Disable Hardware Acceleration using master_preference.json?

[Brandon Boudreau]

I'm trying to lead a project for my company to having a deployment for Chrome instead of users installing it. As we have had issues in the past with Hardware Acceleration corrupting video card drivers. 

The simple solution has been to disable hardware acceleration, however we are trying to have a version of Chrome that will have it disabled by default. 

I'm fairly new to the inner workings of Chrome, so creating a master_preference file is daunting to me. Here's the preference name for doing that:

// Set to true if hardware acceleration mode is enabled on this browser.

 

  const char kHardwareAccelerationModeEnabled[] =

 

   "hardware_acceleration_mode.enabled";

  

 

// Hardware acceleration mode from previous browser launch.

 

  const char kHardwareAccelerationModePrevious[] =

 

   "hardware_acceleration_mode_previous";

 

So my questions is how to I put that correctly into the master_preference file?

Thanks!

[PhistucK]

On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 11:39 PM, Brandon Boudreau <highsc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hardware Acceleration corrupting video card drivers. 

Has the hardware acceleration implemented in Chrome corrupted the drivers?!

☆PhistucK

[Brandon Boudreau]

In some cases, yes. Most of the time what we see is 100% CPU usage coming from chrome.exe so we would like to disable this in our install package.  

☆PhistucK

[PhistucK]

Can you file an issue at crbug.com (if you cannot find one already) about it, along with the output of chrome://gpu (copy and paste in the address bar)?

That would really help the team resolve the issue instead of making you use these workarounds.

Please, do.

Regarding your question, though - instead of master_preferences, I believe you can use group policy -

https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled

☆PhistucK

[Brandon Boudreau]

Thank so much for that. I actually looked around at various ways to disable Hardware Acceleration and didn't see there was a policy.

[PhistucK]

But, please, please, please - do make sure your issue is filed at crbug.com, it is better to fix it than to workaround it.

☆PhistucK

[Brandon Boudreau]

I checked the .ADM template for Chrome and didn't see the path listed for disabling Hardware Acceleration. Is there a specific template I need to use? Says it should be here:

 

Software\Policies\Chromium\HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled

 

But no path existed. Any thoughts?

 

As well, were looking for a more immediate fix for hardware acceleration. I will report the issue to crbug.com in the near future. Thanks again!

[PhistucK]

Just (carefully) create it (but replace "Chromium" with "Chrome") in the registry by yourself.

See http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-templates for the registry hive.

Joao, I cannot find this policy in the templates, is this intentional?

☆PhistucK

[Brandon Boudreau]

A Chrome folder already exists under HKLM\ SOFTWARE\ Policies\ Google\ Chrome. I added the REG_DWORD for HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled and set the value to (0) but it doesn't seem to be applying. Does this need to be set in HKCU?

[Brandon Boudreau]

I do see the policy status for HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled is showing as a Unknown Policy.

My current version is 44.0.2403.

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 8:39 AM Joao da Silva <joaod...@chromium.org> wrote:

This policy only exists since Chrome 45, maybe you're running 44?

https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled

Can you see the policy status in chrome://policy?

[PhistucK]

Then in about a month and a half, Chrome 45 will be released and you will be able to use the policy.

☆PhistucK

[Brandon Boudreau]

I've installed Chrome Beta ver. 45.0.2454.15 but the HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled policy is still showing a "Unknown Policy status. I did see a post regarding registry editing in Chrome was disabled in 2013 as it raised "security concerns". Is this true?

[Brandon Boudreau]

I tested with Chrome Canary build 46.0.2468.0. Its working.

On Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 9:45 AM Joao da Silva <joaod...@chromium.org> wrote:

+zmo according to https://codereview.chromium.org/1217333002

The bug for this feature indicates that it ships in 46, so the documentation is probably wrong: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=337713

Maybe the canary is already at 46? Give it a try at https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html

On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 3:38 PM, Joao da Silva <joaod...@chromium.org> wrote:

If you see "Unknown policy" then it was found in the registry, but Chrome doesn't support it.

The documentation indicates that the policy works in 45 so this is surprising. CCing people who might know more.

[Thiemo Nagel]

The bug for this feature indicates that it ships in 46, so the documentation is probably wrong:

Yep, documentation is wrong. I've re-opened the bug to get it fixed.

Cheers,

Thiemo 

[Brandon Boudreau]

Is there a known time frame when 46 will be released?

[Thiemo Nagel]

We don't officially pre-announce Chrome release dates, but you are free to draw your own conclusions based on the release schedule of the past.

Cheers,

Thiemo

[PhistucK]

In about ten weeks or so.

☆PhistucK