New MacBook Air Google Chrome problems wants to install on startup

[imac abuser]

Hi,
I need some help please. I'm using a brand new MacBook Air M3. I want to use Chrome, I installed it and it ran fine. However when I restart there is always a "?" in the dock and it's not. in the Applications folder. If I click on the "?" in the dock it starts reinstalling Chrome. Then it works just fine until I restart. I have uninstalled it and installed it again. The problem continues... Can someone let me know how to fix this, and check if I have tons of installs in the Library? I'm a long time MAC user and understand how this should work.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[mmkerc]

no clue on how to actually solve the problem but I would start by running Malwarebytes, and Onyx on your Mac before reinstalling, and then after reinstalling to see if either of those programs pick up something.

 

[svenmany]

Did you try removing that icon from the dock? It probably represents the Chrome installer application. What happens if you select Options/Show In Finder on that icon? That might tell you where the application is.

 

[bradman83]

Are you sure Chrome was actually installed or that you're installing it correctly?

Chrome is distributed as a complete app on a disk image (.dmg) file. There's no installer, it gets installed by dragging and dropping the Chrome icon from the disk image to your applications folder. It's possible to run an app directly off of a disk image and never actually installing it. The disk image would unmount when the system reboots and thus you'd lose access to the app and the icons in the dock would break.

That sounds exactly like what's happening here.

 

[svenmany]

If I click on the "?" in the dock it starts reinstalling Chrome.

What do you mean by that? When it starts "reinstalling", what do you see? If you see




then you might have dragged the disk image to the dock. You could have dragged to the dock the mounted disk or the file you downloaded. Clicking on either in the dock would mount the volume and show the image above.