The masterpreferences file, like each users Preferences file, is simply a text file that contains JSON markup, and will look something like this: homepage:, homepageisnewtabpage: false, distribution:.more stuff here. Some of the preferences should be obvious, but some are not entirely clear -- they are described at the end of this document.

Preferences vs. Policies Preferences and policies are two different methods for controlling the browsers behavior.

They have different purposes, however: Preferences: Keep state of a users personal browsing experience.

Are writable by the user, as they live in the users directory in a text file.

Are often under-the-hood, technical settings that dont necessarily make sense to pre-set per user or lock in with policy.

Use the masterpreferences file as a template if no Preferences already exist.

Are usually applied to groups of users; they are not necessarily unique to each user.

Are clearly enumerated and are intended for the admin to use set.

Are set only by the admin in special locations (registry, MCX, etc.).

Policies that should be editable by the user are called recommended policies and offer a better alternative than the masterpreferences file.

Their contents can be changed and are respected as long as the user has not modified the value of that preference themselves.

There are several notable preferences that are also policies, homepage being the most common.

Policies take precedence to preferences and preferences take precedence to recommended policies.

If homepage is specified in both the policies, and in the masterpreferences file, policies will always override.

Should I use a Preference, or a Policy Prefer policies to configure Chrome on managed computers.

Use recommended policies for settings that users should be able to change, and use mandatory policies for settings that users should not be able to change.

As a result, it is not possible to automatically propagate modifications to a masterpreferences file to users.

The preferences that may be set via masterpreferences are not guaranteed to work in the future.

It is possible that preferences may change or be removed such that values in masterpreferences files would be ignored.

The Gritty Details Preferences are kept in a file named Preferences, which every Chromium Google Chrome user will have in their own user directory.

This Preferences file is a text file that contains JSON markup.

Going through and editing every users Preferences file to deploy a behavior change is really cumbersome and some preferences are protected by cryptographic hashes and can not be manually edited, so there are easier ways to manage this: When users start Chromium Google Chrome for the first time, they dont yet have any Preferences file.

Chrome Add To Tab Page .Exe Or Chromium

A file named masterpreferences located next to chrome.exe or chromium executable, is used as a template for what becomes users Preferences file.

Chrome Add To Tab Page Mac OS X

On a system with Chrome installed from an MSI, this will be C:Program Files (x86)GoogleChromeApplicationmasterpreferences On Mac OS X, for Google Chrome, this file is either of LibraryApplication SupportGoogleChromeGoogle Chrome Master Preferences or LibraryGoogleGoogle Chrome Master Preferences On Mac OS X, for Chromium, this file is either of LibraryApplication SupportChromiumChromium Master Preferences or LibraryApplication SupportChromiumChromium Master Preferences You only need to create and populate the masterpreferences file when you deploy Google Chrome, and all users on that machine will get those settings when they first start Chromium Google Chrome.

Some of the preferences should be obvious, but some are not entirely clear -- they are described at the end of this document.

Chrome For Mac Add To Tab Page