Tips for undoing a forced disabled update version of Chrome across a large network.

[locke x]

I work at a place where "the old IT crew" is gone and most of their knowledge with them.  The new IT crew is trying to clean things up, but it's a rather large network (1000-1500 computers) and we're hoping to find a solution to not have to get hands on every single PC, nor do we want to ask our users to follow simple instructions because, let's face it, it would be hard even if we asked them to hit "Start > Shutdown" at this point.

The script used years ago was this: https://www.get-itsolutions.com/deploy-google-chrome-package-with-sccm-2012/ and it forces an install of Google Chrome, at any version you require (simply download the version you want, name it correctly, and deploy the script with your installs or GPO or etc.).  The version had to stay at a certain version because versions after would "break" other software that was mandatory for the job.  Well, that problem is finally a thing of the past and we can safely update Chrome to the latest version without worry, but there are a few problems caused by the deployment script. 

One was a registry key, which we have a script already that can remove the registry key.  It basically allows someone to update Chrome if they go to Settings > About Google Chrome and it will auto update (before removing the registry key, it would block the update with a message that updates were controlled by the system administrators).  

Our problem now is, however, it still won't auto update.  We have tried forcing the update services for Google to start, but it simply gives an error message "The Google Update service started and then stopped.  Some services stop automatically if they are not in use" or something to the effect.  The program will not check itself for updates no matter what version it is, be it version .77 or .99, unless you go to Settings > About Google Chrome (or the URL chrome://settings/help).  Once that page is opened, it automatically begins updating.

The problem is, even if we forced an icon on every user's desktop that said "Click here to Update Chrome" with that URL, and then sent an e-mail to the entire organization, likely only about 1/3 of the users would even bother reading the email and following the instructions.  

We are looking for a way to hopefully force the update to occur quietly during the early morning hours when most of our users are not in office (it's a 24/7 business so this is our best shot).  We can easily deploy the script that removes the registry trigger that's preventing updates from happening when you go to chrome://settings/help, but Chrome is not trying to update itself whether it's running or not.  We have even tried forcing the scheduled task that installing Chrome places in the Task Scheduler, but it does nothing.

Our really only obvious solution is to run our script that removes the registry key and simply run the offline installer overnight, but were really hoping for something that would allow Chrome to begin updating on its own.  Any tips would be great!  Thank you

[K. Moon]

chromium-dev is a mailing list for discussing the development of Chromium; this sort of thing sounds like it might be a better fit for the Google Chrome support forums (https://support.google.com/chrome/community).

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[Joe Mason]

Have you looked at https://chromeenterprise.google/intl/en_ca/browser/download/? There's a list of "helpful articles" at the bottom of the page that look like they might cover your situation.

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