In this article, you will learn how to install Group Policy Templates for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers on Windows. Group Policy allows administrators to define security policies for users and for computers. When you install Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome with the on-premise tools you can enforce policies that will guide the use of some of the features on these browsers. Please see How To Add Google Drive To File Explorer in Windows, and How to Set Google as default: How to set a browser as default in Windows 10.
What will help with the policy setup is the policy templates provided by Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, which can be easily installed and updated. You can enforce policies that users cannot modify or deploy default options that users can change or amend.
There are two types of policy templates the ADM and ADMX templates. Here is a video on how to Install Group Policy Templates for Edge and Chrome browsers on Windows.
The templates show which registry keys you can set to configure your Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. There exist different versions of this template but we will be concentrating on Windows versions in this article.
If you want to read more on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome check these: How to enable Adblocker on Microsoft Edge, Remove all cookies-How to remove third-party cookies from Microsoft Edge, and How to Add or Remove Sites from the Favorites List in Microsoft Edge.
Install Group Policy Templates for Google Chrome
Follow the below steps on how to download and install the group policies for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge
The following page can be used to download Google Chrome Bundle as discussed here.
2. Unzip the downloaded bundle. You will see the policy templates folders adm and admx in the Configuration folder and the documentation in the Documentation folder.
3. Run gpedit.msc in your terminal and navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates.
4. Right-click Administrative Templates, and select Add/Remove Templates.
- Select and Add the chrome.adm.
7: When all these are done, you will see a folder named Classic Administrative Templates (ADM). And under it. You will see Google > Google Chrome. You can apply the policies and wait for some time for the policy to propagate.
Here are some interesting articles: How to Disable Chrome Browser Notifications on Windows, Edge GPO settings: All Group Policies available to configure Microsoft Edge Settings, Install Microsoft Edge on Ubuntu: How to install and remove Microsoft Edge Browser on Linux, and What are the differences between an ADM and ADMX file.
Install GPO Templates for Microsoft Edge
You should use the hyperlink here to download the Microsoft Edge template.
2: Unzip the downloaded file.
3: Run gpedit.msc in your terminal and navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates.
4. Right-click Administrative Templates, and select Add/Remove Templates.
5: Open the Windows folder and select msedge.adm from either the ADM or ADMX folder.
6: When all these are done, you will see a folder named Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) under it. You will see Microsoft Edge. You can apply the policies and wait for some time for the policy to propagate.
FAQs
Popular web browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer support Group Policy Templates. Each browser may have its own set of policies, and administrators can use these templates to enforce settings like homepage URLs, security configurations, and privacy preferences uniformly across user systems
Group Policy Templates, often in the form of Administrative Templates (.admx files), provide a way to centrally manage and configure settings for web browsers across an organization. These templates define policy settings that administrators can use to enforce specific configurations, security settings, and preferences for web browsers through Group Policy Objects (GPOs).
I hope you found this blog post on how to install Group Policy Templates for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers on Windows. Interesting and helpful. In case you have any questions do not hesitate to ask in the comment section.
Hello thank you for the article.
I need help on how best to limit the number of tab that a user can open at one time i was looking at not more than 5 tabs open in chrome.Thank you
Hi Ondur, if there are no policies for this, you could leverage an extension such as X-tab etc.
thank you for the feedback let me try
Good to hear! We will create a blogpost on this topic and also demonstrate on how to manage browser extensions with GPO.
As promised, here is the blogpost: https://techdirectarchive.com/2024/10/23/restrict-the-number-of-tabs-a-user-can-open-in-chrome-and-edge/