Applies to managed Chrome browsers and ChromeOS devices.
As a Chrome administrator, you can use the ChromeVariations policy to manage the Chrome variations framework on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux and the DeviceChromeVariations policy to manage them on Chrome OS.
Important: We do not recommend disabling the Chrome variations framework. By doing this you can potentially prevent Google from quickly providing critical security fixes and significantly increases the risk of security and compatibility issues in your organization
Benefits
Using variations, Chrome can:
- Give a small group of users previews of new features and gather feedback.
- Slowly roll out changes to progressively larger groups of users and minimize the risk of incompatibilities.
- Provide faster security and other critical updates.
- Rollback features if a problem is discovered, without waiting for a new version of Chrome. The user only needs to restart their computer to get the new configuration.
Step 1: Review policies
| Policy | Description |
|---|---|
|
Specifies which variations are enabled in Chrome for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Unset: Defaults to Enable Chrome variations, as described below. |
|
|
Specifies which variations are enabled in Chrome for Chrome OS. Unset: Defaults to Enabled, as described below. |
What the policies manage
Setting these policies enables or disables the Chrome variations framework for deploying changes within your organizational units. You can also choose to enable them for critical fixes only.
Step 2: Set the policy
Click below for steps, based on how you want to manage these policies.
Admin console for Chrome on Windows, Mac, and Linux-
Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
-
In the Admin console, go to Menu
Devices
Chrome
If you signed up for Chrome Enterprise Core, go to Menu
Chrome browser
-
(Optional) To apply the setting only to some users and enrolled browsers, at the side, select an organizational unit (often used for departments) or configuration group (advanced). Show me how
Group settings override organizational units. Learn more
- Go to Chrome variations.
- Click Variations.
- To enable or disable variations, choose an option:
- Enable Chrome variations—Allows all variations to be applied.
- Enable variations for critical fixes only—Allows only variations considered critical for security or stability to be applied, including critical rollbacks and security fixes. Disables all experiments and progressive rollouts. Useful for organizations that control Chrome versions manually.
- Disable variations—No changes are deployed using the variations framework.
-
Click Save. Or, you might click Override for an organizational unit.
To later restore the inherited value, click Inherit (or Unset for a group).
-
Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
-
In the Admin console, go to Menu
- (Optional) To apply the setting to a department or team, at the side, select an organizational unit. Show me how
- Go to Device update settings.
- Click Variations.
- Choose an option:
- Enable Chrome variations—Allows all variations to be applied.
- Enable variations for critical fixes only—Allows only variations considered critical for security or stability to be applied, including critical rollbacks and security fixes. Disables all experiments and progressive rollouts. Useful for organizations that control Chrome versions manually.
- Disable variations—No changes are deployed using the variations framework.
- Click Save.
Using Group Policy
- Go to Policies
Administrative Templates
- Enable Chrome Variations.
- Set an option:
- Enable Chrome variations
- Enable variations for critical fixes only
- Disable variations
- Deploy the policy to your users.
Administrative TemplatesIn your Chrome configuration profile, add or update the following key and then deploy the change to your users.
Set the ChromeVariations key to <integer>value</integer>, where <value> is 0, 1,or 2.
Example code:
<key>ChromeVariations</key>
<dict>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
In your preferred JSON file editor, add or update a JSON file and then deploy the change to your users.
- Go to your etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed folder.
- Set the ChromeVariations key to 0, 1, or 2.
Example code:
{
"ChromeVariations": 1
}
Step 3: Verify policies are applied
After you apply any Chrome policies, users need to restart Chrome Browser for the settings to take effect. You can check users’ devices to make sure the policies were applied correctly.
- On a managed device, go to chrome://policy.
- Click Reload policies.
- For ChromeVariations and DeviceChromeVariations, make sure Status is set to OK.
- For ChromeVariations and DeviceChromeVariations, click Show value and make sure that the value fields are the same as what you set in the policies.
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