(GoogleChrome, googleearth, microsoft-edge, and etc.) various privacy-friendly methods of installing Google products

[msoxzw]

The Google-branded version of Omaha is used to install and update a variety of Google products.


Firstly, where to download the installer?

Current chocolatey "GoogleChrome" package downloads the installer from "https://dl.google.com/tag/s/dl/chrome/install/googlechromestandaloneenterprise64.msi", which is different from "https://www.google.com/chrome/", "https://www.google.com/chrome/?standalone=1", and "https://chromeenterprise.google/browser/download/". To distinguish these installers, please follow the instruction from toubleshoot section to create a log file. From this log file, some URL string will be observed, and these URL string, known as tags, undoubtedly, will be used for telemetry.

However, untagged installers exist.
Enterprise msi installer: https://dl.google.com/chrome/install/GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi
Standalone exe installer: https://dl.google.com/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe
Untagged meta installer: https://dl.google.com/update2/installers/ChromeSetup.exe


Secondly, how to use untagged installer?

These tags are actually command-line switches passed to the internal Omaha except msi installer, and documented in the https://github.com/google/omaha/blob/main/omaha/common/const_cmd_line.h. The most important tag is "appguid", which corresponds to the certain product. For example, the chrome appguid can be found in https://github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/main/chrome/installer/mini_installer/chrome_appid.cc.
Therefore, to silently install chrome in stable channel with preferred admin privilege and no install ping, the following command could be used:
ChromeSetup.exe /silent /enterprise /install "appguid={8A69D345-D564-463C-AFF1-A69D9E530F96}&needsadmin=prefers"


All in all, all installers based on Omaha are simply wrappers of untagged meta installer with less flexibility. Last but not least, Microsoft Edge installers are also based on Omaha, and its untagged meta installer can be downloaded from https://msedgesetup.azureedge.net/latest/MicrosoftEdgeSetup.exe. The "appguid" of Microsoft Edge can be found in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-update-policies#windows-registry-settings-2. Similarly, to silently install edge in stable channel with preferred admin privilege and no install ping, the following command could be used:
MicrosoftEdgeSetup.exe /silent /enterprise /install "appguid={56EB18F8-B008-4CBD-B6D2-8C97FE7E9062}&needsadmin=prefers"