Claude Desktop Silently Registers Browser Hooks. Here’s What That Means for You. When I ran a routine audit of my Chromium browser directories last month, I found files I didn’t put there. Native Messaging Host manifests, registered quietly by Claude Desktop, sitting inside the profile directories of Chrome, Brave, Arc, and Edge without a single installation prompt or permission dialog. What surprised me more was what happened next: I asked Claude itself about the files. It knew exactly where they were, what each one did, and it walked me through removing the ones I didn’t want. Claude Desktop had silently installed its own browser automation infrastructure, and Claude was the one who helped me clean it up. ...