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Title: Windows parental controls are blocking Chrome

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2025 17:02:47 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/computing/windows-pa...

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Microsoft is making it harder to use
Chrome on Windows. The culprit? This time, it's Windows' Family Safety
feature. Since early this month, the parental control measure has prevented
users from opening Chrome. Strangely, no other apps or browsers appear to be
affected.

Redditors first reported the issue on June 3 (via The Verge). u/Witty-
Discount-2906 posted that Chrome crashed on Windows 11. "Just flashes
quickly, unable to open with no error message," they wrote. Another user
chimed in with a correct guess. "This may be related to Parental Controls,"
u/duk242 surmised. "I've had nine students come see the IT Desk in the last
hour saying Chrome won't open."

A Google spokesperson pointed Engadget to a statement in its community forum.
"Our team has investigated these reports and determined the cause of this
behavior," Community Manager Ellen T. wrote. "For some users, Chrome is
unable to run when Microsoft Family Safety is enabled."

Curiously, Microsoft hasn't fixed the bug after 17 days. (Go figure!)

Microsoft

Windows Family Safety is an optional parental control feature for families
and schools. It lets them manage children's screen time, filter their web
browsing and monitor their activity.

There are a couple of workarounds while we wait for the company to take
action. One is to turn off the "Filter Inappropriate Websites" setting in
Family Safety. However, that removes the security feature, letting the kids
run wild on the World Wide Web. (Weeee!!) A simpler fix is to navigate to
your Chrome folder and rename chrome.exe to something like chrome1.exe.

Engadget emailed Microsoft for a comment. We haven't heard back, but we'll
update this story if we do.

If you've ever installed Chrome on Windows, this bug may trigger deja vu.
Microsoft has a long history of desperate tricks to keep you on its default
products. That has included obnoxious prompts, pop-up ads for Bing and
begging users to stick with Edge. At least European users will get some
relief. Microsoft is scaling back its cheap tactics there to comply with EU
regulations.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/windows-pa...
chrome-170247515.html?src=rss

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