Google Chrome by Google, is arguably the most popular web browser in the world. Its lightweight nature and lightning-quick performance allow you to visit pages instantly, while its enhanced security ensures that you remain safe on the websites you visit. Chrome by Google is dominating the browser market with over 64% market share as of March 2024 over its major competitors like Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari Browser, Opera & Opera GX.
Love Google? Love browsing fast and safe? Download Chrome today for free directly from Softlay, the browser that integrates seamlessly into nearly all of Google’s services (Gmail, Drive, YouTube). The benefits of downloading it are that it’s super secure, easy to use, consistently updated, and now is starting to receive exclusive Google AI features (Chrome Experimental Features) integrated into the browser like SGE, generative AI in Search, a tab organizer, theme generator, and an experimental tool to help you confidently write content online, with more to come in the future.
How To Free Download and Install Google Chrome on Windows
Ready to get started? Let’s walk you through downloading and installing the latest version of Google Chrome. It’s a short process so it won’t take long at all.
Step 1: Download the Chrome 32/64-bit offline installer from the top of this page and launch it.
Step 2: Chrome will automatically start installing, wait for this process to complete.
Step 3: Once installation is complete you should see the window below, click Close to close this window.
Step 4: Google Chrome’s latest version 123.0.6312.59 is now successfully installed on your Windows PC.
What Is Google Chrome and What Can It Do?
Launched on September 2, 2008, Google Chrome is the fastest, safest, and most easy-to-use web browser in the world right now. It was originally launched as an alternative to Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, it has since then surpassed both of its competitors. It’s built on the Chromium engine, an open-source web browser project, Opera is also known to use the same Chromium engine.
From Chrome’s clean minimalistic design to the beautiful integration of the Bookmarks bar effortlessly syncing with your other devices using the same Google ID, its endless customization options with themes and extensions from the Chrome Web Store to browsing experience, And for those private moments online, Chrome Incognito Mode ensures your sessions stay discreet. All of this ensures that Chrome is the perfect choice as a web browser.
Let’s dive deeper and see all the amazing features Chrome has to offer!
Google Chrome Features
Speed & Security:
- Lightning Fast Browsing: Chrome is known for its speed, letting you navigate the web quickly and efficiently.
- Built-in Security: Browse with peace of mind thanks to Chrome’s automatic protection against malware, phishing, and other online threats.
- Safe Browsing Warnings: Get alerted before visiting suspicious websites that could harm your device or steal information.
- Sandboxing: This technology isolates each tab, so if a website tries something malicious, it can’t affect other tabs or your computer.
- Password Manager: Store your login credentials securely in Chrome and access them easily across devices.
Seamless Integration:
- Sync Across Devices: Access your bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history on all your devices with a Google account.
- Works with Google Tools: Effortlessly switch between Gmail, Drive, YouTube, and other Google apps straight from Chrome.
- Google Assistant Integration: Use Google Assistant within Chrome to search the web, answer questions, or control smart home devices with your voice.
- Google Lens Integration: Right-click on any image and use Google Lens to identify objects, translate text, find similar products, or get more information – all within Chrome.
- Built-in PDF Viewer: Chrome allows you to view and interact with PDF files directly within the browser. Open, read, zoom, and even search for text within PDFs – all without needing a separate program. This saves you time and keeps your workflow streamlined.
Customization & Organization:
- Sleek & Modern Design: Enjoy a clean, minimalistic, and intuitive interface that makes browsing a pleasure.
- Customizable Toolbar: Drag and drop features to personalize your toolbar for easy access to what you use most.
- Bookmark Bar: Never lose track of your favorite websites with the handy bookmark bar.
- Bookmark Folders: Organize your bookmarks into folders for easy navigation.
- Themes: Change Chrome’s look and feel with a variety of free and customizable themes from the Chrome Web Store or use the new AI theme creator tool.
Power Up Your Browsing:
- Extension Library: Extend Chrome’s functionality with thousands of free extensions for everything from password management to ad blockers, VPNs, grammar checkers, shopping assistants, etc.
- Voice Search: Use your voice to search the web or navigate Chrome hands-free.
- Built-in Translate: Read websites in foreign languages with ease thanks to Chrome’s translation feature.
- Offline Reading: Save articles for later and read them even without an internet connection.
- Reading List: Organize and manage articles you want to read later in a dedicated list.
- Cast to Devices: Stream videos and photos from Chrome directly to your Chromecast or other compatible devices.
- Chrome Download Manager: Easily manage your downloads and access downloaded files directly from Chrome.
- Built-In Spell Checker: Features a built-in spelling checker to eliminate mistakes while typing.
Privacy & Control:
- Incognito Mode: Browse privately without websites tracking your activity.
- Clear Browsing Data: Delete your browsing history, cookies, and cached data to control your online footprint.
- Privacy Settings: Fine-tune your privacy settings to manage how websites track your browsing behavior and personalize ads.
- Site Permissions: Grant or deny permissions for websites to access your location, microphone, camera, and other features.
Multi-device & Advanced Features:
- Chrome Remote Desktop: Turn your phone, tablet, or another computer into a remote control for your desktop! This allows you to view and transfer files, run programs, and even provide technical support directly through your web browser with an internet connection.
- Multiple Profiles: Chrome allows you to create individual profiles for different users. Each profile has its own bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and extensions, keeping your online experience separate and secure. These profiles are then also used for other services Google provides.
- Multi-device Support: Chrome is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS, letting you browse seamlessly on any device.
- End-to-End Encryption: Enjoy secure connections for added privacy when using certain Chrome features, like Google Meet calls.
- Sync Your Tabs: Open tabs on one device and instantly access them on another for a smooth workflow.
- Family Link: Manage children’s online activity with Chrome’s parental controls included in Family Link.
- Chromecast Support: Cast web content to your TV using a Chromecast device for a bigger-screen experience.
- Accessibility Features: Chrome offers various accessibility features like screen readers, high-contrast mode, and text scaling to enhance browsing for everyone.
Productivity
Chrome takes the responsibility of doing all your tasks quickly. Seamlessly sync your browsing data across all your devices with a single Google account. This sync feature also lets you access your YouTube, Gmail, and Google Drive, and all the data from important online tools like Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets is also accessible.
All you have to do is to turn on the sync in Google Chrome. Bookmarks, history, and other settings are synced to your account and can be detected in real time. It now comes with a built-in dark mode as well which is the trend being followed by every application.
Chrome Web Store
The Chrome web store with endless extensions and themes from Google itself, and other contributors as well. You can have free extensions and themes on the website as well. Add a theme that best suits you to make your browser your own.
Adding any extension or theme is done very simply with a single click. Popular VPNs like ExpressVPN, Nord VPN, and SurfShark VPN also offer their VPNs as extensions for Google Chrome as well, and different ad-blocking extensions as well.
Security
With Google Chrome, security risks from 3rd party software and other malware have been reduced to a great extent. You don’t need to waste your precious time worrying about your security or even solving them on your own with its auto-updating feature that ensures you are up-to-date and secure.
Google aims for its customers to have peace of mind, and security is one major aspect. The newest technology built into Chrome avoids dangerous websites. Warnings are generated by Chrome on deceptive websites that trick you into obtaining your passwords.
Block Ads
For those who wonder how to stop ads on Google Chrome? Every Browser is trying to eliminate annoying ads and make the web clutter-free. Annoying and malicious ads are blocked on Google Chrome, in addition to the reduction of auto-playing videos, and countdowns.
Room for Improvement
With Chrome’s improvements in the latest versions of Chrome’s advanced technologies like site isolation, sandboxing, predictive phishing protection, etc, users can hope to get a truly secure and memory-efficient Chrome but there is still room to improve further as Chrome is known to be laggy on older and weaker hardware.
How to Update Chrome?
There’s a new Chrome release every four weeks, making it easy to have the newest features and a faster, safer web browser. However if for any reason Chrome does not auto-update for you then follow these steps to manually do it:
Step 1: Launch Chrome and click on the three dots in the top right corner, then go to Help and click on About Google Chrome.
Step 2: Google Chrome will start downloading the latest available update.
Step 3: Once the update is complete, click on Relaunch, and the browser will restart with the new update applied.
FAQs
To clear any of this data follow these instructions: click on the three dots in the top right corner > Settings > Privacy and security > Clear Browsing data > Select what you need to clear and until which point in time > Finally click Clear Data and it will be done.
Go to the Start menu > Settings > click Apps > Default Apps > In the Set defaults for applications section, type Chrome into the search box > click on Google Chrome > Next to Make Google Chrome your default browser, click Set default. Google Chrome is now set as your default browser.
To group tabs simply right-click on any open tab and click on “Add tab to a new group“. You can then also save the group or add more tabs to it.
To export bookmarks from Chrome into another browser follow these instructions: Open Chrome > Click the three-dot icon in the top-right corner > Hover over Bookmarks > Click Bookmark Manager> Click the three-dot icon to the right of the search bar > Select Export Bookmarks > Choose where to save your Chrome bookmarks > Name the file, and select Save.
Chrome can be uninstalled like any other app by going to the “Add or Remove Programs” menu, locating Chrome, and clicking Uninstall.
Ready to experience the web at lightning speed? Download Google Chrome today, for FREE!
