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I can't seem to find a clear answer on this anywhere.

How far back is it backwards compatible? Do I have to be concerned about creating multiple versions of the extension?

Thanks

Jamona Mican
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2 Answers2

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"manifest_version": 2 itself does not cause any incompatibility issues.

But you can easily make a mistake and create an extension which is backwards-incompatible, by using features/APIs which are introduced in Chrome 18 or later (manifest v2 came with Chrome 18).

I suggest to not worry about the old manifest version any more, because only Chrome 17- is affected. As of writing, the current stable version is 23. Hardly anyone is using Chrome 17 any more.

See also

Community
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Rob W
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  • Trivia: Ubuntu users have been stuck at Chromium 18 for a while, which also supports manifest v2. – Rob W Nov 16 '12 at 21:05
  • thanks will accept in 3 minutes. since you seem to be a pro at chrome (seen your answers elsewhere) do you know when one should use a registry install of an extension in HKCU vs HKLM? Can I just do both to make sure an install is correct for all users? thx! – Jamona Mican Nov 16 '12 at 21:07
  • I can also add a new question if you want more points. Basically I just want all my bases covered. Do I go HKLM, HKLM + HKCU, or do some kind of check and pick HKLM/HKCU based on that? – Jamona Mican Nov 16 '12 at 21:13
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    @HarryMexican HKLM [should](http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/external_extensions.html#registry) work fine (disclaimer: I have never actively used and tested registry installs). If all of the previous methods fail, you can install a crx file via the command line using `chrome.exe --load-extension=path/to/file` (eg `%ComSpec% /C START chrome.exe --load-extension=%TMP%\myextension.crx`). This opens a new Chrome window though. You could take an advantage of this window by showing an informative page. – Rob W Nov 16 '12 at 21:18
  • thx. finding some issues in the wild that i can't figure out. will try that. – Jamona Mican Nov 16 '12 at 21:23
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Manifest version 2 extensions have to use "background" instead of "background_page" (and the manifest cannot contain it or Chrome refuses to load the extension), but "background" is not supported in older versions of Chrome. This is the main problem. The only work around I can think of is to publish multiple versions of your extensions and ask users to download and install the correct version.

方 觉
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