This Windows safety feature is crashing Google Chrome
What's the story
Microsoft's Family Safety feature, a tool mainly used by parents and schools for setting parental controls and filters, has been causing issues with Google's Chrome browser. The problem first surfaced on Windows on June 3, when several users reported that the browser was either crashing or failing to launch altogether.
Official response
Google confirms the issue is with Microsoft Family Safety
Ellen T, Chrome support manager, confirmed, "Our team has investigated these reports and determined the cause of this behavior." She added that "For some users, Chrome is unable to run when Microsoft Family Safety is enabled." The problem seems to be specific to Chrome as other browsers like Firefox and Opera are unaffected by this glitch.
Temporary solutions
How to get Chrome working again
Some users have found a workaround for this problem by simply renaming Chrome.exe to Chrome1.exe. Schools and parents using Family Safety with a Microsoft 365 subscription can also disable the "filter inappropriate websites" setting in Family Safety as a temporary fix. However, this would allow children to access any website, which defeats the purpose of parental controls in the first place.
Awaiting resolution
No word on when this will be fixed
Despite the issue persisting for over two weeks, there is no word from Microsoft on when it plans to fix this glitch. A Chromium engineer noted in a bug tracking thread on June 10 that "We haven't heard anything from Microsoft about a fix being rolled out." They added that while guidance has been given to users who contact them about how to get Chrome working again, this guidance is not likely to have a large effect.