And who the heck is Spandex?
Trust me on this one… Thats not one of my users and this new user head just popped up today…. I assume its part of an update but why is Google Chrome now running in the background and why did they not advise me of these changes?
My head hurts….
Google Chrome is made up of many different processes & I think some of them are always running.
19.0.1084.46 beta-m
This is actually or was till I killed it a process in the actual task bar…
I think aliens have taken over my chrome…
wrench/settings/under the hood… bottom of page / background apps box is it checked?
+Wesley Davis no its not – but I think it was when this updated today… and my settings page is now totally different…
That is strange thou to see all these changes with nothing on the +Google Chrome page…. or anywhere else for that matter….
Hmmm… all the settings are on one page now – no under the hood…
I understand I am on a beta release – but this seems to be quite a bit of change even for a beta.. and now there is also a section for adding multiple users…
It's quite an old change. It only shows up when you add users to your Chrome under the personal settings tab in the wrench menu. You can customize the name and picture to whatever you want — it's mostly useful for switching between Chrome profiles or Google accounts.
Ok – well I did not add any accounts… there are two in there now thou.. well 3 – one that says first user, and two others… one called spandex and the other called Sparky – with a cartoon picture of a dog?
I know I did not add either of those and honestly just having new users accts show up for no reason is an issue…
RE names and pictures: new accounts are created with generated names and pictures (i.e. Sparky being a dog, Shadow being the ninja, etc.).
There might be some way to create accounts from outside the preferences menu, but I don't know for sure. I think that might've been how I stumbled upon it months ago, but I can't be certain.
Just found same Spandex dude on mine. 8-/
I had the same thing just happen with Spandex. Bizarre. I deleted him.
I thought Spandex was a hacker at first. Now it looks like a Chrome hack.
There is a complete lack of comment from Google on this issue. Not acceptable!
Spandex (and Barks, and other silly names) are the default names for other Chrome profiles. http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2364824
You probably logged into another Google service online such as YouTube using a different account to the one your chrome is set up with. Chrome then adds this into your user accounts. Spandex being the dogs name. You will notice also (Windows 7 users) that if you have chrome pinned to your task bar and you click the icon to open a window, you are now presented with 2 chrome icons in the task bar where as normally these Windows open under the same icon. Spooky huh? Moving on, this Spandex issue is not a hack, nor will it ever cause your computer any harm. It can simply be deleted by click the head in the very top left corner of your browser then selecting Edit. Scroll down and you can remove Spandex from your user profiles and BOOM!!!! everything will be normal again.
Oh and @Joe Balbona
Why is it unacceptable for Google to not come and comment on something that's completely irrelevant? Spandex even looks harmless mate!
+Lee Harding It isn't "completely irrelevant." I work in a corporate environment and maintain 10 desktops for my employees. Our data is sensitive and the office has been the target of viruses and various attacks in the past. When I see a new user named "Spandex" on my browser I have to assume — in due diligence — that the desktop has been compromised. Maybe it seems innocuous and "cute" to you but I've spent 40 minutes of my day trying to figure out what's going on. ESPECIALLY that nowhere in the Chrome help pages does it mention anything about "Spandex." It has to be explained by some random user? +Joe Balbona is absolutely correct, that's completely irresponsible of the company.
Above is what I was worried about…. When this happened to me…
I just found the Spandex user when my browser got hijacked, I think. All my bookmarks were gone and there was a note in the settings button saying that a program in my computer installed a chrome extension called "Web Navigation" without my knowledge. It said it could access my tabs and browsing history, and asked if I would enable it. Of course I clicked remove from the extensions list but then it would appear again and again and now my bookmarks are all gone and there's this Spandex guy in the users list. I am the only one using this computer. So far all the anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware I tried hasn't been able to detect or remove this recurring problem. It's driving me nuts to restore all my bookmarks, and now I'm paranoid about signing in to all my online accounts. Help?
Spandex is logged in on my chrome too. Thanks for your post.