How to download Google Chrome's full offline installer

Downloading Google Chrome is one of the first things most people do on their computers. It’s one of the most popular apps for a reason. However, it’s not a straightforward process. For one, if you install Google Chrome as the firm recommends it, you’ll first download what is known as a stub application. This is a very small 1MB file that downloads yet another Chrome installer so you’d actually start downloading Chrome itself. If you’d want to download Chrome on one computer and use the same file on multiple other PCs to save bandwidth, you wouldn’t be able to because Google Chrome insists on re-downloading itself every time.

However, if you’re data starved, Google does have a full Chrome offline installer that comes with all the files for Chrome pre-packaged. In essence, you can download once, run everywhere. It’s not immediately obvious where to get it via the regular Chrome download link. You’ll need to find it in the metaphorical file cabinet behind a sign that says beware of the leopard. If you go to this link (Chrome Offline Standalone Installer) you’ll be able to download the Offline Chrom Installer ad associated files at once. It’ll be about 50 MB-ish in terms of size, and needs no further downloads to get it up and running.

Once downloaded, feel free to use this version of Chrome to set up the browser on all your desktop PCs.

Bonus: Take this even further. Download this version of Chrome as a portable app, stick it on a USB drive and carry it with you everywhere.