Can I run multiple versions of Google Chrome on the same machine? (Mac or Windows)

user_20578 0
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This fabulous answer suggests there’s no way to run multiple versions of Google Chrome on one machine.

Every now and then you’ll get a website user stuck on an old version of Chrome (no idea how, but it happens — maybe they installed the standalone version?) with an issue, and you need to be able to verify it. Bit difficult to do that without their browser version around.

Does anyone know if there’s actually a way to do this? I.e.

  1. Obtain an installer for an older version of Google Chrome (Google seems to keep very quiet about versions, which is great for users, less great for developers trying to support old versions)
  2. Run two versions of Google Chrome on one machine
google-chrome cross-browser testing
13 Answers

For those who don't care if it's "Google Chrome", I suggest using "Chromium" instead.

See: Download Chromium

  1. Look in http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/search/label/Stable%20updates for the last time "44." was mentioned.
  2. Loop up that version history ("44.0.2403.157") in the Position Lookup
  3. In this case it returns a base position of "330231". This is the commit of where the 44 release was branched, back in May 2015.*
  4. Open the continuous builds archive
  5. Click through on your platform (Linux/Mac/Win)
  6. Paste "330231" into the filter field at the top and wait for all the results to XHR in.
  7. Eventually I get a perfect hit: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/index.html?prefix=Mac/330231/
    1. Sometimes you may have to decrement the commit number until you find one.
  8. Download and run!
user_44581430

I have tried the various way to test one of a scenario which was chrome browser specific issue.

Best Solution a/c to me: Use Portable Versions

Step-0: Uninstall your currently installed Google Chrome

  • Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program > Click Google Chrome > Uninstall

Step-1: Download the portable chrome version & Rename

  • Download the portable version of your choice from Portable Older Chrome Versions and save it instead of running it directly.
  • Go to downloaded file location and Rename the file to end with _online.paf.exe. Example:
  • Rename from google-chrome-portable-96-0-4664-93.exe to google-chrome-portable-96-0-4664-93_online.paf.exe

Step-2: Install the portable version

  • Click on the renamed exe file to continue with the installation.
  • When asked for Destination Folder path -> Rename it to match version (just to avoid conflict with other versions and identify) as shown below. Rename Destination Folder to be unique

Step-3: Finally Run the downloaded version:

  • Go inside the portable installed folder and from there run GoogleChromePortable.exe like below.

Run Portable exe

Whoa!! This works. Thanks a lot to the creators of Portable Chrome Versions.

user_67945680

Rob W answer works if you can extract chrome.7z from the installer file, Unfortunately, the installer file is not extractable anymore, but you can find chrome.7z file in this address if you have installed chrome and it updated itself:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\95.0.4638.54\Installer

Or search your hard disk for chrome.7z file to find where Google stores update files for your OS.
After extraction as Rob W mentioned go to extracted folder and run new chrome with command:

.\chrome.exe --user-data-dir=".\User Data" --chrome-version=95.0.4638.54
user_25416580
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