In an effort to boost Chrome adoption among businesses, Google has been working to make the browser easier to manage and deploy in enterprise computing environments. This could help Chrome gain some marketshare at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Google is publishing an official Chrome MSI package that administrators can easily roll out to their users. The browser has also gained support for management via Group Policy on Windows. Unlike the regular Chrome installer, which puts the browser in the user’s home directory and updates it invisibly in the background, the MSI package will install at the system level and allow administrators to have some control over the update process.
Administrators can bundle preinstalled Chrome extensions in the deployment and can also control which extensions users are allowed to add. Various settings—such as the default home page, password management options, proxy configuration, and whether data synchronization is enabled—can all be managed by the administrator. A complete policy reference is available on the Chromium developer website.
The MSI package is a big step forward when it comes to simplifying enterprise Chrome deployment, but Google aims to do more to help out system administrators. Easier support for cross-platform deployment is among the goals on the roadmap.
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