How do I set Ecosia in Chrome using a GPO?

Group Policy templates allow you to control Chrome’s browser settings. This guide explains how to set Ecosia as the default search engine in Chrome across multiple machines. 

If you already use GPOs to control Chrome’s settings please refer to Step 4 and update your existing settings.

If you do not yet use GPOs you can download the Ecosia group policy template for Chrome here. 

Alternatively you can download Chrome’s ADMX files from here. 

STEP 1:

Copy the admx and adml files to your central store:

• Local: %systemroot%\policyDefinitions (normally C:\Windows\policyDefinitions) 
• Domain: %systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions (normally C:\Windows\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions) 

For more information about creating a central store for your GPOs please refer here.

STEP 2:

Open the Group Policy administration tool. You can start the group policy editor by typing "gpedit.msc" into the Windows command bar. 

Navigate to the group policy rule that controls your chrome settings, right click and click on “edit”

STEP 3:

Depending on the target of your policy (LOCAL_MACHINE or CURRENT_USER), expand either “Computer Configuration” or “User Configuration”. 

If you are using the Ecosia ADMX file, navigate to → Administrative Templates → Ecosia → Google Chrome → Default search provider. 

If you are using Chrome’s ADMX file, navigate to → Administrative Templates → Google Chrome → Default search provider.

The “Default search provider” folder has all the required settings that need to be changed.

STEP 4:

If you are using the Ecosia ADMX, the options already have the correct values to set. However, “Enable the default search provider” has to be enabled for any of the other options to take effect.

If you are using Chrome’s ADMX file, a few settings here need to be defined (in no particular order)

“Enable the default search provider”

Set this to Enabled

“Default search provider icon”

Set this to Enabled and enter the following value - https://ecosia.org/favicon.ico

“Default search provider keyword”

Set this to Enabled and enter the following value – ecosia.org

“Default search provider name”

Set this to Enabled and enter the following value – Ecosia

“Default search provider new tab page url”

Set this to Enabled and enter the following value: https://www.ecosia.org/search?q={searchTerms}&addon=chromegpo

“Default search provider search url”

Set this to Enabled and enter the following value: https://www.ecosia.org/search?q={searchTerms}&addon=chromegpo

STEP 5:

Ensure that you have the GPO rule linked to your domain and that you have specified the user groups/OU’s that this rule applies to.

In order for the GPO rules to take immediate effect, you may need to open a CMD window and type “gpupdate /force” to apply the settings on the end users devices. Otherwise the new GPO settings will apply after a reboot. 

DISCLAIMER

The ADMX files provided by Google have limited flexibility. You have the option of switching on/off the default search provider and you can only provide one search engine as the default. It is not possible to offer multiple search engines options using Google’s ADMX file. 

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