Deploying a chrome extension

I am also interested in deploying Chrome extensions.  Firefox addons as well. There doesn't seem to be a simple way to do either.

Yes, this would be great.

I'd start here: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/188453?hl=en

There maybe a better way of doing this, but all you need to do is search for the extension you want in the google web store, select that extension, then copy the extension ID from the URL (usually after the last "/" and before the "?")

Next create a package with a Command step for 32 and 64bit and replace the "YourExtensionID" with the ID of the extension you want, for my example i'm using Speedtest, it's ID is "pgjjikdiikihdfpoppgaidccahalehjh".

Windows (32-bit)

"reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Google\Chrome\Extensions\YourExtensionID
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 1 reg add HKLM\Software\Google\Chrome\Extensions\YourExtensionID /v update_url /t REG_SZ /d https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 exit"

Windows (64-bit)

"reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions\YourExtensionID
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 1 reg add HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions\YourExtensionID /v update_url /t REG_SZ /d https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 exit"

DO NOT INCLUDE QUOTES

You can also create a Command step to kill Chrome before hand if you would like.

"%SystemRoot%\System32\taskkill.exe /f /im chrome.exe"

You'll need to add that extension to your exceptions in your chrome GPO or else manually enable it.

 Here's a quick look at what it looks like in a package

IT Worked!

Thanks a lot Nate.

That works! Thank you. 

My only issue now is every user must enable the extension manually. Is there a way to automatically enable the extension?

I'm currently not aware of a way automatically enable an extension other than force installing and enabling an extension through chrome GPO, you would have to create a separate OU or group for users with that extension so it wouldn't apply to all users.

I would either go that way, or i would create a simple guide for users showing how to enable that extension, that way users who want it can enable it themselves using your documentation.

Ok thank you

You wouldn't necessarily need an OU or Group, depending on use case. He may be able to use Item-Level Targeting to apply the extension to only those who need it. Not seeing his environment, you could be very right. But even then, ILT on just that one extension would save having to create a whole separate policy for just this one item.

Hi Nate, I followed your procedure and it works, but if I delete the extention from Chrome and remove the key from HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions\ and try to redeploy I cannot install the extention anymore...any idea? My system is win10 x64, Chrome Version 63.0.3239.108 (Official Build) (64-bit) and pdq deploy enterprise.

Thanks in advance.

Ciao
Massimo

Massimo, I haven't messed with this in a long time, but I do remember Chrome being finicky when redeploying the same extension twice. I believe I had to completely remove chrome in order to re-install the same extension. I don't remember however if i had to do any registry cleanup first.

Many thanks Nate, yes I had to delete the extension first, I had to cleanup the key HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions and then redeploy...the problem seems that if you simply redeploy after removing the extension the re-deploy doesn't work, to make it works properly I had to manually re-installed the extention, I then removed and then cleanup the registry key...after this procedure it was possible to re-deploy the package.

Many thanks.

Ciao

Massimo

The above procedure worked well for me to remote deploy, but when the user first opened chrome, it ask to enable that addon. Is there a way to auto enable that addon as well?