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I need to emulate an older version of chrome. I want to avoid the solution where I have to uninstall the current version and install the desired one each time I need to test my app. I came across this article but it doesn't quite answer my question. Thank you!

isherwood
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achref
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6 Answers6

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It's not possible to emulate older versions of Chrome from within DevTools, as is possible in IE. It's not very reliable to emulate them anyway. I've used IE 8 emulator in the past, and on occasion it has provided different results from the version I installed on an XP VM.

In theory, it should be possible to install multiple Chrome instances side-by-side because the installation directory is OS user based. However, I don't think the installations are fully isolated from one another. At least in Windows, the application would likely write to the same registry keys. In OSX, you might be alright, provided you modify the user directory path.

An alternative solution would be trying the portable versions of Chrome that appear over the Internet, usually illegally. Everything is self contained in a directory, but it will likely perform differently from normal installations. Check out PortableApps.

I think the best solution would be to set up some VMs for the different environments and browsers you want to test with. You can manually set up these, using VirtualBox or similar. Many hosted providers will allow you to spin up fresh VMs with automated tasks to install applications and services. You have to pay for these though.

Gideon Pyzer
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If you just need to check what server returns for old browsers (not full emulation), you can set User-Agent in Network Conditions (for now, chrome 67).

Vladislav Kosovskikh
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Just for completeness, here is a link (September 2021) that provides historical snapshots of the 'chromium' browser, sorted per operating system and per 'position'. I needed this when I had to test on an 8-year old version of Chrome(~ium)

https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/index.html

The URL looks legit (googleapis.com) to me, but please check for yourself before downloading. At your own risk.

Ideogram
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Updated on 21/03/2019

I have found the following link which contains links to previous Google Chrome Versions (32bit, 64bit and Linux).

https://www.slimjet.com/chrome/google-chrome-old-version.php

Old post

Just found out that different versions of Google Chrome can be installed.

Hope this helps someone. The downside is you have to uninstall your current version.

Cheers!

Anjana Silva
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    probably because this doesn't give access to older versions, but installs the development version which is usually a higher version of the stable channel. – Daniel F Mar 20 '19 at 09:35
  • Hi @DanielF, thanks for your comment. I have update my answer. Cheers. – Anjana Silva Mar 21 '19 at 08:11
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While I don't have a way to emulate a different version, I did find a way to have a current and an old version installed at the same time. For the 'current' version I installed Chrome Beta. Then I set the regular version of Chrome to the older version I needed.

Google's docs didn't put all the information in one place, so here are the steps for a normal Chrome user in Windows 10:

  1. Download the Google Update policy template (alternatively Chrome Enterprise also contains the files you'll need) and unzip it.
  2. Copy the .admx and .adml files into %systemroot%/PolicyDefinitions (.admx files go there and .adml in the language subfolder (en-US) as found in the zip you downloaded)
  3. Open Group Policy editor and the required settings now exist
  4. In Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Google->Google Update->Applications->Google Chrome,
    • set Rollback to target version to enabled
    • set the Target version prefix override to enabled and your desired version (e.g. 86. for version 86)
  5. Finally open Chrome, go to Settings->About and let it check for updates. Chrome will automatically download the target version and prompt you to restart.

Do note that this deletes local user profiles and recreates them from remote including redownloading browser extensions, so use with caution. Remember to go back to the normal version of Chrome by unsetting the Group Policy settings and letting Chrome update itself when you're done.

TheAtomicOption
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  • This seems like the best solution here, but I couldn't get it running. I just tried all the steps with Chrome 110 on Windows 11 and it's not doing anything when I open the About section afterwards. – vgru Mar 07 '23 at 14:59
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Today you can run Windows Sandbox to avoid installing malicious programs. (Windows Professional or Enterprise Edition is required). more info:

Windows Sandbox Doc

weiya ou
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