Set Chrome browser policies on managed PCs

Applies to managed Chrome browsers on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

This page is for IT admins who want to use on-premise tools to set Chrome policies on corporate-managed computers.

After Chrome browser is installed on your users’ corporate computers, you can use your preferred on-premise tools to enforce policies on those devices. Use Windows Group Policy or your preferred configuration tool for Mac or Linux. To help with policy setup, Google provides policy templates you can easily install and update.  

You can set device-level policies that apply whether or not people are using Chrome browser or signed in to any account. You can set OS user-level policies that apply when specific users are signed in to the device. You can enforce policies that users cannot modify. Or deploy default preferences that users can change.

Note: To see the entire list of Chrome policies, see the common/ folder in the policy templates zip file (available in all supported languages).

Install and configure Chrome policy templates

Click below for steps for your platform.

Windows

For Windows, there are two types of policy templates: an ADM and an ADMX template. Verify which type you can use on your network. The templates show which registry keys you can set to configure Chrome, and what the acceptable values are. Chrome looks at the values set in these registry keys to determine how to act.

Step1: Download Chrome policy templates

1. Download Google Chrome Bundle.

2. Open the bundle.

Find the policy templates in the Configuration folder and the documentation in the Documentation folder.

You can also download the templates separately and view common policy documentation for all operating systems here: Zip file of Google Chrome templates and documentation.

Step 2: Open the ADM or ADMX template you downloaded

1. Navigate to Start > Run: gpedit.msc. (Or run gpedit.msc in your terminal)
2. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates.
3. Right-click Administrative Templates, and select Add/Remove Templates.
4. Add the chrome.adm template via the dialog.
5. Once complete, a Google / Google Chrome folder will appear under Administrative Templates if it's not already there. If you added the ADM template on Windows 7 or 10, it will appear under Classic Administrative Templates / Google / Google Chrome.

Step 3: Configure policies

 In the Group Policy Editor, open the template you just added and change the configuration settings. The most commonly-modified policies are:

• Set the home page - The URL that Chrome opens when a user launches the browser or clicks the Home button.
• Send anonymous usage statistics and crash information - To turn off sending any crash information or anonymous statistics to Google, change this setting to be False.
• Turn off auto-updates - Although not normally recommended, you can turn off auto-updates.

Apply the policies to the target machines. Depending on your network's configuration, this may require time for the policy to propagate, or you may need to propagate those policies manually via administrator tools.

Mac

Chrome policies are described on the Mac in a plist (property list) file. This is found in the Google Chrome Enterprise bundle. To find the plist:

1. Download Google Chrome Bundle.
2. Open the bundle.
3. Find and open the Resources folder.
4. Find a file called com.google.Chrome.manifest inside.

For setup steps, see Chrome browser quick start (Mac).

Linux

For Linux, we've created a JSON file that you can copy and edit to your needs.

• For setup steps, see Chrome bowser quick start (Linux)
• Download Linux templates and documentation

Related topics

• Understand Chrome policy management
• Set Chrome user policies
• Chrome Enterprise policy list