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Manual Playwright Chromium Browser Installation Guide

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for manually downloading and setting up the Playwright Chromium browser on Windows.

Prerequisites

  • Windows operating system
  • File extraction tool (e.g., Windows Explorer, 7-Zip, WinRAR)
  • Use Powershell to run commands.

Installation Steps

Step 1: Download the Browser

Download the Chromium browser archive from the following URL:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1xcmG-rfTcWzf7DEuNt3DUTpwe7FROhTq

OR

https://playwright-verizon.azureedge.net/builds/chromium/1187/chromium-win64.zip

Step 2: Create the Playwright Directory

Navigate to your user profile's AppData folder and create the ms-playwright directory:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright

You can do this via this command:

mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright"

Step 3: Create the Browser Version Folder

Inside the ms-playwright folder, create a new folder named chromium-1187:

mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright\chromium-1187"

Step 4: Extract the Browser

Unzip the downloaded chromium-win64.zip file into the chromium-1187 folder.

After extraction, your folder structure should look like:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright\
└── chromium-1187\
    └── chrome-win\
        ├── chrome.exe

Step 5: Create Validation Files

Create two empty marker files inside the chromium-1187 folder to indicate successful installation:

File 1: DEPENDENCIES_VALIDATED

ni "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright\chromium-1187\DEPENDENCIES_VALIDATED"

File 2: INSTALLATION_COMPLETE

ni "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright\chromium-1187\INSTALLATION_COMPLETE"

Final Directory Structure

After completing all steps, your directory structure should be:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright\
└── chromium-1187\
    ├── chrome-win\
    │   ├── chrome.exe
    ├── DEPENDENCIES_VALIDATED
    └── INSTALLATION_COMPLETE

Verification

Check Files and Folders

To verify the installation, check that all files and folders exist:

dir "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright\chromium-1187"

You should see the chrome-win folder along with the two marker files.

Test Browser Launch

To verify that Playwright is correctly picking up the browser path, run the following command to open a URL:

playwright open https://www.google.com

This should launch a new Chromium browser window and navigate to the specified URL. If the browser opens successfully, your manual installation is working correctly.

Troubleshooting

  • Browser not detected: Ensure the folder name is exactly chromium-1187 and both marker files exist.
  • Extraction issues: Make sure the chrome-win folder is directly inside chromium-1187, not nested in an additional folder.
  • Permission errors: Run Powershell as Administrator if you encounter access issues.
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