This should be in Services>Chromoting but i saw no way to file it under that.

#CBC-RS/TC-watchlist

See also  Issue 600116   -- affects some Win 7 too...  
The chromoting service won't start.
Regressing the service gets it going again, as long as all google updates are off!

computerscientistbarbie@gmail.com: I'm working on a rollback for this release on Windows XP, but could you verify that https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome-remote-desktop/chromeremotedesktophost-50.0.2661.23.msi installs over the top of the current release on Windows XP and works as expected. Once I have confirmation, I'll enable that version for auto-updates.

gpa@globalnet.co.uk: We're not sure yet what the problem with Windows 7 is, but it's unlikely to be the same as this one. If you install the above version, it should stick (because the version is higher), but let's keep that discussion on  Issue 600116  so we can make sure we fix the issue in time for the next release.

The good news is, that 50.0.2661.23 fixes XP for sure, and I managed to try it on a Win7 and that now works too!! :)

50.0.2661.23 is just a rebranded version of the previous release, so it's not so surprising that it fixes your Win7 issues. Unfortunately, the ongoing "fix" for XP is simply that we will stop releasing updates, so we need to get to the bottom of why it broke on your Win7 system, otherwise it will probably break again in the next release.

Ah, ok... Well, it did fix my win 7. I'll revert it and re-break it!!

Jamie: .23 fixes it on XP, full function is back.

With .22, attempts to reinstall gave an error, see attached jpg

Thanks! I apologize for thinking dark thoughts :)

Deleted: crd...22.jpg 164 KB

	crd...22.jpg 164 KB View Download

Thanks for confirming. I'll push this out as an automatic update in the next few days and disable automatic updates for Windows XP in the future.

Just to be clear, however, this has a couple of important ramifications:

1. Windows XP will not receive any future updates for Chrome Remote Desktop. This includes any security updates that may be required.

2. Chrome Remote Desktop requires that the client and host support the same protocol, and we can't maintain the existing protocol forever. So, even with no future updates, things will eventually break for you.

Re point 2, as long as there's some advance warning we can freeze the CRD app version where necessary...?

1. Understood. Not a problem for me, personally. 


2. I have legacy systems that have legacy interfaces to legacy systems... We'll just keep a local system at the same revs as the remotes.

Unfortunately there's also a component that runs in Google's datacenters. Eventually that will no longer be compatible with current clients or hosts, and things will stop working for XP.

That's fine, everything dies someday. Either we get another solution or replace the legacy things first, but at least we know we have to do it now. And we can reach the remotes to install it on now,
 
Thank you for your assistance.

I see today Chorme on XP says "Chrome is out of date. You have to reinstall manually" and then takes you to a page with no XP versions for download...
Is that a rather roundabout way of saying, XP updates have now stopped, or is it something different? Thanks...

Chrome is no longer supported on XP. You can read the official announcement at https://chrome.googleblog.com/2015/11/updates-to-chrome-platform-support.html.

Ok, thanks. Support ended today then... The message could be better though! :-)

If you have installed the latest update (50.0.2261.23), the latest version should work fine, but you will likely need to start the service manually and set the StartType to automatic in the control panel.

Notes from my failure investigation:
The binary for version 50.0.2661.22 had a dependency which does not exist on XP.  After the binary was installed, the msi installer would attempt to start the service in a custom action.  Starting the service would fail and cause the custom action to fail which caused the service to be left in a bad state.  The product (CRD) was still installed and showed up in add/remove programs but the service was not registered.

When 50.0.2661.23 is installed, it overrides the existing, broken install but since the service isn't running, the new service binary is left in the stopped state with the StartType set to manual.

Note: I tried reproducing this failure on Win7 using a purposefully broken binary I built myself, however the service remained installed with the correct StartType (though the service could not start).  Based on this, I think the partial install issue is an XP problem and not something we would see on later OSes.

I'm going to close this as fixed since the correct version should now be installed on any Windows XP machine that was broken by the previous update. As Joe notes, you will still need to manually configure the service on those machines.

@jamie, so does that mean the "correct version" is included in the CRD extension 51.0.2704.7 in the Chrome Web Store?

Or do XP users need to download from https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome-remote-desktop/chromeremotedesktophost-50.0.2661.23.msi 

or will it automatically update for XP users?

It should have auto-updated by now, but the service will need to be configured manually. This should be a one-off, as we've now fixed our auto-update configs never to update Windows XP from now on.

Verified Fixed in 50.0.2661.23