Google Chrome - basics and a linked question re Apps

[speckytecky]

Mods please move to somewhere more appropriate if you don't feel this is the right place to post this question.

 

We have a 'new' teacher who is seeking voice recognition software to use for special Needs English. I've pointed her in the direction of Dragon but budgets aren't coughing up for that.

 

Currently, our student machines don't have Google Chrome onboard. Teacher workstations do.

 

I'm being asked to make Google Chrome available on our Server 2012 / W7 domain; were I to do that what are the basic steps I'd need to take to make it secure? we are under SWGfL filtering.

 

Plus the teacher tells me: ...found a free piece of software that is accessed through Google Chrome with regards voice activation.You need to access it through Google Chrome and this must be running to use. Once you download it to your Google Chrome you activate by accessing the Apps icon in the top right hand corner and this will then give you access to all the Google Apps installed.

 

Any thought's on that, please? My immediate thought being that surely to access anything through the Google Apps the user would need to be signed in with a Google account?

[speckytecky]

Bumpety, bump. Anything on this one please dear Edugeekers?

[FN-GM]

You can download the Enterprise MSI installers and ADMX files here:

 

https://enterprise.google.com/chrome/chrome-browser/

 

This will allow you to control everything via group policy.

 

As for making it secure, one thing would be to set the proxy settings. Chrome picks these up from IE automatically anyway.

 

Also I would lockdown extensions. Whilelist only the ones you approve. I believe some can be used to by-pass filtering.

[jmak]

I wonder if the "App" is actually an extension - top right is where they appear. If so, you don't need to be logged into Google to use them - although some require you to log in to the service related to the extension. Lastpass is an example of this and we have another one in school which is actually an assistant to logging into Google.

 

WRT making Chrome secure, you need to download the enterprise version and the admx. It's then straightforward to control the settings by GPO. You can also deploy extensions using GPO.

 

Edit: if it is an app, accessed through the square of dots, they would need to be logged in to Google....

Edited March 20, 2017 by jmak