If you let your family or other people browse the web using Chrome on your PC, you might want to prevent them from installing extensions in Chrome. Here’s how to take advantage of a Chrome policy meant for system administrators to disable extension installation.
You can use either the Registry Editor or the Local Group Policy Editor. The Registry Editor is accessible on all Windows 10 editions. The Local Group Policy Editor is not available on the Home edition of Windows 10.
Home Users: Use the Registry Editor
If you have Windows 10 Home, you’ll have to edit the Windows Registry to make this change. You can also do it this way if you have Windows Pro or Enterprise but just feel more comfortable working in the Registry instead of the Group Policy Editor. (If you have Pro or Enterprise, though, we recommend using the easier Group Policy Editor as described below.)
Here’s our standard warning: The Registry Editor is a powerful tool, and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack, and you shouldn’t have any problems as long as you stick to the instructions. That being said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.
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To open the Registry Editor, hit Start, type “regedit” in the search box, and press Enter.
Not sure which version of Windows you’re using? Here’s how to check whether you’re using a 64-bit or 32-bit version.
In the left pane, right-click on the “Policies” folder. Select the “New” option, and then select the “Key” option. Name this new subkey “Google” without quotes.
Next, right-click on the newly created “Google” subkey. Select the “New” option, and then select the “Key” to add a new subkey. Name it “Chrome” without quotes.
Right-click on the “ExtensionInstallBlocklist” subkey, select “New,” choose the “String Value” option, and set “1” (without quotes) as its value name.
In the right-hand pane, double-click on the “1” value name to open its properties. In the box under the Value data option, type in an asterisk (*), and click the “OK” button.
Right-click on the “BlockExternalExtensions” subkey, select “New,” choose the “String Value” option, and set “1” as its value name.
In the right-hand pane, double-click on the “1” value name to open its properties. In the box under the Value data option, type in an asterisk (*), and click the “OK” button.
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By adding these two keys, you can ensure that no other user can install Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store or any other online source. The only downside is that you have to remember the path for these new subkeys.
Windows 10 Professional: Use Group Policy
If your PC runs the Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise edition, you can skip messing with the registry. Instead, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor to prevent others from adding Chrome extensions.
First, download the Chrome policy templates zip file from Google and unzip it on your PC.
To launch the Group Policy Editor, hit Start, type “gpedit.msc” into Windows Search, and press Enter.
Click the “Action” menu at the top, and select the “Add/Remove Templates” option.
From the new window that opens, click the “Add” button.
Double-click on the “en-US” language folder, select the “chrome.adm” file, and click the “Open” button. You can choose a different language folder matching the system language of your PC.
When the Chrome template file appears under the Current Policy Templates list, click the “Close” button.
In the right-hand pane, double-click the “Configure extension installation blocklist” setting. When the setting window opens, select the “Enabled” option and click the “Show” button.
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When the new Show Contents window opens, type an asterisk (*) in the empty box under the Value heading and click the “OK” button.
Click the “OK” button in the “Configure extension installation blocklist” window to close it.
Now, use a similar process to open the “Block external extensions for being installed” setting to prevent anyone from installing an external custom extension in Chrome. When the setting window opens, click the “Enabled” option, and then click the “OK” button.
After you make your change, no one can install any extensions from the Chrome Web Store or from any other location. You can launch Chrome and try installing an extension to test whether you’ve configured the policy properly.
— Update: 19-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article Prevent Users from Installing Extensions on Google Chrome from the website winaero.com for the keyword prevent users from installing extensions in google chrome.
How to Prevent Users from Installing Extensions on Google Chrome. System administrators often apply various kinds of restrictions to the software on the local network in order to secure the operating system and apps. Even such innocuous things as extensions and themes in the Google Chrome browser can be harmful, so admins often restrict them. However, this may be needed not only by a system administrator, but also by an ordinary user who has decided to increase the level of security on the child’s home computer. So let’s take a look at how to prevent users from installing extensions in Google Chrome.
If you have a Windows edition with a Local Group Policy Editor installed, e.g. Windows 10 Pro, use the following method. Windows 10 Home users should use option two below that involves editing the Registry. First of all we need to install the Group Policy templates for Google Chrome.
Install Chrome Group Policy Templates
- Download the archive with the Group Policy templates from the official Google website (here’s a direct link).
- Extract the archive contents it to any folder location of your choice.
- Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).
- Right-click on the Computer configuration > Administrative Templates item on the right and select Add / Remove Templates from the menu.
- Click the “Add” button in the next window.
- Specify the path to the
chrome.admtemplate in the path-to-the-unpacked-archive windows adm en-US folder. - Wait for a couple of seconds for the chrome line to appear, click on the Close button in the Add/Remove dialog.
- Once added, you will get a sub-item Classic Administrative Templates (ADM). It hosts the required policies.
Since you have added the policy templates for Google Chrome, you can now use them to apply restrictions to the extension list in the browser. Here’s how.
How to Prevent Users from Installing Extensions on Google Chrome
- Open gpedit.msc.
- Navigate to Classic Administrative Templates (ADM)GoogleGoogle ChromeExtensions on the left.
- On the right, double-click on the Configure extension installation blocklist entry.
- Set the policy to Enabled and then click on the Show… button under Options.
- In the Show content window that opens, double-click in the first text row in the Value column and type asterisk (
*), which means that Chrome is prohibited from installing any extensions. - Save all settings in all open windows.
You are done!
If you now try to install the extension to your browser, you will see the “Blocked by admin” warning message.
Now let’s imagine that you need to exclude some extensions from being blocked and allow their installation. It is an easy task.
How to allow installation of certain extensions
- Go to the extension page on Google Web Store.
- Copy its identifier from the address bar. It is highlighted in the screenshot below.
- In the Group Policy editor, double click on the Configure the list of allowed extensions policy.
- Set the policy to Enabled and click the Show button.
- Paste the previously copied extension ID into the Value box.
- Repeat the above steps for all extensions you need to whitelist.
- Re-open the Chrome browser if you have it running, and install the required extensions.
Finally, if you are running Windows 10 Home, the Local Group Policy editor is not available in this edition of the OS. Here’s an alternative solution you can use.
Prevent Users from Installing Chrome Extensions in Windows 10 Home
- Download the following ZIP archive with REG files: Download ZIP Archive.
- Extract the contents to any folder of your choice. It includes two files –
block all extensions.regandwhitelist extensions.reg. - Open these files with Notepad and correct them according to your preferences. Each extension identifier is noted as string parameters under numbers “1”, “2” , “3” and so on.
- After editing the files, save them and double click on them to apply the changes.
- Re-open the Chrome browser if you have it running.
How it works
The above registry files modify the following Registry keys:
- For whitelist:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesGoogleChromeExtensionInstallAllowlist - For blocked extensions:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesGoogleChromeExtensionInstallBlocklist.
Each of the subkeys can have string (REG_SZ) values named “1”, “2” , “3” and so on. Each of the values contain IDs of the extensions you need to block or whitelist.
The added identifiers are given purely for example, they will correspond to the IDs of your extensions. If you need to add several extensions to the whitelist, create entries 2 , 3 , 4, 5, 6 and so on according to the example, put the “equal” sign and enclose the extension identifier in double quotes, and then merge the registry file.
Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/724165/how-to-prevent-people-from-installing-extensions-in-chrome/