[Software Update] Google Chrome 124 Stable Released, Here is What’s New and Fixed

Good news for Google Chrome users! Google Chrome team has released Chrome 124.0 version to Stable channel for Windows, Linux and Mac.

NOTE: Early Stable builds are provided to a small percentage of Chrome users. Google automatically selects a few Chrome users and provides Early Stable builds to them. Remaining Chrome users receive the same stable build one week later.

More Info: What is Early Stable Version of Google Chrome? How to Get It?

The latest Chrome version includes new features, several security fixes, bug fixes and improvements to stability and performance.

What’s New in Google Chrome 124.0 Stable Version

The new version of Chrome comes with following changes and enhancements:

• New Visual Refresh UI: Newer versions of Chrome come with an updated theme or UI based on Google Material 3 design. (How-to Enable/Disable New UI Guide)
• Changes to Chrome Installer and Updater Tool: Google is rolling out a new version of Google Update. The location for GoogleUpdate.exe on Windows has changed and has been renamed to updater.exe. Note that the previous path continues to persist until the transition is fully completed. GoogleUpdate.exe is also modified to point to updater.exe. Previous name and location of the tool was C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe. The new name and location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleUpdater\Version_Number\updater.exe. (More Info)
• Windows ClearType Text Tuner Integration: This feature tracks the work to support picking the contrast and gamma values from the Windows ClearType Text Tuner setting and applying them to Skia text rendering. This ensures that users’ text rendering preferences are respected on Windows devices. (How-to Fix Bold and Blurry Fonts)
• Chrome Desktop support for Windows ARM64: Chrome is rolling out support for Windows ARM64 and working on publishing the Enterprise installers. Users can test the version using Canary and Beta channels.
• Launch of Chrome Enterprise Premium: It provides a centralized solution for robust endpoint security, privacy, and control. IT and security teams gain extensive network visibility and can easily deploy advanced protection features.
• Chrome Browser Cloud Management is now Chrome Enterprise Core: It offers a centralized tool for configuring and managing browser policies, settings, apps, and extensions across Chrome on different operating system, device, or location.
• Watermarking (Trusted Tester): It’s a Chrome Enterprise Premium feature that allows admins to overlay a watermark on top of a web page if navigating to it triggers a specific Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rule. You can specify a static string to be displayed as the watermark. This feature is currently released in Trusted Tester program and scheduled to roll out to public starting Chrome 126 version.
• Chrome Bandwidth Updates: Chrome is introducing a new mechanism for updating certain Chrome components that might result in extra bandwidth used. You can control this with the GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings policy. (How-to Enable/Disable AI Features)
• Device Bound Session Credentials google.com Prototype: The DBSC project is intended to move the web away from long-lived bearer credentials like cookies, which can be stolen and reused, to credentials that are either short-lived or cryptographically bound to a device. The feature aims at protecting users against credential theft which is typically performed by malware running on the user’s device. The current launch is a proof-of-concept targeting google.com website. In the future, Google plans to standardize this approach for other websites and web browsers. Enterprise admins can control the feature state by using the BoundSessionCredentialsEnabled boolean policy.
• Security fixes
• Bug fixes and improvements
• New group policies implemented

NOTE: Newer versions of Chrome (110 and later) do not support Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. (More Information)

MUST READ: Google Chrome Newer Versions Changelog Article

Download Links of Google Chrome Latest Version

You can download the new Chrome version using following links:

NOTE: This article is updated whenever a new version of Google Chrome web browser is released. So keep checking this page regularly.

Useful Tips-n-Tricks for Google Chrome Users

• Safer Encrypted Archives for Standard Safe Browsing Users: Chrome might prompt Standard Safe Browsing users to enter the password for a downloaded encrypted archive. The password will not be shared with Google and will be automatically cleared after retrieving the metadata which includes contained file hashes and executable signatures. The metadata is sent to Google for better quality verdicts. The password remains local and not shared with Google. Users can control this feature with the SafeBrowsingDeepScanningEnabled policy. (How-to Disable Guide)
• Side Panel Navigation: The side panel icon has been removed in favor of toolbar pinning. Users can open most side panel features through the Chrome 3-dots menu. (How-to Show/Hide Side Panel Button)
• Chrome now warns on insecure downloads: Chrome will start showing warnings on files which were downloaded over an insecure (not HTTPS) connection. These warnings do not prevent downloading and can be bypassed by the user. You can test the experience via chrome://flags/#insecure-download-warnings. Users can also disable warnings for sites that can not deliver files securely by adding the downloading site to InsecureContentAllowedForUrls. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• Price tracking: When user bookmarks a price-trackable product, price tracking will be enabled by default when available. User will be able to disable price tracking per item and can also disable the feature entirely with the ShoppingListEnabled policy. (How-to Disable Guide)
• Google Search Side Panel: This feature allows users to show right-click search results page inside Chrome’s Side Panel without leaving the current webpage. You can control access to the Search side panel using the GoogleSearchSidePanelEnabled policy. (How-to Disable Guide)
• Updated UI for Bookmarks side panel including features such as filtering, sorting, and editing. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• New Journeys option added to Side Panel (How-to Disable/Remove Guide)
• Lens image search enabled in Google search box on New Tab Page: Users will see a new Camera icon added in the search box on New tab page. This feature allows users to search by image, by uploading a file from their computer or entering an image URL. This feature will not show in Incognito, Guest User, or non-Google new tab pages. A policy LensDesktopNTPSearchEnabled can be used to control this feature. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• New Memory Saver and Battery Saver modes added to improve performance and extend battery life. You can control these features using Settings > Performance page. New enterprise policies TabDiscardingExceptions, BatterySaverModeAvailability and HighEfficiencyModeEnabled can be used to customize these new features. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• Users can now save a customized note for each saved credential in the Password Manager. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• New redesigned user experience for browser downloads: The existing downloads shelf or panel has been replaced with a dedicated downloads bubble in Chrome browser’s toolbar. You can control this with the DownloadBubbleEnabled policy. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• You can now move Side Panel to left side in Chrome (How-to Guide)
• Chrome now allows users to search their history, bookmarks, and tabs directly in the Omnibox. Using one of the prepopulated shortcuts – @history, @bookmarks, or @tabs – users can choose to conduct a focused search limited to the area selected. (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• Side Search allows users to compare search results via a side panel UI to get the search results faster. This means users can view a page and the search results at the same time, without needing to navigate back and forth or losing their search results. You can control this feature using the SideSearchEnabled policy. (How-to Remove Guide)
• Tab Audio Muting: Now you can mute tabs using a single mouse click on Volume icon showing on the tab (How-to Enable Guide)
• New ForceMajorVersionToMinorPositionInUserAgent policy to freeze or set the User-Agent string major version to 99. It’ll be helpful to users who have an app that is broken in Chrome 100 due to a User-Agent parsing error. Users can set the policy to 2 and the User-Agent string will freeze the major version at 99 and includes the browser’s major version in the minor position. (More Info)
• You can now uninstall/remove Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) using Settings app or classic Control Panel in Windows similar to other native Win32 programs. (How-to Guide)
• New WebUI branding update design in Settings and other built-in pages (How-to Restore Classic UI)
• New Idle Detection API feature which can allow websites to check user’s active or idle status (How-to Disable Guide)
• New Side Panel feature to easily access bookmarks and reading list pages (How-to Enable Guide)
• Now tab hover card displays web page thumbnail preview images (How-to Disable Guide)
• New Reading List feature to organize favorite web pages in a collection and read later (How-to Enable/Disable Guide)
• New Tab Search feature to find specific tab quickly and easily (How-to Disable Guide)
• Tab Groups which allows users to create multiple and separate tab groups for desired tabs (How-to Disable Guide)
• New dedicated Extensions menu button added to Chrome toolbar to easily and quickly manage your installed extensions (How-to Remove Guide)
• New Media Controls button in toolbar to control playback of currently playing music/video (How-to Remove Guide)
• You can enable real working search box on new tab page (How-to Enable Guide)

More Information about Google Chrome Web Browser

You can get full details about all new features and changes present in Chrome in our exclusive Google Chrome Canary updates topic:

Google Chrome Canary Updates

If you don’t want to install Google Chrome in your computer but want to give it a try, you can check the portable version which doesn’t need installation:

Download Google Chrome Portable Version

NOTE: Windows XP and Windows Vista users should check following troubleshooting articles:

[Fix] Google Chrome Showing XP Style Classic Blue Titlebar in Windows Vista

[Tip] Disable “Windows XP and Vista will No Longer be Supported” Yellow Infobar

Also Check:

Fix Slow Performance Issues and Tabs Not Loading Problem in Google Chrome