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We built a chrome extension to be used only inside our company by selective people. We do not want to publish this on chrome web store. We could do this before by just drag & drop the crx file in the extensions page.

But in the latest version of chrome(i use 35.x), we are not able to do this anymore. Whenever we try to install the crx file, chrome automatically disables it and shows a message

"This extension is not listed in the Chrome Web Store and may have been added without your knowledge"

with a link to https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2811969 where it says

"You're seeing this notification because one or more of your Chrome extensions has been turned off to make Chrome safer. The extensions didn't come from the Chrome Web Store or were installed without your permission."

So, Does this mean we can never install crx file from now on? No workaround?

I know we can install using Group Policy method, but is that the only way we can do this?

Thanks in advance.

Karthik Jayapal
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1 Answers1

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Yes, this has been disabled as a protection against malware.

The only workarounds I'm aware of are:

Sean Adams
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    I am a little perplexed, 4 machines running 35.0.1916.153 m (standard non-Dev/Canary) and 2 of the machines do not disable the extensions with developer mode enabled, added by dragging the crx file (& not unpacking first), but the other 2 continue to disable them on re-launch. I have even tried the master_preferences and again only of the two computers does it disable on re-launch. – codemonkee Jun 15 '14 at 19:08
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    Damn, such a weird policy. Malware could patch the `chrome` executable or change the user's shortcuts/symlinks just as easily as it could add extensions. – Navin Apr 06 '16 at 09:37
  • Unfortunately, this changes the extension id every time you import it. – Gambo Jan 24 '19 at 08:42
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    @Gambo That can be fixed, adding `key` field in the manifest – Neeraj Sep 26 '20 at 11:35