Custom Chrome browser settings on Android with UEM...

workspacenewb · ‎01-09-2022

I am trying to set Chrome's HomepageLocation setting value when I deploy to Android via UEM. This setting is not exposed in the Chrome browser profile, so I have been looking at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workspace-ONE-UEM/services/Android(Legacy)_Platform/GUID-AWT-ANDRO... to set a custom setting.

My understanding is that I grab the XML generated for the Chrome browser profile, and add in my new param, and add it to a new Custom Settings profile that I deploy. This is what my XML looks like:

But when I deploy this and click on the home button of the Chrome browser, I still see the old value. If I go to Settings, I see that this is not updated. EDIT: and if I open chrome://policy, it lists HomepageLocation without a set value.

Looking at this Google doc makes me think I have the param string correct: https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#HomepageLocation. I have tried the XML with and without the protocol embedded in the string. And Vmware's custom settings doc actually specifies and "Android (Legacy)" Profile, but I'm using the Work Managed mode and creating a legacy profile doesn't deploy to my device.

I'm not using Gsuite, so I don't have a Google Admin console that I can deploy policies from. Does anyone see where I'm goingwrong? Or know how I can accomplish my goal?

workspacenewb · ‎01-09-2022

Apologies for replying to my own posts, but I did figure this one out. I was making two mistakes: (a) goofing up the profiles, and (b) goofing up the CDATA field in the new XML.

For the Profile setup, pages 90 and 91 of https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workspace-ONE-UEM/services/Android_Platform.pdf explain the steps more clearly than the article in the original post. It comes down to:

create a profile with the non-custom settings configured to your wishes in your relevant section, then assign this profile to some test smart group that will never get deployed to your actual target devices. In my case, this profile just held Chrome browser settings.
go into the XML for this profile, look for the relevant characteristic and copy it somewhere. Now edit in your new param with the custom setting.
create a new profile and add a "custom settings" section. Paste in your augmented XML from the previous step. In my case, I also wanted a "restrictions" section, so I added that in too. Note that this profile does NOT have a Chrome browser settings section.
deploy this profile to your target devices.

The XML that worked for me was:

PPoelma1 · ‎09-13-2023

That works great but it removes the restrictions. Does anyone know how to add the restriction of block everthing to this XML?

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Custom Chrome browser settings on Android with UEM?

Workspace ONE UEM