How to Deploy Helperbird with Windows Group Policy (Chrome)

This guide is for domain-joined Windows PCs managed with on-premises Active Directory. It force-installs Helperbird in Google Chrome and pushes your enterprise subscription key using Group Policy.

Managing devices with Microsoft Intune instead? See Deploy Helperbird using Microsoft Intune. Managing Microsoft Edge? See Deploy Helperbird on Microsoft Edge.

Before You Start

• A domain with the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC).
• Permission to edit a GPO linked to the organizational unit (OU) you want to target.
• Helperbird's Chrome extension ID: ahmapmilbkfamljbpgphfndeemhnajme

Step 1: Install the Chrome ADMX templates

1. Download the Google Chrome Enterprise Bundle (it contains the ADMX/ADML policy templates) from chromeenterprise.google/browser/download.
2. Copy chrome.admx into your domain Central Store: \\<your-domain>\SYSVOL\<your-domain>\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\
3. Copy the matching chrome.adml into the language subfolder (e.g. …\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\).

The Chrome policies now appear in the Group Policy editor.

Step 2: Force-install Helperbird

1. In GPMC, edit (or create) a GPO linked to your target OU.

2. Go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Google > Google Chrome > Extensions.

3. Open Configure the list of force-installed apps and extensions, set it to Enabled, click Show, and add this single line:

   ahmapmilbkfamljbpgphfndeemhnajme;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx
   

Helperbird (Free) will now silently install for every device in the OU, and users won't be able to remove it.

Step 3: Activate Helperbird Pro

To unlock Pro, push your enterprise subscription key as managed configuration. Chrome reads an extension's managed config from the registry under …\Google\Chrome\3rdparty\extensions\<extension-id>\policy.

The easiest way to set these with Group Policy is Group Policy Preferences:

1. In the same GPO, go to Computer Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry.

2. Create new registry items (Action: Update) under hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, key path:

   Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\3rdparty\extensions\ahmapmilbkfamljbpgphfndeemhnajme\policy
   

3. Add these values:

   Value name	Type	Value
   subKey	REG_SZ	your enterprise subscription key
   isAdminControl	REG_DWORD	1

Notes:

• isAdminControl is the master switch — it must be 1 or nothing else (including subKey) applies.
• Values are flat (one registry value per setting) — there is no Value wrapper (that is only for the Google Admin console).
• Optional values use the same names as the JSON policy: floatingButton (DWORD), disableFeatures (DWORD) + disabledFeatures, excludedDomains (DWORD) + excludedDomainsList, enableTtsWordHighlight (DWORD), ttsWordHighlightColor (REG_SZ).

Step 4: Apply and Verify

1. On a target PC (or after replication), run gpupdate /force.
2. Open chrome://policy and click Reload policies. You should see Helperbird in ExtensionInstallForcelist and the subKey/isAdminControl values under its 3rd-party policies.
3. Helperbird shows "Installed by your organization" and Pro is active.

Group Policy replicates across domain controllers on the standard schedule (often ~15 minutes within a site, longer between sites), so allow time before testing on remote machines.

References

• Chrome Enterprise – Set Chrome Browser policies on managed PCs
• Chromium – Configuring policy for extensions (3rdparty managed storage)
• Chrome Enterprise policy list – ExtensionInstallForcelist

Need Additional Help?

Stuck on Group Policy deployment? Reach out to our Helperbird support team and we'll help you get set up!