You can set up policy templates to control Chrome browser on managed Windows computers. You use the Group Policy Management Editor to set up the policies. You can also use Chrome Enterprise Core to set up your browser policies in the cloud and see an overview of browser usage.
Tip: For detailed steps, see the Chrome Browser Deployment Guide for Windows.
Step 1: Add the Chrome browser policy template
You can currently use Group Policy to control over 200 policies in a chrome.admx file. When you load the file, each policy is active with a default setting (Not Configured) that can be modified at any time.
To add the policy template:
- Open the downloaded Chrome browser bundle and go to Configuration
admx.
- Copy the google.admx and chrome.admx files to your Policy Definition template folder. (Example: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions)
- In the admx folder, open the appropriate language folder. For example, if you’re in the U.S., open the en-US folder.
- Copy the google.adml and chrome.adml files to the matching language folder in your Policy Definition folder. (Example: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US)
- Open Group Policy to confirm the files loaded correctly. If an error occurs, it’s usually because the files are in an incorrect location. Check the locations and confirm again.
admx.Step 2: Set policies
In Group Policy, you can set policies to control Chrome browser on managed computers. To determine the default settings for a particular policy, open it in Group Policy.
- Open Group Policy and go to Administrative Templates
Note: Not all policies are in the root Google Chrome folder. Be sure to look in the subfolders. - Find and open the policy you want to configure.
- Choose an option:
- Enable—Allows you to change the policy from the default setting.
- Disable—Prevents the policy from affecting Chrome browser.
- Not Configured—Resets the policy to its default.
Here are a few policies to get you started.
| Policy name (In Group Policy) |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Show Home button on toolbar |
Shows the Home button on the toolbar |
| Configure the home page URL (Home page folder) | Sets the default homepage URL. |
| Enable reporting of usage and crash-related data | Determines if anonymous data is sent to Google |
| Configure extension installation blocklist (Extensions Folder) | Specifies which extension users cannot install. Extensions already installed will be disabled if blocklisted |
| Enable Safe Browsing | Turns on Google Safe Browsing and prevents users from changing any settings related to it. |
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