to perform simple sums instead. Just like Google (the search engine) basic sums can be calculated quickly, and it supports semi-advanced features like brackets, tan, cos and sine.
Most people should know what Incognito Mode is, but we thought it was important enough to bring it up just in case. Browsing in Incognito mode will keep your internet activity private. Nothing you do in Incognito mode will be stored in your history or phone.