A recent change to Microsoft’s Family Safety feature is blocking Google Chrome on Windows, leaving users and school IT departments scrambling for a solution. The issue, which began affecting users around June 3, prevents the browser from opening, but it is not the result of a simple bug. Instead, it appears Microsoft fixed a long-standing flaw that was preventing Family Safety from correctly blocking third-party browsers, effectively restoring what seems to be the intended, albeit controversial, functionality.
The change has caused significant disruption, particularly for parents and schools who rely on the parental control software. While Google has officially acknowledged the cause, Microsoft has not issued a public statement or a patch, forcing users to navigate a confusing situation with only manual workarounds. The silence is compounded by the fact that other browsers like Firefox and Opera appear to be unaffected, focusing the problem squarely on the world’s most popular browser.
For many, this incident is more than a technical hiccup; it is another chapter in Microsoft’s long and contentious history of leveraging its operating system to promote its own Edge browser at the expense of its rivals.
A Bug or a “Feature”?
The root of the problem is more complex than a typical software glitch. According to a detailed technical explanation, the sudden blocking of Chrome is not a new bug, but the result of Microsoft correcting an old one.
“For a rather long time, there was a bug where Family Safety failed to correctly enforce the block on third party browsers. That bug was fixed in early June and blocking of third party browsers was restored.”. When Family Safety’s content filtering is enabled for a user, the platform is designed to terminate third-party browser processes to ensure web activity is routed through Microsoft Edge for monitoring. The “fix” simply restored this intended behavior.
This restoration, however, is complicated by a second bug: if a user has “Activity reporting” turned off in their Family Safety settings, the system terminates Chrome silently without displaying a notification or a permission request prompt. This has left many users, including adults who are the sole administrators of their own PCs, baffled as to why their preferred browser suddenly stopped working.
Google’s support team has been left to field the complaints, with a Chrome Support Manager confirming that for some users, “Chrome is unable to run when Microsoft Family Safety is enabled.” Meanwhile, a Chromium engineer tracking the issue in a bug tracking thread noted, “We’ve not heard anything from Microsoft about a fix being rolled out.”, indicating a lack of communication from Microsoft on a formal resolution.
Widespread Impact on Schools and Users
The effects of the change were felt immediately across consumer and educational spheres. Support forums on Reddit and Microsoft’s own community site are filled with reports from frustrated users. The situation has been especially challenging for IT administrators in schools where students bring their own devices.
One school IT support professional, Peter Priestley, captured the sentiment in a public forum, stating, “I’m definitely just more annoyed that Microsoft made a change so that it would block chrome. Definitely not a great way to make people like your products.”
The problem is plaguing Windows 10 and 11 users alike. Because many of these student devices are set up with personal Microsoft accounts managed by parents, school IT departments have no central way to apply a fix, leaving them to instruct students and parents on a case-by-case basis.
A Pattern of Aggressive Promotion
While the current issue may stem from a feature working as designed, it exists within a broader, sensitive context of Microsoft’s competitive tactics. The company has faced years of criticism for its aggressive and often intrusive methods of promoting its Edge browser. As reported by The Verge, these tactics have included malware-like pop-ups, misleading polls on the Chrome download page, and even faking AI search results to mimic Google.
This history of “dark patterns” has created a deep well of user skepticism. For example, The Register previously reported on Microsoft using its Defender for Cloud Apps to push what looked like a security alert but was effectively an ad for Edge. Similarly, TechRadar noted a misleading tactic where the company’s “how to uninstall Edge” help page was primarily a promotional tool for the browser.
This behavior has drawn sharp rebukes from competitors. Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of Vivaldi, has criticized the Microsoft Edge browser promotion tactics, arguing, “This is not the behavior of a confident company developing a superior browser. It’s the behavior of a company openly abusing its powerful position to push people to use its inferior product, simply because it can.”.
Manual Fixes for a Confusing Problem
In the absence of an official patch, users have been left with two primary workarounds. The first, based on guidance shared in Google’s help forums, is for parents or administrators to log into the Microsoft Family Safety portal. From there, they can either disable the “Filter inappropriate websites” setting entirely or navigate to the “Apps & Games” section to specifically unblock Chrome. The second, more unconventional solution discovered by users involves navigating to Chrome’s installation folder and renaming the executable file from `chrome.exe` to `chrome1.exe`, which allows it to evade detection by the Family Safety service.
Ultimately, what was announced in 2020 as a simple tool to help families manage digital well-being has, through a series of technical changes and a lack of clear communication, become a source of widespread frustration. By reactivating a feature that blocks its chief competitor without explanation, Microsoft has once again fueled the narrative that it is willing to prioritize its own products over a seamless user experience, leaving its customers to deal with the consequences.
