In this post I will be covering the topic how to install Google Chrome browser using SCCM. We can deploy the browser either using application or package where application model comes with lots of benefits such as detection logic, automatic deployment evaluation of application which will re-trigger installation if removed, Supersedence and lots of other features.

Download Google Chrome binaries

Download the google chrome browser from Download Chrome browser for your enterprise page.

One downloaded extract the content from GoogleChromeEnterpriseBundle64.zip. msi file will be available under Installers folder. The file name is GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi.

Create Google Chrome application in SCCM

Login to SCCM server, launch Configuration Manager console. Navigate to \Software Library\Overview\Application Management\Applications

Click on Create Application to launch Create Application Wizard.

Create Application

Under General page, with Automatically detect information about this application from installation files, provide the location of GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi and click Next.

Specify settings for this application

On View imported Information page, you will see the automatic detection of rules including Product Code with following details:

Application name: Google Chrome
Publisher:
Software version:
Deployment type name: Google Chrome – Windows Installer (*.msi file)
Product Code: {27AE757E-4286-3D70-ACB1-4FEAC2F15FB9}
Installation behavior: Install for system
Content location: \\localhost\d$\Source\Application\Google Chrome Browser\
Number of files: 1
Content files:
     GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi

View imported information

On Specify information about this application page, specify:
Name: Google Chrome
Under Specify the installation program for this application and the required installation rights.
Installation program: msiexec /i “GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi” /q
Install behavior: Install for system

Specify information about this application

Verify the summary and click Next.

Wait for application to be created and can see Completion page.

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Select the recently created application “Google Chrome” and select Properties.

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Click on Deployment Types tab, and click on Edit to open Windows Installer (*.msi) Properties.

Deployment Types

Click on tab Program, we can see install and uninstall command created automatically because of msi file used which created the required command line automatically:
Installation program: msiexec /i “GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi” /q
Uninstall program: msiexec /x {27AE757E-4286-3D70-ACB1-4FEAC2F15FB9} /q

Installation program

We are going with default option or we could have used any packaging tool to create transformation file to create .mst file extension which can be used for customization such as disabling auto update, changing installation directory and other settings.

We can see under Detection Method about presence of application using MSI Product Code, this also got created automatically as part of create application wizard using msi file.

Configure rules to detect the presence of this deployment type

Under User Experience tab, we see following behaviour:
Installation behavior: Install for system
Logon requirement: Whether or not a user is logged on
Installation program visibility: Hidden
Maximum allowed run time (minutes): 120
Estimated installation time (minutes): 0

User Experience

We can also define Requirements, Return Codes and Dependencies which provide advance level of configuration for application model.

Click on ok twice to save and exit the application.

Under Application model, we can specify the icon as well under Software Center properties.

Deploy Chrome Browser

As application is ready, distributed the content to Distribution Points.

Right click Google Chrome and Distribute Content.

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Content Distribution can be monitored through distmgr.log and also through Summary > Application Status

Application Status

While application select, deploy it to a collection where you wanted to target the application.

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I targeted to Device Collections and collection selected All Workstations.

Device Collections

The type of Deployment Settings used:
Action: Install
Purpose: Available

For demonstration purpose, I have used Available so as to initiate the installation from Software Center manually at client side or else we could have used Required as purpose for forceful installation.

Deployment Settings

Install Chrome browser on Workstation

Login to one of the Windows 10 workstation and wait for SCCM policy or else initiate it manually using Configuration Manager Properties and clicking on Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle and selecting Run Now.

Launch Software Center from start menu and as we can see Google Chrome application is visible, click on it.

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Initiate the Install and wait for it to get it complete the installation.

We can see Google Chrome got installed successfully. Log file Appenforce.log (Location: c:\windows\ccm\logs) will confirm the status:

    Executing Command line: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe" /i "GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi" /q /qn with user context
    Matched exit code 0 to a Success entry in exit codes table.
++++++ App enforcement completed (26 seconds) for App DT "Google Chrome - Windows Installer (*.msi file)" [ScopeId_A01E8F68-CD81-4C08-80FA-477C0E10623B/DeploymentType_e4dd4cce-f154-48d3-b60d-2884017f2596], Revision: 1, User SID: ] ++++++
AppEnforce.log

Other useful log files to see application download, install, discovery etc can be found through following log files which can be very useful for troubleshooting purpose:

PolicyAgent.log
AppEnforce.log
Appdiscovery.log
AIntentEval.log
CAS.log
ContentTransferManager.log
DataTransferServices.log

Chrome Browser is installed, and if you want to control the behaviour of changing the Home Page URL while using Google Chrome policy templates follow the link how to import and configure Google Chrome Group Policy