How to check for updates in Google Chrome

If you are running Google Chrome 37 Canary currently or Dev, you may have noticed that google has removed the about Google Chrome page from the Hamburger menu.

The feature is used by users of the browser to display the version of the browser and to run a manual update check. Whenever the page is opened, Chrome will check if an update is available.

If a new version is discovered, it will automatically be downloaded and installed.

The removal of the option from the Hamburger removes one option for Chrome users to check for updates in the browser.

The article looks at other options that are still available. While it is possible to just accept the change and let the browser handle the updating automatically, it may not always be what you want.

One reason for this is to install updates before they get picked up automatically by the browser. Since update checks are not handled in real-time by the browser, it is often faster to manually check for them, especially if you know that an update is available.

The link has been replaced with a help menu that links to the help center and the report an issue page.

Update checking methods

Probably the easiest option that you have is to open the update page manually. Whenever you opened the about Google Chrome page, it would simply load chrome://help in the browser.

You can still load the page to display the same page. Chrome displays its current version and the result of the update check here on this page.

A second option that you have is to follow the Chrome Releases blog preferably via RSS feed. Google publishes all release information on the blog so that you know when a new version is released.  The blog covers all Chrome versions including Chrome OS.

As far as the change is concerned, it is not clear if it will be a permanent one. If you look closely at the first screenshot you will notice that there are two horizontal lines under the new Help menu. Either Google forgot to remove one of those which it may do when the next update is released, or it has reserved the space for another menu entry that will be placed there (or forgot to place it properly).

Anyway, the best option to check for updates in Chrome is to open the chrome://help page manually.

Advertisement