This has been bugging me for months. At some point, Google Chrome just stopped working. I would double click the icon, and nothing would happen. The process would show up in task manager, but nothing would show up on the screen. I spent HOURS searching for an answer and finally gave up. Chrome was working fine on my laptop, so I just figured something got corrupted. I have been wanting to rebuild my desktop to fix the problem, but just haven’t had time.
Today, I went to launch Chrome on my laptop and nothing! I was freaking out! Not again!!! The last thing I wanted to do was rebuild my laptop. I decided to try searching again. Since it happened on both of my systems, I figured that someone else must have had the same problem. Finally, I found the answer!
Apparently, the reason Chrome wouldn’t start has something to do with DRM in Vista. I use a great program called Airfoil that lets me stream audio to several Apple Airport Express devices in my house. Airfoil has a feature called “instant hijack” that lets you re-route the audio from an app without restarting it. Apparently if that is turned on, Vista thinks you are trying to be evil. Anyway, as soon as I disabled the instant hijack Chrome started working again. Thank you, Mark, for posting the answer!
I really hate DRM!!!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey glad to see you have been blogging again! :-)
Hey thank you so much for this post, I did not even think this would be an issue with Google Chrome as well but it makes sense, World of Warcraft has this exact same issue.
Anyways since I would much rather have Instant Hi-Jack enabled I thought I might you let know you can just add the Chrome.exe to the exclude list in Airfoil and you can continue using both programs the same as always. The Chrome exe is located in your Username\appdata\Google\Chrome folder, and you can find the exclude list button in the same area where you disable Instant HJT.
Thanks again this helped me out!
I added Chrome.exe to the exclude list and now have Instant Hijack again. Thanks Jens!
Hey I wonder if this is still a problem in the final release (not beta anymore) of Chrome…
It's still the same the newest versions of Chrome. It really has more to do with DRM in Vista and not an issue with Chrome.
I’ve had the same problem, but I just have normal Vista, iTunes, Office, McAfee and AVG. Nothing else. Reinstalled Chrome and nothing! Driving me mad because IE is so fecking slow… any help, in simple terms would be great (i.e. what the hell is DRM?)
Useing Google Chrome since it was released. Could never listen to web streams via Airfol, chrome would show up in the list but no sound.
I just switched back to I.E…. it now all works just fine.
i have the same problem but i dont have airfoil are there any other programs that have this feature and how do i access them
(chrome worked fine until update) where do you disable Instant HJT ?
please help me i dont want to reformat
Nice one! My Chrome hasn’t worked for over a month; had absolutely no idea why, turned Instant Hijack off on Airfoil and instantly working again, awesome.
Just though I’d add to this, AirFoil instant hijack was causing issues all over the system.
* Logitech SetPoint would freeze on install at the ‘installing crucial components’ (or similar message) stage of installation.
* Messenger Live Plus! Would install; but would never launch with Windows Live Messenger.
After disabling Instant HiJack I could install both without any issues, clearly it can cause major issues across Windows.
Hi, google chrome for me hasn’t opened in weeks now. I really hate internet explorer! I tried google chrome and it wouldn’t open. I unistalled google chrome then went to re-install chrome and it wouldn’t let me! I need help. I keep reading about airfoil and instant hijack but what is that stuff?? I have vista but never heard of that. please someone help me out. Really need Google Chrome back and working.
iTS MUCH EASIER TO JUST USE MOZILLA IN VISTA AND DELETE CHROME. I NEVER GOT WHAT THE APPEAL OF CHROME IS ?BUNCH OF HOOEY IF YOU ASK ME.
RUNNING VISTA ON SONY LT25E NOW DELETING CHROME FOR MOZILLA
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