Chrome will lock down admin launches to protect users

What’s the easiest way to protect your Windows-based PC? Aside from the usual stuff about keeping your security updated, you really shouldn’t be logged in as an administrator if all you’re doing is watching Netflix. An upcoming tweak to Chrome will keep it from launching with administrator privileges, and that’s a good thing.

Microsoft’s own Edge browser, which is based on the open-source Chromium project, has been doing this since 2019. The code that attempts to relaunch Edge without the (typically unnecessary) elevated permissions was recently committed back into the base version of Chromium, which means we’ll see it in a future update to the world’s most popular browser.

Running a browser with elevated permissions is generally a bad idea, as BleepingComputer explains. It’s just about the easiest way to get a sketchy download to lead to a full malware infection. This is a surprisingly good example of Edge contributing back into Chrome to everyone’s benefit.

The change will be a subtle one for most users, and there are smart little touches that will keep things running smoothly. For example, it’ll add a command line switch after an automatic relaunch to prevent an infinite loop of the browser restarting itself, and the change won’t apply to Chrome processes launched in automation mode, which some programs need for critical functions.

But overall, it’s a good thing. Again, the less you can use Windows with administrator privileges, the safer you’ll be — and that’s coming from a Microsoft security vice president. It’s unclear when this change will be in Chrome builds, but it could be before the year’s end. That is, provided Google retains ownership of Chrome by then.