I've been facing a weird issue where Google Chrome fails to launch on random Windows 11 (23H2) devices within my organization. When attempting to open it, I only see two instances of chrome.exe in Task Manager and it just doesn't start up. However, if I rename chrome.exe to chrome1.exe, it launches immediately and I see eight instances of chrome1.exe in Task Manager. This issue seems to affect all users on those devices, so I believe it's a device-related problem, not user-specific. I've already ruled out security exclusions and have completely reinstalled Chrome, removing everything from the registry, app data, program files, and any scheduled tasks. Interestingly, after launching chrome.exe 8 to 10 times, it will finally start. I would really appreciate any guidance on this issue. Thanks!
3 Answers
We haven't had this problem with Chrome, but some users are struggling with Word not launching, which is causing issues for around 10% of them—definitely significant.
It might be another process messing with Chrome. Have you run a malware scan? Also, try booting Windows in safe mode with networking to see if Chrome starts normally there.
It sounds like Chrome might be stuck during an update. Have you checked for a chrome_update.exe or something similar? I had a similar issue at work, and we created a logon task that renamed any problematic executables that popped up. It helped us get around the hang-ups.
After launching 8-10 times, it eventually does launch, so this could be a part of the issue.
That worked! Renaming the chrome_proxy.exe to chrome_proxy1.exe did the trick. Thanks for the advice, you saved me a lot of time!
I haven't checked for malware yet, but I'm planning to try that.