Google-chrome – way to opt-out the download bar on the bottom of Chrome

I know that this is an old question but for everybody who, like me, arrives here in the search to get rid of the download bar there is an officialy unofficial way to do it:

1. Type in the URL chrome://flags/ in the omnibox.
2. Scroll down to "New Downloads UI" and enable it then restart Chrome.

Setting this flag completely gets rid of the download bar which isn't really what the question was about but at least it gives you a choice whether to keep the bar or not.

Update: As of today September 10th 2014 it seems this flag is no longer in current versions of Chrome.

Tested on OSX 10.9.4 w/ Chrome Version 37.0.2062.120, and Windows 7 w/ Service Pack 1 and Chrome 37.0.2062.120 m

Exit Chrome, navigate to your User Data folder (eg C:\Users\IanN\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default), then open the file Preferences and look for the following section

"browser": {
   .
   . <there will likely be a few sections here>
   .
   "window_placement": {
      "bottom": 1149,
      "left": 0,
      "maximized": false,
      "right": 1600,
      "top": 406,
      "work_area_bottom": 1149,
      "work_area_left": 0,
      "work_area_right": 1600,
      "work_area_top": 0
   },
   .
   .
   .
},…

Either adjust the number, or just delete the whole window_placement block—make sure to be careful not to delete other stuff; use the curly-braces as guides and make sure to match them. (Make a backup copy of the file, just in case.)

Now run Chrome. It should be displayed in the default location. If not, then you could delete the other window_placement_* blocks from Preferences and …\User Data\Local State (Local State is a file in the parent folder of Default.)