[21h1] Chrome - ADMX Templates Issue

[CHiLL]

We've noticed our users are being shown a confirmation box on Google's home/search page that they cannot remove. It only happens on Chrome, not Edge. The message is:

Google has changed some of your settings for this site (google.com) because you aren't confirmed to be over 18. To verify that you're over 18 sign in.
SafeSearch on
Ad personalisation on Google Search isn't available

Choose 'Customise to check if your settings are right for you.

Customise      Got It

The users cannot press either Customise or Got it, the buttons just don't do anything and the box doesn't go away, meaning they can't use Google Search.

 

I presume this is a new feature in Chrome, so I downloaded and installed the latest ADMX templates (94.0.4606.61), to see if there are any new policies to specify these settings.

 

After installing the policies (into domain\SYSVOL\domain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions)...When I launch Group Policy Management on my workstation (Win10 Edu 21H1 x64 with RSAT 2004) and attempt to open User Configuration > Administrative Policies, I get the following error:

Resource '$(string.ScreenCapture_group)' referenced in attribute displayName could not be found.

File
\\domain\sysvol\domain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\Chrome.admx, line 23, column 79

The confusing thing is that I can expand the same section when I'm connected to both our domain controllers (Server 2019) and it works. However, my colleague also experiences the same issue as me on his workstation (also Win10 Edu 21H1 x64 with RSAT 2004).

 

I've not come across this behaviour before. I was thinking a replication issue between the two DCs, with my machine pulling the ADMX templates from the problem DC. But the fact that the policies load on both servers without issue is throwing a spanner into that theory.

Edited September 27, 2021 by CHiLL

[Arthur]

https://support.google.com/a/answer/10651918

[CHiLL]

https://support.google.com/a/answer/10651918

Thanks for that. My Google-fu must be lacking, as I couldn't find any reference to that in my searches. Though reading through that, that assumes we're having our users sign in to Chrome? They don't and just use basic profiles within the browsers (restricted via GPO). That makes me doubt that changing the setting in our Google Education admin portal is going to have any effect. I'll have a closer read through the documentation though.

[CHiLL]

I'm still having issues where I can't I edit or preview the user's Adminstrative Templates section, as it displays this when it's expanded:

 

An error has occurred while collecting data for Administrative Templates.

The following errors were encountered: 
Resource '$(string.ScreenCapture_group)' referenced in attribute displayName could not be found. File \\DC2.SJW.Internal\SysVol\SJW.Internal\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\chrome.admx, line 23, column 79 

Edited September 30, 2021 by CHiLL

[Koldov]

Ignore this if it isn't correct as I have no knowledge of Chrome ADMX in particular, but does this look like a generic ADMX error to you...?

 

As it says, the referenced attribute could not be found, isn't this similar to ADMX that end up a reg entries when the ADMX for the setting no longer exists?

 

EDIT: or maybe the ADMX were corrupted, you could try re-downloading and applying them again?

Edited September 30, 2021 by Koldov

[CHiLL]

Ignore this if it isn't correct as I have no knowledge of Chrome ADMX in particular, but does this look like a generic ADMX error to you...?

 

As it says, the referenced attribute could not be found, isn't this similar to ADMX that end up a reg entries when the ADMX for the setting no longer exists?

 

EDIT: or maybe the ADMX were corrupted, you could try re-downloading and applying them again?

I've had this type of issue every now and again with ADMX templates, where it complains about not being able to find a resource. Usually it's a bug in the template or a corruption and reinstalling/updating them works, but these are the latest ADMX templates from Google. I've re-downloaded and installed them again, but still the same issue. I've tried the templates from the admin bundle and the separate ADMX download. I don't have a copy of older ADMX templates and struggling to find them online.

[DavR]

Often this bug in the ADMX template is because they've only provided ADML files for the En-US versions, not En-GB. If you find the corresponding Google ADML files in the En-US folder in your template store, and copy them to En-GB, that could fix the issue with displaying the policies.

 

Dunno about the actual end user problem, that's a separate issue I think.

[CHiLL]

Fixed it. Turns out it was a problem with Chrome.adml in the en-GB folder. It seems like Google previously supplied en-GB adml files, but haven't included it in the latest version to the ADMX templates (unsure how far back this goes). Group Policy will attempt to load adml from your OS's corresponding locale first (en-GB for me) and will fall back to en-US if it doesn't exist. Since my locale is en-GB and Chrome.adml did exist in en-GB, it was being called. But as it's is outdated, it didn't contain the section that admx file was attempting to reference, causing the error.

 

I removed Chrome.adml from en-GB, reloaded Group Policy and now it's working as expected, where it must be using the chrome.adml file in the en-US folder.

[ticktock]

Hi, did you manage to fix the original issue. I think this may pop up for all of us at some point. Many thanks.

[CHiLL]

Hi, did you manage to fix the original issue. I think this may pop up for all of us at some point. Many thanks.

Sadly not, though I'm not having as many reports of the issue. Though that could be from users using Edge instead.

[technicallyCorrect]

I was having the same issue and I resolved it by copying the .adml files from the googleupdateadmx folder to the sysvol\yournetwork\policies\policydefinitions\en-US