I have extension in chrome store.
At first I added programmatically chrome extension through registry.
Next I removed by hands this extension in Chrome. And added programmatically folder in registry again. But it didn't install in browser.
Also when I removed extension, the folder with extension_id in registry didn't remove, so it even didn't change when I install it again...
How can I solve it? (without solution through chrome store "Add plugin")
This is intentional. If the user decides to delete an automatically installed extension, it is blacklisted on that profile and will not be installed automatically again. There's nothing you can (automatically) do.
From the docs:
What if the user uninstalls the extension?
If the user uninstalls the extension through the UI, it will no longer be installed or updated on each startup. In other words, the external extension is blacklisted.
A user, however, can clear the blacklist by going to the Web Store and installing from there:
How do I get off the blacklist?
If the user uninstalls your extension, you should respect that decision. However, if you (the developer) accidentally uninstalled your extension through the UI, you can remove the blacklist tag by installing the extension normally through the UI, and then uninstalling it.
Related
I've written an extension for Google Chrome that will be released with the next version of our product. I want to understand what properties, paths for extraction, registry entries, etc. should I provide the installer of my product so that the end user doesn't have to install the extension on their own manually, and the installer does the complete job of installing the extension, and also notifies the user that the extension has been installed. As of now, the code that I have written is placed in a folder, and I use the "Load Unpackaged Extension" to load the extension. What should I do to achieve the aforementioned task?
Google's current policy on installing extensions via the registry (for Windows machines) is this:
Only extensions from the Google Extension Gallery (or Chrome Web Store - CWS) can be installed via the registry.
See this link - https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/external_extensions - for information on how this can be done. Keep in mind the following:
-This technique will still pop-up a msgbox to the user. its not completely silent.
-When using this technique, if the user subsequently removes the extension from her Chrome, the extension gets "blacklisted" on that chrome and will not re-auto-install until the user re-install it
manually. refer to Auto-installing a google chrome extension won't work ! for details.
Chrome has a couple ways of installing extensions programmatically:
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/pre-installed-extensions
Edit: yes, this policy has changed by now, as FuzzyAmi points out.
If you're using GNU/Linux, this is how you pre-install an extension from the chrome web store for all users:
/etc/chromium/policies/managed/yourextension_policy.json
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
{
"ExtensionInstallForcelist": [
"yourextensionuniqueidentifiersup;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx",
"yourextensionuniqueidentifiersup"
]
}
Reference
metamask-chrome - AUR
I have my own extension which I want to install without user interaction. I packed it into a .crx file and entered these values in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\Extensions\[ID]
"version"="1.0"
"path"="[crx Path]"
I tried both current user and local machine without success.
This was working before. My extension can be installed by using developer mode and dragging and dropping the crx file into chrome extensions. But I want to install without user interaction.
Is registry installation not allowed anymore?
even though you create a registry entry, Chrome will not use the local crx file for installation.
you need to supply: update_url with string value set to "https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx".
Upon chrome launch, Google will fetch the extension from web-store and show notification that'd let user install the extension.
Back in old days you'd side-load extensions. Those days are long gone.
Now you need to publish extension in webstore, and point update_url to store.
There are some exceptions (specifically for enterprise users with group policy settings) as mentioned in comments.
I need to install a chrome extension behind the scenes and have it run. I notices that when I set my user profile to a new user or profile directory to a new location it creates a fresh profile with 4 common extensions, I need to update the "master_prefernece" file with my chrome extension info. Anyone have any luck with this? I am setting up a corporate environment and need a pre installed chrome ext to be on all.
You may check possible deployment options for Chrome.
Currently, the only way to install a Chrome extension (while working in development) is to drag it from the desktop onto the browser and click "Add" on the popup window. I would prefer to make the whole process automatic. I currently build, package and sign my CRX programatically, but am stuck with the final manual step. Is this possible?
I tried creating my own URL from which to install the CRX (see here: After adding ExtensionInstallSources preference with my URL to Chrome Preferences, still won't allow installing ".crx" packaged app ) but this did not work.
I want this install to be permanent, not a temporary install that only lasts during the current run..
That's an old question, but you recently updated it, so..
There are no fully automated ways to do it besides Enterprise Policy, which only rarely applies. If that is not an option, you're out of luck. This was a security decision in 2014 by Chrome team, because malware that did that was rampant. Here's a latest post on this topic.
On a Windows machine, the Enterprise Policy force_install is the only no-confirmation one, but it requires a machine in a Windows Domain and admin rights in said domain to enable. I'm not 100% sure how it works on Linux/Mac, but here's a relevant FAQ.
There is a programmatic method of installing extensions, but it now only applies to extensions that are published in CWS (so that Google can pull the plug in case of abuse). It is described here, but will still require a manual approval from the user when the browser starts for the first time after this is added. That's how, for instance, various legitimate bundled extensions like Skype's Click-to-call are installed.
For unpacked extensions, you can run with the command line flag:
<path to chrome> --load-extension=<path to extension directory>
For installing a packaged extension in a .crx file, you can use the "external extensions" mechanism to automatically install from either an autoupdate url or a local path:
https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/external_extensions
Two things of note:
-Because this mechanism is intended mostly for distribution to end-users and not for testing, there is a confirmation dialog that allows the user to opt in to the install.
-We may eventually be deprecating the local path based installs in places where we're enforcing the "must be from the webstore" restriction, and only support the autoupdate url (which must be the webstore update url) approach.
I've written an extension for Google Chrome that will be released with the next version of our product. I want to understand what properties, paths for extraction, registry entries, etc. should I provide the installer of my product so that the end user doesn't have to install the extension on their own manually, and the installer does the complete job of installing the extension, and also notifies the user that the extension has been installed. As of now, the code that I have written is placed in a folder, and I use the "Load Unpackaged Extension" to load the extension. What should I do to achieve the aforementioned task?
Google's current policy on installing extensions via the registry (for Windows machines) is this:
Only extensions from the Google Extension Gallery (or Chrome Web Store - CWS) can be installed via the registry.
See this link - https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/external_extensions - for information on how this can be done. Keep in mind the following:
-This technique will still pop-up a msgbox to the user. its not completely silent.
-When using this technique, if the user subsequently removes the extension from her Chrome, the extension gets "blacklisted" on that chrome and will not re-auto-install until the user re-install it
manually. refer to Auto-installing a google chrome extension won't work ! for details.
Chrome has a couple ways of installing extensions programmatically:
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/pre-installed-extensions
Edit: yes, this policy has changed by now, as FuzzyAmi points out.
If you're using GNU/Linux, this is how you pre-install an extension from the chrome web store for all users:
/etc/chromium/policies/managed/yourextension_policy.json
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
{
"ExtensionInstallForcelist": [
"yourextensionuniqueidentifiersup;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx",
"yourextensionuniqueidentifiersup"
]
}
Reference
metamask-chrome - AUR