If you like Chrome, but aren’t so keen on Google’s tracking code and other extras, then you could switch to Chromium, its open-source browser engine.

Sure, you’d lose the integrated PDF viewer, various codecs, the Flash player (actually, that might be a good thing).

But it’s also more lightweight, and you’ll get new Chromium features long before they arrive in other builds.

Chrlauncher is a portable Chromium updater and launcher for Windows XP+ which makes it easy to download, update and run the browser, without interfering with your existing web settings.

There’s no installation required, just unzip the tiny download, switch to the 32 or 64-bit folder depending on the version you need, and run chrlauncher.exe.

Automatically download Chromium updates as required

The program immediately detects that this is your first run, then goes online, downloads a portable copy of Chromium to a BIN subfolder, and launches it.

Now you can browse as normal, add bookmarks, maybe install extensions. Whatever you’re doing is stored locally in a PROFILE subfolder, so it won’t interfere with any existing browser setup.

Whenever you run chrlauncher.exe in future, it automatically checks for and downloads any updates, before launching Chromium.

Although this is plainly designed for portable use, the package also includes a SetDefaultBrowser.bat file which does exactly what its name suggests.

We’d guess you’re probably never going to want to use this, but if you’re technically inclined then it’s interesting just as an example of how to set your default browser from a batch file (it’s more involved than you might think).

Put it all together and chrlauncher has something for everyone: it’s a simple updater for Chromium fans, but it’s also an easy way to build a portable browser setup for everyone else. Take a look.

Chrlauncher is a free application for Windows XP and later.