Chrome for Enterprise - Disable setting Chrome as default browser option for users

[Eric]

OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
Domain: K-12 education
Default browser: IE7 - because some of our 3rd-party, domain-specific
applications require it

Can the option for users to make Chrome be the default browser be
disabled or enabled within the registry, an INI file, via the Chromium
Policy Templates (http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-
templates), or some other deployable method?

Background: We are wanting to deploy Google Chrome to all workstations
for use with Google Apps and potential applications which use HTML5
goodies. We are using the Chromium Policy Templates to lock down the
browser in our testing environment. What we have seen is that the
first use of the Chrome browser is flawless. The second time the
browser is launched, however, the user is given the option to make
Chrome the default browser. Due to the importance of keeping IE7 as
our default browser, we cannot allow our students from pre-
Kindergarten through high school make that decision. When our vendors
start making their applications browser-agnostic, we will be able to
allow this; but until then, we must block that ability for our users.

[Mattias Nissler]

Hi Eric,

as far as I know, we don't have a switch to lock down the default browser setting at the moment. Before we think about adding a chrome-specific policy switch for that, have you checked whether the windows system policy would actually provide such a switch? This would allow you to prevent Chrome writing the value.

Nevertheless, I think there is some work on the Chrome side, at least to the effect of disabling the UI if we can't set the default browser. Glenn, do we have this on our radar for priotization? Since there is no bug, I created to track http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=65290 this.

Cheers,

Mattias

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[PhistucK]

There is a command line flag that you can use to make that infobar not come up -

--no-default-browser-check

☆PhistucK

[Eric]

Hi Mattias,

Thank you for looking into this. In looking at the available windows
system policies, I could not find one with a setting that would
prevent users from being able to choose a default browser. We're using
Novell Zenworks to push group policy, others use Active Directory -- I
do not know of any other alternatives.

Thanks,
Eric

On Dec 3, 10:06 am, Mattias Nissler <mniss...@chromium.org> wrote:
> Hi Eric,
>
> as far as I know, we don't have a switch to lock down the default browser
> setting at the moment. Before we think about adding a chrome-specific policy
> switch for that, have you checked whether the windows system policy would
> actually provide such a switch? This would allow you to prevent Chrome
> writing the value.
>
> Nevertheless, I think there is some work on the Chrome side, at least to the
> effect of disabling the UI if we can't set the default browser. Glenn, do we
> have this on our radar for priotization? Since there is no bug, I created to
> trackhttp://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=65290this.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mattias
>

> On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 4:49 PM, Eric <eric....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
> > Domain: K-12 education
> > Default browser: IE7 - because some of our 3rd-party, domain-specific
> > applications require it
>
> > Can the option for users to make Chrome be the default browser be
> > disabled or enabled within the registry, an INI file, via the Chromium
> > Policy Templates (http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-
> > templates), or some other deployable method?
>
> > Background: We are wanting to deploy Google Chrome to all workstations
> > for use with Google Apps and potential applications which use HTML5
> > goodies. We are using the Chromium Policy Templates to lock down the
> > browser in our testing environment. What we have seen is that the
> > first use of the Chrome browser is flawless. The second time the
> > browser is launched, however, the user is given the option to make
> > Chrome the default browser. Due to the importance of keeping IE7 as
> > our default browser, we cannot allow our students from pre-
> > Kindergarten through high school make that decision. When our vendors
> > start making their applications browser-agnostic, we will be able to
> > allow this; but until then, we must block that ability for our users.
>
> > --

> > Chromium Discussion mailing list: chromium-disc...@chromium.org

[Eric]

PhistucK,

Thank you. I will see if I can add that to the application shortcuts.

On Dec 3, 10:11 am, PhistucK <phist...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There is a command line flag that you can use to make that infobar not come
> up -
> --no-default-browser-check
>

> ☆*PhistucK*

>
> On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 17:49, Eric <eric....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
> > Domain: K-12 education
> > Default browser: IE7 - because some of our 3rd-party, domain-specific
> > applications require it
>
> > Can the option for users to make Chrome be the default browser be
> > disabled or enabled within the registry, an INI file, via the Chromium
> > Policy Templates (http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-
> > templates), or some other deployable method?
>
> > Background: We are wanting to deploy Google Chrome to all workstations
> > for use with Google Apps and potential applications which use HTML5
> > goodies. We are using the Chromium Policy Templates to lock down the
> > browser in our testing environment. What we have seen is that the
> > first use of the Chrome browser is flawless. The second time the
> > browser is launched, however, the user is given the option to make
> > Chrome the default browser. Due to the importance of keeping IE7 as
> > our default browser, we cannot allow our students from pre-
> > Kindergarten through high school make that decision. When our vendors
> > start making their applications browser-agnostic, we will be able to
> > allow this; but until then, we must block that ability for our users.
>
> > --

> > Chromium Discussion mailing list: chromium-disc...@chromium.org