Once, long ago, the personal computing world was relatively simple; Apple was a relatively small player taking on the behemoth that was Microsoft (News - Alert) on a single battleground, the PC. These days, there’s also the mobile market and wearable tech, while Google has become a strong third party in the war to control our personal devices.

Curiously, despite the fact that the PC market is in decline, Google (News - Alert) has decided to take on Microsoft on its home turf with Chrome OS, a barebones operating system meant for notebooks, or rather Chromebooks. Like Linux and OS X before it, though, Chrome OS has yet to achieve a market share that even approaches that of Windows. However, Google has an in with Windows users with its popular Chrome browser and it seems the search giant isn’t afraid to use this advantage.

Case in point, the latest update to Chrome for Windows, Chrome 32.0.1700.76, has rolled out with a little surprise for Windows 8 users. When those running Windows 8 choose to run Chrome in “Windows 8 mode,” which used to launch the browser as if it were a modern-style app, they are now greeted with what is effectively the entire Chrome OS experience.

While this is an undeniably clever move on Google’s part, it may prove a bit of a pain for users. This is because, according to Ed Bott over at ZDnet, Chrome 32 as a Windows 8 app now lacks pinch-to-zoom support, as well as support for the Share charm. It also does away with the app bar and, most egregiously, Web pages don’t scale correctly when using the app with Windows 8.1’s snap mode, which allows for viewing of two Windows 8 apps at once.

Fortunately, this is really only a problem for Windows 8 tablet users, who can switch over to the desktop version of Chrome — or a different browser altogether. Still, it’s a bold move from Google that risks turning some folks off Chrome OS rather than piquing their interest.