I use Mozilla Firefox as my regular browser across my Work PC (Windows 8.1) and Home PC (iMac) so that I can roam settings across. My default browser in my Work PC & Surface Pro is IE “Metro”. The reason I still have Google Chrome in my PCs, is because it allows me with ease to switch between profiles (like my company biz account, testing account).

Unlike many others, I do like Microsoft Windows 8 Modern UI (aka Metro), especially in a touch machine like Surface Pro I feel it shines. The overall experience of Windows 8 can be jarring when you get shuttled between Desktop & Metro UI. I do feel comfortable the direction Windows 8.1 Update is rumored to be taking with keyboard and mouse improvements, which makes lot of sense for a Windows power user like myself.

When I read in The Verge about Google Chrome’s Metro version I was curious to try, which is what I did today. Even after I set Google Chrome as default browser and wherever I looked in Chrome settings, I couldn’t locate how to run it in Metro mode. Then this article at OMG Chrome gave steps you could try to figure out why Chrome is working in Metro mode. In my case it turned out I was running at High resolution (1920 x 1080) which is not supported, interestingly lowering it to 1280 x 720 didn’t work too – Chrome said it is too low a resolution :-). I got it working at 160 x 960 resolution. You can choose settings and then “Relaunch Chrome in Windows 8 mode

Chrome-Browser-Metro-Option[6]

Few minutes I played around, I didn’t like Chrome in Windows 8 mode. The MDI like interface of multiple Windows inside one full screen is not to my liking. I do understand the direction Google is taking, they want to hide as much as possible the base OS (Windows/Mac/Linux) and make this screen feel like Chrome OS.

I am back to Firefox and IE “Metro” as default browser.

Chrome-Browser-Metro

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