Problem: Chrome starts, then immediately closes. You can see the window momentarily. Usually and suddenly manifests on a kids laptop that had no prior issues whatsoever.
No error messages. Can still see some Chrome-related process running in Task Manager, but nothing useful. Reinstall doesn't help. Chrome works fine on other devices. No known issues with connectivity, cache / hard drive space, etc. Edge works. Firefox will not work.
Solution: Your child(ren) probably got involuntarily signed up for Microsoft Family Safety, which can block all browsers other than Edge.
• Go to the Family Safety parental / Family Organizer account. If you don't know what that is, try here.
• Click your kids account.
• Go to "Content Filters".
• Be sure you're on "Web and search".
• Turn OFF the "Filter settings / Filter inappropriate websites and searches" feature.
Several things baffle me about this, including:
• Why or how this feature suddenly starts working without any changes to the Family Safety account settings; and
• Why Microsoft does not provide any kind of error or troubleshooting message when blocking Chrome. People are just supposed to know this... HOW??? Via divine intervention?
Thank God I ran into this post almost immediately in my searching, or else it would have been another hours-long saga to figure out just what the hell was going on. So maybe that part was divine intervention. I'll take it regardless.
Honestly, Family Safety should be my go-to for all things going wrong at this point - it's a ******* disaster. The Synology router I've been using for years has been flawless, Family Safety is just a dumpster fire. I'm taking my kid off of MFS at the earliest possible opportunity.
And once again, a big you-know-what to Microsoft for shoving this shit down people's throats with zero notice or support. I've seen 13-year-olds that can code better than you. Put up a goddamn error message like it's this millennium, you infuriating wankers.
