As the question title says it all, I read Google support, I read few things here and there, the only thing they say is it's for developers and it is updated at a rapid speed, but how exactly is Chrome Canary different from Google Chrome?
Chrome Canary vs Google Chrome – Differences Explained
google-chrome
Related Solutions
Replace YourUsernameHere with your user name. After that copy and paste the below into a text file and save it as canary.reg. then double click the file.
This will only work if you have administrative privileges on your computer. If you are doing this on a computer without admin, you can use the same setup, replacing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE with HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and replacing ChromeSxSHTML with ChromeSxSHTML with the key you can find in Regedit in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\ - You'll see one named ChromeSSHTML.<some random string here>. Copy this and replace ChromeSxSHTML with it.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML]
"URL Protocol"=""
@="Google Chrome Canary HTML Document"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe,4"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\shell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe\" -- \"%1\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL]
@="Google Chrome Canary URL"
"FriendlyTypeName"="Google Chrome Canary URL"
"URL Protocol"=""
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe,4"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\shell]
@="open"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe\" -- \"%1\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec]
@="\"%1\",,0,0,,,,"
"NoActivateHandler"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
@="Google Chrome Canary"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic]
@="WWW_OpenURL"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice]
"Progid"="ChromeSxSHTML"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice]
"Progid"="ChromeSxSHTML"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm]
@="ChromeSxSHTML"
"Content Type"="text/html"
"PerceivedType"="text"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html]
@="ChromeSxSHTML"
"Content Type"="text/html"
"PerceivedType"="text"
WORKAROUND
I found that there is some kind of a Chrome glitch (as if it were the only one...) that you can read about here: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=60876
Seems a workaround (this worked for me) was to browse to the Google Chrome folder (for me it was my username/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/Application) and delete the old version folder, along with the old_chrome.exe file. Then renaming the new_chrome.exe file back to just chrome.exe.
That seemed to fix everything, except the desktop shortcut icon, which can be easily fixed by making a new shortcut or changing the icon for the existing shortcut manually. Even WebMatrix saw my Chrome install again after this.
It was also suggested that using a registry cleaner (CCleaner is a good one), may help with some of the icon problems, but this had no impact on this situation for me.
Best Answer
Chrome has four release channels – stable, beta, dev and canary. Stable is the regular Chrome most users use. Canary is simply a much newer release that's not as well tested, but has the latest shiny stuff. After a while, the version that was released in the canary channel gets any bugs that are found fixed, then filters downward to dev, and then to the beta and stable releases. Other than the lack of testing, and possibly not having all the bugs fixed, canary is merely Chrome FROM THE FUTURE (except for those features that might get scrapped due to lack of quality).
In short, you get cool stuff, but it might crash horribly. On the other hand, you don't have to use it as a primary browser (in fact, you cannot set it as default). It's mainly useful if you like living dangerously and want to test bleeding edge features.