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Copy file name to clipboardExpand all lines: website_and_docs/content/blog/2026/chrome_fornightly_releases.md
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@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags: ["selenium"]
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categories: ["general"]
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author: David Burns [@automatedtester](https://www.linkedin.com/in/theautomatedtester//)
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description: >
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This blog post discusses the rationale behind the breaking change in Java BiDi implementation and the changes users will have to make.
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This blog post discusses the move of Chrome going to do a 14 day release cycle and how it's mostly a non-event for Selenium users.
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But I’m here to tell you: Don’t panic. If you are using a modern version of Selenium (v4.11 or newer), this change is effectively a "non-event." Thanks to Selenium Manager, the days of manually synchronizing your browser and driver are over.
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## The Problem: The Versioning Treadmill
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Historically, automation engineers were stuck in a reactive loop. Chrome would auto-update in the background, your tests would fail because the driver on your PATH was stale, and you'd spend your morning manually downloading a .zip file.
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As the release cycle moves to every two weeks, the "manual" cost of maintenance becomes unsustainable. You shouldn't be a "Binary Manager"; you should be a Test Engineer.
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## The Solution: Selenium Manager & Chrome for Testing (CfT)
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A few years ago, the Selenium project introduced Selenium Manager, a tool bundled with every Selenium release. It works in tandem with Google’s Chrome for Testing (CfT)—a dedicated flavor of Chrome specifically for automation that doesn't "stealth update" and has its own versioned endpoints.
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When your code starts a session, Selenium Manager silently handles the heavy lifting:
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Caching: It stores these in `~/.cache/selenium` so you aren't re-downloading them every time.
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## What this looks like in practice
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You don't need to change your code to handle the fortnightly updates. If you have a standard setup, it just works. Here is how it looks across the bindings:
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Java
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{{< /tab >}}
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{{< /tabpane >}}
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Python
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{{< tabpane langEqualsHeader=true >}}
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{{< tab header="Python" >}}
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driver = webdriver.Chrome()
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# Even if Chrome updates every two weeks, Selenium Manager fetches the right bits
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{{< /tab >}}
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{{< /tabpane >}}
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Taking Control of Versions
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While Selenium Manager handles the "latest" version by default, the move to a fortnightly cycle might make you want to pin your versions to ensure stability across your CI/CD pipelines. You can do this easily through ChromeOptions:
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