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Solved: “Google Chrome extension is blocked by the administrator”

When you try to install a Chrome extension, you may come across this error message:

Ooops
LINER – Web/PDF Highlighter (extension ID “bmhcbmnbenmcecpmpepghooflbehcack”) is blocked by the administrator.

It is because your computer’s administrator user (mostly like the IT department if it is your work computer) blocked installing certain Chrome extensions through group policies.

Solution

If you have admin rights in your computer, follow the steps below to lift this restriction:

  1. Close Chrome
  2. Search for “regedit” in Start menu
  3. Right click on regedit.exe and click “Run as administrator”
  4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google
  5. Remove the entire “Chrome” container
  6. Open Chrome and try to install the extension

Another alternative is uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome but I don’t recommend it as it takes more time.

Note: Restrictions will be applied back once you restart your computer. However, you can keep using the extensions you have already installed.

Ned Sahin

Blogger for 20 years. Former Microsoft Engineer. Author of six books. I love creating helpful content and sharing with the world. Reach me out for any questions or feedback.

66 thoughts on “Solved: “Google Chrome extension is blocked by the administrator””

    • Great observation. If you have Chrome open, you should restart it before trying. Another observation is that I was blocked from deleting the entire Chrome folder, it was simply enough to delete as much as I could from it’s content keys.

      Reply
    • Thats not clever…Schools would be extremely stupid if they didnt block the registry. Schools sould block things like cmd registry powershell etc. But sometimes powershell gets ignored and you can use that to do ANYTHING YOU WANT. so congrats. Enjoy. Go in the windows search menu and type in powershell. Now you have cmd. but in blue.

      Reply
    • i need help with the chrome page, but i do know how to byass all

      do esc+reload+power
      ctrl+d
      hit enter
      if dev channel is blocked:
      hit enter again
      it will take to a welcome to chrome page
      do the process until you get to connecting to enterprise policy
      turn off wifi
      it will give you an error
      click the button in the lower left hand corner that says “use as a personal device”

      Reply
      • or when you open the chromebook, don’t log in, just do ctrl+alt+shift+r at the same time, it will ask for “do you want to powerwash your device, click yes” boom freedom

        Reply
  1. Good pointer. However instead of removing the whole Chrome registry entry, for me it was enough to just:

    1. Rename Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallBlacklist\1 (with value “*”) to _1
    2. Restart Chrome and retry installing plugin

    Reply
  2. Based on this post, it says “if you have rights as an administrator”.

    In my case, I am not the administrator. Is there any case I could go around it?

    Thanks.

    Reply
  3. My Registry keeps updating on chrome reload. Looks like chrome checks for policies every time you load chrome. Anyone know a way to block this?

    Reply
    • put firefox on thumb drive and use that they cant moniture other browsers if they have lanschool get tampermonkey and get a lanschool disabler

      Reply
    • you cant install thing on a work computer most of the time it doesnt work because downloads are blocked
      you can solve this by putting chromium on a thumb drive OR putting the extention on a thumb drive and installing it directly into extension settings

      Reply
  4. it only works for windows computer not for chromebooks
    this is much more common on chromebooks and the only way i have found to get around this on a chrome is is to
    Backdoor the wifi
    backdoor the admin pc
    backdoor the schools servers
    and these are very hard to do while being monitered 24/7 by teachers who have a extinision to see your screen
    im trying to get tampermonkey to install a disabler to the extention
    please come up with one to help people on chromebooks
    (trying to put exention on thumb drive then dirrectly installing to to chromebook works if you have some admin permsions)

    Reply
  5. Do yourselves a favor and uninstall and reinstall chrome. Messing with your computer’s registry can be incredibly risky, especially since this guide doesn’t tell you to make a backup let alone tell you how to do it. ESPECIALLY if this is a work computer.

    Reply
  6. It worked for me BUT…
    On my computer it was in a different location
    Also all I had to do was change the * to _1
    I found it in the folder below by searching for “Blacklist”
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallBlacklist]
    “1”=”1″

    Note: if you Export the Key after you make the change, in the future all you would have to do is run the exported file with admin rights and start chrome and install your extension. One-Click-Easy!

    Reply
  7. Is there any way you can search for folders? because all I am finding is nothing even related to this. I am finding where the icon for chrome is stored, google update stuff, and nothing else. Also “Chrome” isnt in the policies folder… any one know where it is now?

    Reply
    • hit Windows+R, then type “regedit.exe” then while holding ctrl+shift, click on “Ok”. then click the “allow” option.

      Reply
  8. Really great suggestions and video! Thank you. Is there an extension while you are viewing youtube comments from the comments section area, the youtube post is still playing by the side of Chrome browser instead of the very top?Thank you for your help in advance.

    Reply
  9. Here to pay tribute to the hacking spirit! This is a really nice skill to learn. I imagine it is possible to use the developer console in chrome to just download some data table from a website? Sometimes they are separated by pages. Anyway I’m fairly comfortable with Python, how can I improve my JS skills to get to a point where I can treat any webpage as something hackable? Any recommendations for JS tutorial / class to catch up with you back in 2013?

    Reply
  10. I’m pretty computer savvy but this didn’t work because I don’t have a google folder in the policies folder. So …..yeah there’s that. >.>

    Reply

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