I posted in Google's message boards for this problem over a week ago and still haven't gotten a reply, thou 20+ people have viewed. I don't know if this is the proper section, so please mods if there is a better location, please move

I recently got a new laptop, which has Windows 10. I have installed Chrome and for a month it was working normally, but in the last week, I've had to reinstall it every single day. The icon in the task bar (I keep it pinned) is a white vertical rectangle (like a page if you will). Also, I downloaded it directly from google.com/chrome (and it said it was version 53. My sister has an identical computer and chrome is working normal for her). Sometimes the icon will change as I described, and others the icon will be normal but when you click it to open the browser, it says
"The item 'chrome.exe' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly. Do you want to delete this shortcut?"

The problem is probably not to do with Chrome itself.
As you said, many people are running it without problem, including your laptop for a month.

Do a chkdsk to rule out a failing hard drive.
Just because it's new doesn't mean it can't be failing.

Here are some instructions for chkdsk that Google found
https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/fix-hard-drives-chkdsk-windows-10/

Thanks for the reply, Jenny. I ran the chkdsk, and if I'm reading it correctly, it didn't find any problems. here's a screencap: http://i64.tinypic.com/2yki4c7.jpg

You need to run the surface scan from a prompt with elevated privilege (right-click cmd and Run As Administrator).

chkdsk /r

or

chkdsk /r /v (if you want cleanup messages)

It should ask you to reboot to complete the scan.

Here's another how-to
https://windowsinstructed.com/run-chkdsk-windows/

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I found another possibility here
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2722361/google-chrome-open.html

I thought the above was an old thread at first, but it seems to still be happening to people. It seems to be a Windows 10 bug. Some people think it was caused by an update.


See if this fix works -- easy enough if it does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQzaTCe7Rco

He shows you how to rename the Chrome .exe , reboot, and then Chrome should work.

Are you sure you have to actually reinstall it or can you just delete that icon and create a new icon. I have to do that with my Norton icon in my task bar when it updates. I don't have to reinstall Norton, just delete the icon and create a new one.

When Chrome gives that message, some of the stuff in it's folder in the c drive come up missing (where as they're there when I fresh install)

Did you check the folder to see if it's really missing or are you going by what the error message says? Does the chrome (aka chrome.exe) file really get deleted?

Did you try the fix in the YouTube video -- where you rename the Chrome exe to "Google Chrome.exe? If you tried it, did it help at all? Renaming the chrome.exe file might keep the chrome file from being deleted, though it's still a mystery why it would be deleted.

Which antivirus do you use? Have you tried putting the chrome.exe file in the antivirus' exceptions list? Does your antivirus say it deleted anything?

when chrome won't open, chrome.exe plus some other files disappear from the colder in the C: drive.

I use Iolo's System Mechanic Pro, but I also have SuperAnti-Spyware free and Malwarebyes free installed. None of those 3 find any issues with Chrome, though I did run hitmanpro (under a 30 free trial) and chrome was flagged in it as suspicious (this was five days ago)


A thought came to me, do you think putting it outside of the C:/Program Files (x86) would help? I thought of this because when I put some old PC games in the Program Files (x86) directory when I used W7 they wouldn't run right but outside of that folder (like all GOG games in this instance are just in C:/GOG) they run normally


After my last message, I realized (DUH Me) you don't choose where it's installed. Well, I had fully removed chrome again (and all traces in the c:/users) and rebooted. Then I installed Chrome and after setting my favorites and settings how I have them, I opened up C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application and renamed the chrome.exe to Google Chrome.exe. Then, I rebooted and the icon was the white vertical rectangle but still worked, so I unpinned an repinned (the files were still as they should be) Then I logged out of the windows user account and then back in and so far it's still working (I'm typing this on Chrome). So, we'll see how well this works and if it's still working right tomorrow after work. Goodnight All

After reading all this, I'm beginning to wonder if you don't have a corrupted download of Chrome. Have you tried completely uninstalling it and then running something like CCleaner on the registry to get rid of any stray entries? I'm not a big fan of System Mechanic Pro, but as long as you have it, you might try running it after you uninstall Chrome.

I'm also puzzled about why the shortcut has changed. Have you tried right clicking on the Chrome icon and selecting properties to see where the "target" location is?

Is this where you got the download from?

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html

After you completely uninstall Chrome, you might try re-downloading and installing and see if that helps.

This is an old thread from back in 2009, but several people there reported that there were conflicts between Chrome and System Mechanics, and someone (apparently a mod) confirmed it.

***Google Product Forums***



It's possible that the same thing is happening again.

Draclvr, the link you put in your post is where I downloaded it from, but even though chrome was working last night, today it is now. When I click Chrome, it says:

Can't open this item
It might have been moved, renamed or deleted. Do you want to remove this item?
Yes No


I'm gonna run ccleaner and see if that has any effect

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Here is the weird thing, if I open Chrome directly from C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application it opens, but if I try opening it in the taskbar, I get that message I mentioned above

Then delete the quick launch icon in the taskbar. It helps to know this was a quick launch an not a desktop icon. Do you have an icon on your desktop?

If it's just the taskbar shortcut, that sounds like it could be a Windows 10 registry issue.
Let us know if ccleaner helps.

I agree with Jenny... and make sure to run CCleaner on the registry, not just the cleaner

I ran the registry a few times, and it found and cleaned a bit (the last two times it didn't find anything)

I did notice the taskbar icon for chrome, I can now access properties (whereas before I had to go into the install folder) so I'm hoping this is a fix.


In hindsight, I was having issues with weatherbug too, and this fixed that as well
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Now this doesn't make sense, but today I couldn't access Chrome via the taskbar, so I put it in the start menu, and it works perfectly from there. I think that may have to be my work-around