Set app and extension policies

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DevicesChromeApps & extensionsUsers & browsers.

   If you signed up for Chrome Browser Cloud Management, go to Menu  Chrome browserApps & extensionsUsers & browsers.
3. (Users only) To apply the setting to a group, do the following:
   1. Select Groups.
   2. Select the group to which you want to apply the setting. 
4. To apply the setting to all users and enrolled browsers, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
5. On the right, click Additional settings.
6. Set the app and extension policies that you want to change. See Learn about each setting below.
7. Click Save.

By default, users in this organizational unit are not allowed to install Google Play and Android apps on devices. To give users access to the approved apps in the Google Play store on their ChromeOS devices, select Allow users to install Android apps.

Allows you to block users from installing certain types of apps by unchecking the type of allowed app.

Types of app:

• Extension
• Theme
• Google Apps Script
• Hosted app
• Legacy packaged app
• Chrome packaged app=Platform app

Allows you to specify which URLs are allowed to install extensions, apps, and themes. For example, if a URL where you have a .crx file matches the list, a Chrome installation prompt will appear if the user clicks the URL. Put one URL pattern on each line. For examples, see the Chrome developer site.

This policy has no effect on Android apps running on ChromeOS. To set policies for Android apps on ChromeOS devices that support them, see Use Android apps on ChromeOS devices

Not supported on Chrome version 78 or later

Allows you to choose whether you want to allow or not allow insecure extension packaging.

Allows you to block external extensions from being installed. An external extension is any extension that is not installed from the Chrome Web Store.

You can use this setting in 2 ways:

Block installing types of extensions

Prevent users from running extensions that request certain permissions that your organizational unit doesn’t allow.

For details, see Block apps and extensions based on permissions.

Prevent apps from altering webpages

Control whether apps or extensions in general can alter webpages that you specify.

For details, see Prevent Chrome extensions from altering webpages.

• Runtime blocked hosts—URLs to pages that you want to prevent apps from altering.
• Runtime allowed hosts—URLs to pages that you want to allow apps to alter. Access is allowed even if the pages are also defined in Blocked URLs.

Specifies whether users can see the Chrome Web Store app in the launcher on ChromeOS devices and on new tab pages.

You can change the Chrome Web Store homepage to a custom homepage for your users when they're signed in. You can also recommend apps and extensions for your domain in a custom collection named after your domain in the Chrome Web Store.

To let users to publish private apps that are restricted to your domain on the Chrome Web Store, choose Allow users to publish private apps that are restricted to your domain on Chrome Web Store. Then, an option appears that lets you allow or prevent users from publishing private hosted apps if the domain name of the app’s launch_web_url or app_url is not owned by your organization.

Related topics: Create a Chrome app collection and Create and publish custom Chrome apps & extensions.

This policy only applies to extensions installed and updated from the Chrome Web Store. Off-store extensions that are self-hosted or locally installed using the command line switch or developer mode are not affected by this policy. Force-installed and version-pinned extensions are also excluded.

Specifies whether extensions unpublished from the Chrome Web Store are available on Chrome browser. By default, extensions that are unpublished on the Chrome Web Store are allowed. To disable unpublished extensions, select Disable unpublished extensions.

Chrome Apps are deprecated on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The default, Chrome Apps will be allowed to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, means that Chrome Apps are allowed to run on these platforms until the final date when support is removed on all platforms.

If you select the other option, Chrome Apps might not be allowed to run, depending on the status of the deprecation rollout.

Chrome Apps that are force installed by policy are allowed regardless of which option you choose.

Allows you to monitor the success and failure of the installations to users and devices on your network by using the reporting tool found in the Admin console.

For setup information, see Monitor forced Android app installs.

Note: The report only shows information for managed users using managed ChromeOS devices that support managed Google Play.

Choose whether all apps that were running when the user signed out the last time are launched at the start of a session.

When the Restore all apps and app windows option is selected, the Pages to load on startup setting only applies when a user launches a new session for the first time on a new device or if sessions are ephemeral. For details, see Pages to load on startup.

Select one of the following options:

• Restore all apps and app windows—(Default) Apps and app windows are restored or not restored on startup depending on the option you select from Select desired behavior.
• Only restore Chrome browser—Only browser windows are automatically restored.

Allows you to choose whether to enable the creation of ghost windows while restoring Android apps after a crash or reboot.

Ghost windows are a preview of Android apps that are still loading. The user can see that an app will be available soon and they do not have to manually search for and start the app.

On your users’ ChromeOS devices, the launcher contains pre-installed creativity apps. These apps include Camera, Canvas, Gallery, and Screencast. Use this setting to specify which of those apps you want to pin to the shelf on devices. Users can’t unpin them.

By default, for Education customers, Canvas and Screencast are pinned to the shelf. Otherwise, none of the creative apps that are pre-installed in the launcher are pinned to the shelf.

For details about pinning apps to the launcher, see the PinnedLauncherApps policy.