Deploying Chrome Browser Extension via Group Policy

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This article describes how to set up a group policy using the Google Chrome templates, and deploy the Passwordstate Browser extension to all machines in a specific Organisational Unit (OU).  Please note this article is a general guide from Click Studios, and you should contact your Group Policy Administrators of your network before making any of the below changes.

 

Step 1: Check the Chrome Policy Templates are available

If you do not already have the Chrome policy templates available in Group Policy, you will need to follow these instructions. 

 

To check if Chrome Policy Templates are available in your group policy, log into your domain controller, and open gpedit.msc.  If you see the following Google Chrome folder under Administrative Templates then you have the templates installed and you can skip to Step 2, otherwise follow the instruction below to add these policy templates in:

 

Adding Chrome Policy Templates (These instructions are for servers based in English US location)

 

1. On your domain controller, download this zip file and extract it to a temporary location:  https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome/policy/policy_templates.zip
2. Copy the .\policy_templates\windows\admx\chrome.admx file to C:\Windows\policydefinitions
3. Copy the C:\Data\policy_templates\windows\admx\en-US\chrome.adml file to C:\Windows\policydefinitions\en-US

 

Step 2: Creating and Applying the Policy

 

1. Open Group Policy Manager on your domain controller, expand out your domain -> Group Policy Objects and create a New policy
   
    
2. Name the policy something relevant like “Passwordstate Chrome"
   
    
3. Right click this new policy and select Edit
   
    
4. Expand out Passwordstate Chrome  -> Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Google Chrome -> Extensions
   
    
5. Right click and Edit the “Configure the list of force-installed apps and extensions”
   
    
6. Tick the Enable button, and then click the Show button
   
    
7. Add the following text and click OK:  appojfilknpkghkebigcdkmopdfcjhim;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx
   
    
8. Click Apply, and then click OK
   
    
9. Close down the Group Policy Management Editor
10. Right click the OU of your choice, and select Link and Existing GPO…
11. Choose the “Passwordstate Chrome” policy

 

For any machine that is in that OU, it will now automatically install the Passwordstate browser extension, if Chrome is installed on that machine.  You may need to run a gpupdate /force in an elevated command prompt to apply this new group policy to the machine.

 

Any updates Click Studios makes to the browser extension will automatically apply to your computers that have this group policy applied. It does this by connecting to the Chrome store so the computer must have access to the internet.

 

If you disable this group policy, the extension will automatically be removed from the machines.