What's old_chrome.exe?

Question

I have the latest version of Chrome (at least I think it's the latest, I installed it in the beginning of December 2014) on my computer which is a Windows XP. In the folder C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application there is a file named old_chrome.exe. When I open it it opens a normal Chrome window, with the only difference that the Windows task manager says that the process running it is old_chrome.exe and not chrome.exe. Just out of curiosity - what's old_chrome.exe?

Answer 1

Chrome updates itself in the background. It first renames the current version to old_chrome.exe, then installs the new version, then changes over and deletes the old one. This allows you to go on web-browsing while the update takes place. If you're seeing old_chrome, then it is in the middle of an update. old_chrome should go away after the update completes.
If it doesn't go away after, say, an hour and a reboot, then something has gone wrong.
Worst case - uninstall and reinstall Chrome.