Protocol handler woes in google chrome

[jfoz37]

Client:

• µTorrent
• qBittorrent
• Transmission
• rTorrent
• Deluge

Client Version:

Operating System:
Windows 10 Pro
Application Version:
2.8.1
Description:
Really like electorrent. Took less than 10 seconds to get it working with firefox, but getting it to work with chrome was a real pain. The issue was protocol handlers. Magnet links were enabled in the electorrent settings, but chrome would only allow adding a protocol when another website made a request (i.e. a chrome tab with rutorrent open).

Back in the day, when you clicked on a magnet link you would get a popup asking what you wanted to do from there. Now it seems like chrome limits you to using only sites unless you already have your default protocol handlers set in windows. Anyway, this made it impossible to click on a magnet link and have electorrent open it.

To further complicate matters, windows 10 was of no help (big surprise). Attempting to change the default apps by protocol gave two options; google chrome or “find an app from the windows store”. To make a long story a bit shorter, I went though every registry tweak extensive google searching could come up with. Nothing worked. Tried uninstalling programs with revo uninstaller pro and then reinstalling. Didn’t work. Tried different computers and ended up having the same issue across 3 different systems.

Found a fix that does work and wanted to post it here for anyone who faces a similar issue in the future:

Go here: https://www.slimjet.com/chrome/google-chrome-old-version.php.

Download an older version of chrome (didn’t know when this issue began, so I chose the oldest possible version; 48.0.2564.97).

Sign out of your google account.

Uninstall chrome.

Restart your computer (not sure this is absolutely necessary).

Unzip the version of chrome you downloaded from slimjet.com.

Open the extracted folder and launch chrome.exe.

Go to any torrent site and click on a magnet link.

You will get a pop up from chrome asking you to select the program you want to use.
Select electorrent and hit ok.

This forces windows to add electorrent as an option in the “choose default apps by protocol” section.

Now you can close/delete the version of chrome you downloaded and reinstall an up-to-date version of chrome.

Most likely, as soon as you download and reinstall chrome, it WILL set itself as the default handler for magnet links in windows once again. So, before you try to open any magnet links, just head back to the windows settings that allow you to choose default apps by protocol. This time, when you come to the magnet protocol, you will see that electorrent added to the list of options. Select it.

Once this is done, just click on a magnet link in chrome, select electorrent, tick the box if you want, and then hit ok. Should work fine from then on. I’m sure there are far easier/better ways to do this, but I couldn’t find any that actually worked. Hope this will help anyone currently struggling with similar issues.

[tympanix]

Wow - thanks for your research in this. The way you describe the solution makes me think this is some system setting external to Chrome (probably the registry). I wonder if we can figure out the root cause and create a proper fix for this. I do vaguely remember something about x509 signed applications and protocol handlers (and I don't have certificates for Electorrent).

We can start by putting this information in a wiki page in the repo