Question: I thought there was a way to manage ActiveX extensions on Google Chrome, specifically one that manages how Chrome handles Excel workbooks when you click on the hyperlinked title in SharePoint. Is there a way for Chrome to open Excel workbooks directly in Excel client?

Thanks

Answer: 
The [IETab](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ie-tab/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd?hl=en) plugin runs IE in a Chrome Tab so can execute ActiveX controls.
1. Open Chrome
2. Put "chrome://flags/#enable-npapi" into the address bar
3. Find the "Enable NPAPI" plug-in and enable it
4. Select "relaunch now" at the bottom of the page

This enables the NPAPI plugins in chrome. This helped me to show Lync status in Newsfeed in Chrome, hope this works for your case too :-)