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.
"We've been hearing a lot of feedback from IT administrators who want to manage and configure Google Chrome. Of course, we were eager to do what we could to help them get Chrome deployed inside their organizations," wrote Chrome product manager Glenn Wilson and engineer Daniel Clifford in a blog post. "Today, after talking directly to administrators and testing the features extensively with other organizations, we believe the first set of features is ready for prime-time."
Enterprise support is an area where Firefox has historically been weak. Mozilla started a working group to explore enterprise deployment issues in 2007, but it didn't make much progress. Mozilla still doesn't officially support MSI packaging, though there are a number of third-party tools and packages that have been used with some success. IBM, for example, changed its IT policy to favor Firefox earlier this year.
Google's growing support for enterprise Chrome deployment could help the browser gain some extra marketshare, but might prove difficult in environments where users rely on intranet apps designed for Microsoft's Web browser. For those companies, Google is encouraging adoption of Chrome Frame, an Internet Explorer plugin that brings the WebKit renderer to Microsoft's Web browser.
Google is currently looking for feedback and help testing the MSI installer.
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