Question

As the question says, can an extension save files to a user-set location for all future downloads (that differs from the download location set in preferences)?

If so, how would this be done?

Thanks

Answer 1

See this issue for a lengthy discussion on the matter. Per the last qualitative entry on 8.10.2012:

The downloads ui is a very sensitive part of chrome from a security
perspective, so it is unlikely that we will ever be able to allow
extensions to completely replace chrome’s downloads ui. We have plans
to allow extensions to extend chrome://downloads in a limited and
safe way, and extensions may add browser action buttons, but
replacing the downloads ui entirely is not likely in the foreseeable
future. Witness the search engine hijacking security issues. With the
–disable-downloads-shelf flag, extensions could suggest that users set that flag.

Please also feel free to write a download manager extension as a
browser action to demonstrate a better ui. If a download manager
extension gains sufficient popularity, we may consider adopting
something like it as chrome’s native downloads ui. That’s a more
likely way that extensions could replace the ui, but slower and safer.