Microsoft's Chrome was the code name for a set of APIs that allowed DirectX to be easily accessed from user-space software, including HTML.
Throughout its brief lifespan, the product was widely derided as an example of Microsoft's embrace, extend and extinguish strategy of ruining standards efforts by adding options that only ran on their platforms.
Chrome was originally positioned as a way to easily add 3D effects to all sorts of programs, and described as a "Windows system service" that would be finalized in early 1999.
[3] This led to widespread outcry from the internet community, who saw Chrome as an attempt by Microsoft to inject a powerful proprietary technology into the open standards based web.
At the time, Chrome demanded relatively hefty machines to run on, a 350 MHz Pentium II or better with an AGP graphics card.
[3] At the time there was also speculation that Chrome was killed in order to avoid further troubles at their ongoing antitrust case, given the outcry from the web community.