Install Google Chrome on Windows Server 2022 and 2019 (without fighting IE)

The quickest way to install Google Chrome on Windows Server 2022 or 2019 is to let PowerShell download Google’s enterprise MSI installer and run it silently. That skips Internet Explorer and its download blocks entirely. Open PowerShell as Administrator and paste:

$ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$p = "$env:TEMP\chrome.msi"
Invoke-WebRequest "https://dl.google.com/chrome/install/googlechromestandaloneenterprise64.msi" -OutFile $p -UseBasicParsing
$r = Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$p`" /qn /norestart" -Wait -PassThru
"msiexec exit code: $($r.ExitCode)"
Remove-Item $p

Exit code 0 means Chrome is installed (3010: installed, restart pending), and it is in the Start menu for every user on the server. On Server 2022 you can also simply download Chrome with Microsoft Edge, which is already installed. The rest of this guide explains both routes, Internet Explorer’s Enhanced Security Configuration, default browsers and updates.

Which browser does Windows Server come with?

• Windows Server 2022 with the Desktop Experience normally includes Microsoft Edge, the Chromium-based one. Use it to download Chrome, or keep using it.
• Windows Server 2019 has only Internet Explorer 11, with IE Enhanced Security Configuration (IE ESC) switched on. Downloads fail with “Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded”, every site triggers a warning, and many sites no longer support IE 11 at all.
• Server Core installations have no desktop and no browser. Chrome needs the Desktop Experience.

How do I install Chrome with PowerShell?

What each line of the script above does, and why it is there:

• $ProgressPreference hides the progress bar, which on Windows PowerShell 5.1 slows Invoke-WebRequest down dramatically for a file of this size (well over 100 MB).
• The TLS 1.2 line adds TLS 1.2 to the protocols .NET may use. Server 2022 does not need it; on Server 2019, PowerShell 5.1 may otherwise fail with “Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel”.
• -UseBasicParsing stops PowerShell 5.1 from using Internet Explorer’s engine, which fails on a server where IE was never opened (“the Internet Explorer engine is not available, or Internet Explorer’s first-launch configuration is not complete”).
• msiexec /i … /qn /norestart installs for all users without any window. -Wait holds the prompt until it has finished, and -PassThru hands back the process so you can read its exit code.

Server 2019 and 2022 also ship curl.exe, so this works as well. Type curl.exe, not curl: in Windows PowerShell 5.1, curl is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest.

curl.exe -L -o "$env:TEMP\chrome.msi" https://dl.google.com/chrome/install/googlechromestandaloneenterprise64.msi
Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$env:TEMP\chrome.msi`" /qn /norestart" -Wait

To check which version is installed:

(Get-Item "$env:ProgramFiles\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe").VersionInfo.ProductVersion

If the script printed exit code 1603 instead of 0, the installer hit a generic failure. The usual reasons are a PowerShell window that is not running as Administrator, or a newer Chrome that is already installed.

How do I install Chrome through Edge on Server 2022?

1. 1Open Microsoft Edge

   From the taskbar or the Start menu. The first start shows a setup wizard; you can skip all of it.

2. 2Download Chrome

   Go to google.com/chrome and select Download Chrome. Edge may suggest staying with Edge; continue anyway. For servers, the enterprise MSI from Google’s Chrome Enterprise download page is the better file: it installs for all users and can be repeated silently.

3. 3Run the installer

   Open the downloaded file and confirm the User Account Control prompt. The small online installer fetches the rest and opens Chrome when it is done.

How do I get past IE Enhanced Security on Server 2019?

IE ESC is a deliberate lockdown: Microsoft’s view is that nobody should browse the web from a server. You have three ways around it:

• Avoid Internet Explorer entirely with the PowerShell method above. IE ESC applies only to Internet Explorer, so nothing has to be switched off.
• Turn it off for administrators: Server Manager → Local Server → click “On” next to IE Enhanced Security Configuration → set Administrators to Off → OK. Open Internet Explorer again afterwards.
• Trust only the download site: when IE warns that content is blocked, choose Add and put the Google site on the Trusted sites list, so the rest of the web stays locked down.

Turn IE ESC off only on a server you actually browse from, such as a remote workstation or a trading terminal. On a server that runs a website or a database, browsing as Administrator is a risk you do not need; the guide to securing a Windows RDP server covers the rest of that baseline.

How do I make Chrome the default browser?

Open Settings → Apps → Default apps, click the entry under Web browser and choose Google Chrome. Chrome’s own Settings → Default browser → Make default opens the same page. The choice is per user, so every account that logs in over Remote Desktop makes it once.

To make Chrome the default for every new user profile, set it as default for your own account first, then export the associations and import them as the system default:

Dism.exe /Online /Export-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\assoc.xml
# check that .htm, .html, http and https point to ChromeHTML in the file, then:
Dism.exe /Online /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\assoc.xml

The imported defaults apply when a new user signs in for the first time.

Does Chrome update itself on Windows Server?

Yes. The installer adds Google’s updater as scheduled tasks and services, which check for new versions regularly, exactly as on a desktop. Leave them enabled: a browser that stops updating on a server reachable over the internet is a liability. An update takes effect when Chrome restarts; chrome://settings/help shows the version and triggers a check. To confirm the updater is in place:

Get-ScheduledTask | Where-Object TaskName -like 'Google*' | Select-Object TaskName, State

Microsoft Edge updates separately, through its own updater.

Can I install Firefox instead?

Yes, the same way. Mozilla’s download service redirects to the current MSI package:

$ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
$p = "$env:TEMP\firefox.msi"
Invoke-WebRequest "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-msi-latest-ssl&os=win64&lang=en-US" -OutFile $p -UseBasicParsing
Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$p`" /qn" -Wait
Remove-Item $p

For the Extended Support Release, which changes less often, use product=firefox-esr-msi-latest-ssl in the URL. Firefox keeps itself up to date with its own maintenance service.

How much RAM does a browser need on a Windows VPS?

More than people expect, because Windows Server takes a good share of the memory before the first tab opens, and every Chrome tab is a process of its own. A few tabs run fine on 4 GB; many tabs, heavy web apps or a browser next to a trading platform get tight there, and 8 GB is noticeably more comfortable. Chrome’s Memory Saver (Settings → Performance) puts inactive tabs to sleep, and Chrome’s own task manager (Shift+Esc) shows which tab uses what. Plan the disk generously too: Windows Server wants 40 GB or more once updates accumulate, and browser caches add to that.

Where do I get a Windows server to run this on?

Windows Server 2022 and 2019 can be chosen on every VMHeaven KVM plan, and on a Windows VPS you log in as Administrator, so which browser you install is up to you. The Standard KVM 2 plan with 4 cores, 8 GB of RAM and 40 GB of storage, from 9.99 EUR a month in Amsterdam, is the comfortable size for daily browsing. If you would rather pay in crypto without an ID check, the same servers are available as anonymous Windows RDP.

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