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Hide Chrome’s Disable developer mode extensions warning

The warning "Disable developer mode extensions" is displayed in Chrome when you install non Chrome Web Store extensions in the browser.

This warning is displayed on each start of the browser, and it stays on the screen until you hit one of the available buttons (disable or cancel).

Google stated that it displays the warning because of malware that force-installed extensions to Chrome.

If you are a developer of Chrome extensions, or downloaded an extension from a reliable source, you probably want to do away with the warning as it can be quite annoying after some time.

Probably the easiest option is to use Chrome Canary. Unlike Chrome Stable, Canary does not display warnings for extensions installed from outside the Chrome Web Store. I did not try the Developer Edition of Chrome to find out if it omits the warning as well.

Google Chrome itself comes without any options to suppress the warning message about installed developer mode extensions. Windows, Linux and Mac administrators may use policies however to hide the warning so that it does not show up.  Note that this works only on Professional or Enterprise versions on Windows, as Home versions don't come with the Group Policy Editor.

Disable developer mode extensions warning in Chrome

disable develope rmode extensions

The very first thing you need to do is download the latest policy templates from the Google Support website. The following instructions are for Chrome installations on Windows. Instructions for the other operating systems similar.

The policy file is distributed as a zip archive that you need to extract.

  1. Once you have done so, move the file policy_templates\windows\admx\chrome.admx to c:\windows\policydefinitions, and the file policy_templates\windows\admx\[yourlanguage]\chrome.adml to c:\windows\policydefinitions\[yourlanguage]\chrome.adml
  2. Open chrome://extensions in the Chrome web browser afterwards, and locate the extension or extensions that you have installed from a source that is not the Chrome Web Store.
  3. Copy the ID of the first to the clipboard.
  4. Open the Group Policy Editor on Windows: tap on the Windows-key, type gpedit.msc, and hit the Enter-key. The Chrome policies should be loaded automatically.
  5. Go to User Configuration > ADministrative Templates > Administrative Templates > Google Chrome > Extensions.
  6. Double-click on the "Configure extension installation whitelist" policy.
  7. Set the policy to enabled.
  8. Click on the show button.
  9. Add the IDs of any non-Chrome Web Store extension to the listing.
  10. Click ok in the end.
  11. Restart the Chrome browser.

extension installation whitelist chrome

Second option: patching chrome.dll

Another option is highlighted on the Stackoverflow forum. It requires patching the chrome.dll file.

Word of warning: Since the script that is used for that patches a file that Chrome requires for running, it is recommended that you create backups before you continue. It may also be easier to just use Chrome Canary instead of stable Chrome.

You find the script on this page on Stackoverflow. Copy all of it and put it in a plain text file that you create anew. Rename the plain text file so that it has a .bat extension afterwards.

You find the chrome.dll file in the application folder. On Windows, this can be C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\[ChromeVersion] or C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\[ChromeVersion]

You have two options now: you can run the batch file so that it patches all chrome.dll files it finds, or drag and drop a chrome.dll file onto the batch file icon to have it processed only. I suggested you do the latter after verifying again that you have created a backup of the chrome.dll file.

The batch file patches chrome.dll to suppress the "disable developer mode extensions" warning in the web browser.

Sources

Now You: Have another tip on dealing with the popup?

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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