How To: Deploy Google Chrome Policies via ADM/ADMX Group Policy

Having recently moved our organisation to Google Apps for Business and shifted to Google Chrome from the ever old fashioned Internet Explorer, the ability to administer certain controls over the web browser from a centralized place become ever slightly more difficult. Luckily however, Google has acknowledged the need to be centrally administered in corporate environments using Active Directory and Group Policy to easily complete this task.

Using the below step by step guide you too will be able to centrally manage all your Google Chrome browsers using your Active Directory and Group Policy.

• Grab a copy of the Google Chrome ADM/ADMX templates from here: http://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome/policy/policy_templates.zip
• Open up and extract the policy_templates.zip file once you have downloaded it to your local machine.
• Navigate to the windows folder and then navigate into the folder with the template you want to use (in my case I deployed the ADMX files; if you're using computers with an operating system newer than Windows Server 2003 or XP select the ADMX folder otherwise select the ADM folder).

• Copy the chrome.admx as well as the chrome.adml file from the language folder to your Windows Server Domain Controller in below specified directory:

• If you are running Server 2008 or newer, copy the chrome.admx file to 'C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\' and the chrome.adml file to 'C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\ (if you are from another region, copy the file to the correct language folder, if it doesn't exist, go ahead and create it).
• If you get an 'Access Denied' prompt, try running Windows Explorer as an Administrator.
• If you are running Server 2003 or older, copy the .adml file to your domain controller and complete the following steps from Microsofts TechNet article to import it:
• Open the Group Policy Object that you want to edit inside Group Policy Management.
• In the console tree, navigate to 'Group Policy object-Computer Configuration (or User Configuration)-Administrative Templates' and right click on Administrative Templates.
• Click Add/Remove Templates.
• To add a template, click Add. In the Policy Templates dialog box, navigate to the template that you want to add, and then click Open.
• Open up Group Policy Management (Start-Administrative Tools-Group Policy Management).

• Right click the Group Policy Object you want, and select Edit…
• Under 'Computer Configuration-Policies-Administrative Templates', you should now see a Google object. Expand that to find the policies you can deploy.