Install Chrome extension through windows registry

Question

I want to install a Chrome extension through the Windows Registry, as described in the documentation.

I have added the new registry key in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Wow6432node/Google/Chrome/Extensions/bbfbifchphidhgjegibafmlnbfpkmlik

Under this I added a new string key "update_url":"https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx" and "version":"1.1.2", but on restarting Chrome, the new extension is not added in the Chrome extensions page. I am using Windows 7, 64-bit.

A post on Google groups lists a similar problem, but no resolution has been posted yet.

What am I missing?

Answer 1

Chrome's documentation on deployment options is very misleading. My problem was I set the update_url registry property explicitly to the JSON string specified in the documentation.

{
  "update_url": "https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx"
}

It should just be https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx, which makes a lot more sense.

Upon restarting Chrome entirely (if Chrome is allowed to run in the background, exit Chrome using the tray icon) a popup shows up asking whether the newly installed extension should be enabled or not.

This popup is only shown once. If it is ignored it does not show up next time. This behavior can be reset by adding and removing the application manually through the web store once, which seemingly resets some internal state stored by Chrome.