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I found the new change that you can't install Chrome extensions/userscripts without saving them and dragging them into Chrome quite annoying. As such I have set forth to revert this to the old way it was.

I read the documentation here: http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#ExtensionInstallSources that says to add a registry key and so I have done, as shown below. However when attempting to install an extension I still get an error that they can only be installed from the Chrome webstore. Did I add the registry entries wrong or something?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallSources]
"1"="http://*"
"2"="https://*"
Renari
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2 Answers2

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This answer is obsolete as of Chrome 36

Instead of editing the registry, you can also make Chrome to behave in the old way via the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag.

Under Windows, create a shortcut to your Chrome executable. Then edit the shortcut, and append --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install to "Target". See the screenshot below:

Some observations:

  • I've added the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag after chrome.exe.
  • After starting Chrome, I visited a website that links to a .crx file that is not hosted in the Chrome web store.
  • Because of the flag, Chrome 20 doesn't show the "Extensions, apps, and user scripts can only be added from the Chrome Web Store" message any more. Instead (see bottom), Chrome asks me whether it's OK to install the extension - exactly as before.

This command line switch also works for Chromium/Chrome, under Linux and OSX.

user2428118
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Rob W
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  • Thanks, this works however I'd still like to know how the registry entry option works. – Renari Aug 25 '12 at 21:57
  • @Arimil Have you already looked at one of the bug reports, by the way? [Google `site:code.google.com/p/chromium/issues ExtensionInstallSources`](https://www.google.nl/search?q=site%3Acode.google.com%2Fp%2Fchromium%2Fissues+ExtensionInstallSources) – Rob W Aug 25 '12 at 23:10
  • Hm, that bug report says that there isn't a problem. However someone also posted about using an value which seems to work. Unlike me wildcarding the whole url. So this works now, thanks. – Renari Aug 25 '12 at 23:57
  • @Arimil Can you unaccept my answer? The proposed method does not work any more in recent Chrome versions. – Rob W May 28 '14 at 10:47
  • How to do it in the MAC OS, where i would add "--enable-easy-off-store-extension-install" this line when on mac ? – nadeem gc Sep 06 '14 at 17:46
  • @nadeemgc Please read the top of the answer, this method does not work any more, unfortunately. Anyway, see http://superuser.com/questions/157484/start-google-chrome-on-mac-with-command-line-switches if you want to pass the command-line argument anyway. – Rob W Sep 06 '14 at 17:48
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If you ever find yourself in the situation where the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag doesn't work (e.g. future version?) or you don't want to use it, then there is an alternative method.

You can install extensions with a plain vanilla install of Chrome by dragging .CRX extension files onto the Extensions panel in Settings.

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Colin Smith
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