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layout layout.njk
title Google Chrome configuration
permalink chrome/index.html

Google Chrome features can be configured with group policies. This project uses Windows Registry settings on Windows, and a Profile Manager file on macOS.

You can check which policies are applied in Google Chrome by navigating to the chrome://policy/ page.

Windows installation

  1. Open the registry file for installation and save it (Ctrl+S) anywhere on your computer.
  2. In the File Explorer, right-click the file and select Open with > Registry Editor.
  3. Follow the prompts to install the registry keys to the Windows Registry.
  4. Restart Chrome.

To remove the custom configuration, follow the same steps with the registry file for uninstallation. This will remove the modified registry keys from your system.

macOS installation

  1. Open the configuration file and save it (Command+S) anywhere on your computer.
  2. In the Finder, open the configuration file you downloaded. You should see a prompt that the profile is ready for review.
  3. Open the System Settings application (Apple menu > System Settings) and navigate to General > Device Management. If you are on macOS 12 Monterey or an older version, the application is called System Preferences, and you need to open the Profiles section.
  4. Double-click on the 'Google Chrome settings' configuration, then click the Install button and follow the prompts.

To remove the custom configuration, open the Device Management settings (or Profiles pane) again, select the 'Google Chrome settings' configuration, and then click the remove (-) button.

Linux installation for Chromium Flatpak

Follow these instructions if you are using the Chromium Web Browser Flatpak package.

  1. Open the configuration file and save it (Ctrl+S) anywhere on your computer. Make sure the file is called "managed_policies.json" (without the quotes).
  2. Open a new Terminal window in the directory where the file is located. For example, if it's in your Downloads folder, open a Terminal and run cd ~/Downloads to switch to the Downloads directory.
  3. Find your Flatpak architecture and save it as a variable: FLATPAK_ARCH=$(flatpak --default-arch)
  4. Create the managed policies directory: mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/extension/org.chromium.Chromium.Extension.just-the-browser/$FLATPAK_ARCH/1/policies/managed/"
  5. Copy the configuration file to the directory: cp ./managed_policies.json "$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/extension/org.chromium.Chromium.Extension.just-the-browser/$FLATPAK_ARCH/1/policies/managed/"
  6. Restart the browser.

To remove the custom configuration, delete the managed_policies.json file from the managed policies directory and restart the browser. You can do that with these commands:

FLATPAK_ARCH=$(flatpak --default-arch)
rm "$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/extension/org.chromium.Chromium.Extension.just-the-browser/$FLATPAK_ARCH/1/policies/managed/managed_policies.json"

Linux installation for system package

These instructions work for both Chromium and Google Chrome. You can check what you're running by opening chrome://version and checking if it says "Chromium" or "Google Chrome" at the top-right corner of the page.

If you're not sure which policies directory path to use for Chromium, you can just create both of them.

  1. Open the configuration file and save it (Ctrl+S) anywhere on your computer. Make sure the file is called "managed_policies.json" (without the quotes).
  2. Open a new Terminal window in the directory where the file is located. For example, if it's in your Downloads folder, open a Terminal and run cd ~/Downloads to switch to the Downloads directory.
  3. Create the managed policies directory with one of the below commands.
    • For Google Chrome: sudo mkdir -p /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed
    • For Chromium in Ubuntu and related distros: sudo mkdir -p /etc/chromium-browser/policies/managed
    • For Chromium in other distros: sudo mkdir -p /etc/chromium/policies/managed
  4. Copy the file to the new folder with one of the below commands.
    • For Google Chrome: sudo cp ./managed_policies.json /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed
    • For Chromium in Ubuntu and related distros: sudo cp ./managed_policies.json /etc/chromium-browser/policies/managed
    • For Chromium in other distros: sudo cp ./managed_policies.json /etc/chromium/policies/managed
  5. Restart the browser.

To remove the custom configuration, delete the managed_policies.json file from the managed policies directory and restart the browser. You can do that with one of the below commands.

  • For Google Chrome: sudo rm /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/managed_policies.json
  • For Chromium in Ubuntu and related distros: sudo rm /etc/chromium-browser/policies/managed/managed_policies.json
  • For Chromium in other distros: sudo rm /etc/chromium/policies/managed/managed_policies.json

Browser settings

These are the policy settings in the Just the Browser configuration file.

Feature Information
AIModeSettings Turns off Google's AI Mode integrations in the address bar and the New Tab page search box.
CreateThemesSettings Turns off the ability to create custom themes and wallpapers with generative AI.
GeminiSettings Blocks Gemini app integrations.
GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings Prevents the local AI model from being downloaded.
HelpMeWriteSettings Turns off the Help Me Write feature powered by AI.
HistorySearchSettings Turns off AI History Search.
TabCompareSettings Turns off the AI-powered Tab Compare feature.
BuiltInDnsClientEnabled Forces Chrome to use the host operating system's DNS client instead of the built-in DNS client. This has no effect when using DNS-over-HTTPS.
DefaultBrowserSettingEnabled Prevents Chrome from checking if it's the default browser and showing notifications about it.
DevToolsGenAiSettings Turns off debugging in the Dev Tools powered by generative AI models.

Documentation