The Chrome browser is about to receive a significant update aimed at improving user security. Going forward, if someone attempts to run Chrome with administrator rights on Windows, the browser will automatically reduce privileges and operate in standard mode. This approach was previously introduced in Microsoft Edge and has now been adapted to become the default behavior in Chrome.
According to BleepingComputer, the goal is to reduce risks to the entire system that may arise when the browser is launched with elevated rights. In earlier implementations, if a user mistakenly opened Edge with administrator privileges, they would receive a warning. Later, Microsoft updated this process to block such launches altogether. Now, the same protective measure is being implemented in Chrome through changes to the Chromium source code.
“This change is based on the mechanism that we introduced in Edge back in 2019,” said Stefan Smolen from the Microsoft Edge team in the Chromium community. “If automatic restart does not work, the browser will return to standard behavior and try to open with administrator rights as a last resort.” To prevent infinite restart loops, developers added a command line flag, “-do-not-de-elevate”, which disables the demotion of rights if the system has already attempted it before.
Exceptions and Security Risks
There is an exception for automated processes—if Chrome is launched in this mode with elevated rights by a system tool or script, the feature will not interfere. This is designed to preserve the functionality of specialized utilities that require full system access. However, the developers strongly recommend not running the browser with administrator rights in most user scenarios.
The main concern is that launching Chrome with elevated privileges grants the same level of access to all files downloaded or applications opened through the browser, notes NIX Solutions. In the event of malware being downloaded, it would have full access to the system without additional security prompts. This significantly increases the risk of infection or other security breaches.
This change represents another step in improving browser safety, aligning Chrome more closely with secure development practices already tested in other environments. Yet we’ll keep you updated as more integrations become available and as this feature is rolled out across different versions and setups.