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Admin templates for Google Chrome make it more enterprise-friendly
System admins generally aren't fond of rolling out new software to their users if they don't have a measure of control over what those users can and can't do with the app in question. Google knows that, and they've been working for a while now to add enterprise-friendly policy support to Chrome.
Now, Google has made policy templates available for download which provide a measure of lockdown functionality. As you can see, after importing the .ADM files into the Windows Group Policy Editor you'll be able to manage a handful of Chrome settings via a local machine policy.
A default home page and proxy settings can be configured and Chrome Sync can be blocked, but the bulk of the options are related to background communications with Google (alternate error pages, DNS prefetch, crash reporting, suggestions, etc.). There are a few things missing right now. For example, while I can choose to disable certain plug-ins, there's no switch to disallow extension installs. I'd also like to disable Chrome's autofill feature, but it, too, is missing.
Now, Google has made policy templates available for download which provide a measure of lockdown functionality. As you can see, after importing the .ADM files into the Windows Group Policy Editor you'll be able to manage a handful of Chrome settings via a local machine policy.
A default home page and proxy settings can be configured and Chrome Sync can be blocked, but the bulk of the options are related to background communications with Google (alternate error pages, DNS prefetch, crash reporting, suggestions, etc.). There are a few things missing right now. For example, while I can choose to disable certain plug-ins, there's no switch to disallow extension installs. I'd also like to disable Chrome's autofill feature, but it, too, is missing.
Google has also provided a separate template for managing Google Update options, which provides policy-based control over which Google Apps can install via the updater.
Providing this type of application control was a key step if Google had any hopes of wresting away enterprise market share from Internet Explorer. Now that it's here, it will be interesting to see if Chrome can make inroads in the workplace.
Comments
6
Subscribe to comments@davey_ladSep 25th 2010 10:58AM
Finally.... could this spell the end of IE6 in the corporate environment. As a developer I dearly hope so... however, as a realist I [typical davey cussword] well doubt it.
Drew GreenSep 27th 2010 7:26AM
Unfortunately my company (financial services) could never use this as a default browser, since so many web apps are dependent on IE7. However, this does provide a nice option and I can dream that maybe in 5 years I can use this to deploy a 3rd party browser.
Lee MathewsSep 27th 2010 7:27AM
Out of curiosity, Drew, have you tried Chrome + IETab? Just wondering how it worked if you did...
@davey_ladSep 27th 2010 7:33AM
[typical davey cussword] ? .... am i that bad ?
Lee MathewsSep 27th 2010 7:34AM
No, but I think it was the same word I've edited out of your posts once or twice before ;)
GSArnoldSep 26th 2010 8:31AM
Google knows that? Really? Does Chrome still install to the user's profile instead of Program Files to circumvent local admin controls and UAC? Talk about not being eeeevil, this browser and the early versions of its updater pulled every malware trick in the book to get them selves installed, functioning and automatically downloading updates with no oversight or control. What bothers me the most is that Google has been either blase or oblivious about why that was a bad idea.