Prevent history deletion on Google Chrome

Question

One of the guys I'm in charge of hasn't been pulling his weight. His productivity and quality of workmanship are way down and his computer's been getting malware infections lately. You can see where this is going.

I'm generally an easy going guy (and I don't want any trouble but I still have to address this issue).

Is there a way to disable browser history deletion on Chrome? I'm hoping this alone will be enough of a deterrent to put things right.

Answer 1

There is now a way to do this using preferences. It's not very well documented but here is the chromium ticket that adds it. Add the following to your chrome preferences file which located here.

   "history": {
       "deleting_enabled": false
   },

Answer 2

If you are REALLY worried about this, you may as well install a commercial keylogger in the computer! Most of the time, this is illegal to do but i think this is really good way to get hold of the browsing habits. The extremely bad side of this suggestion is that you get all the keystrokes = password/credit card information etc which i believe is not what you want :) So a configurable keylogger which will only track the web browsing perhaps :)

Or another perfect way of doing this is configuring OpenDNS to be used with the computer. Not only you can block unwanted (pornography/social networking/drugs/time wasters +much more), the free version (which is more than adequate) will give you two-week insight to all the networking activities (which sites were visited/which blocked sites were visited etc). To add to the effect, you can show your own message + picture when a site is being blocked :D

Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

I don’t think there are any options in Chrome to do so. If you or your company are in control of your employee’s internet connection, then I’d suggest you investigate getting access to the logs, and then “reminding” all your employees that all internet access at work is logged.

As the comments have mentioned though, if the guy isn’t into his work any more, it’s unlikely there’s a technological solution. Might he have some frustrations with the job? Are there ways to get him interested in the work, rather than scared of slacking off?

Answer 4

Add the below registry key worked.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome] "AllowDeletingBrowserHistory"=dword:00000000

Answer 5

It is absolutely possible in windows. You can do it by adding a policy to the chrome browser using Registry Editor. Be careful while using the Registry Editor, If you accidentally edit or delete anything you might corrupt your machine. Follow the next steps carefully and precisely.

1. Click the Windows button and search for Registry Editor
2. Right-click on it and select Run as administrator.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies
4. Right-click on Policies and select New > Key and name it Google
5. Create another key under Google (right-click on it > New > Key) using the same method and name it Chrome and then click on it
6. Right-click anywhere on the right side, and create a new **DWORD (32-bit) Value **and name it AllowDeletingBrowserHistory with no spaces.
7. Double-click on it, and change the Value data to 0
8. Click OK, and close the chrome browser if it is open.

And there you have it. You might want to disable the Incognito mode as well. You can do it similarly by creating another registry entry at the same location named IncognitoModeAvailability and setting its Value data to 1

You can find this method briefly on the google support here. You can find other policies that you can change here.

I’m not sure about other operating systems, but similar methods might be available. You can search for it.

Answer 6

I've found a solution to this problem, kind of... Basically I've installed the Google History extension and linked it to an account I created for his PC.

This works, it will covertly record his history so long as he doesn't figure out that all he need do is log out. He's not the sharpest, so I think for now I can rely on that NOT happening.. he hasn't figured "Incognito Mode" out yet.

Lets hope I can put the willies up him enough to bring him back in to line without too much trouble.

Answer 7

Google Chrome has an ADM set now, you can google it lol. The problem is that it covers EVERYTHING, except disallowing users to delete history. It has a history setting, but it only controls whether or not history is allowed to be saved.. very short sighted when you consider that ADM files (GPO's) are there specifically TO control user behaviors.. ah well, just installed it myself and was configuring it, and wanted to see if there was a workaround- it DOES allow disabling incognito mode.

Answer 8

Adding a little more detail to @killdash9's answer, for Mac users the JSON

"history": {
    "deleting_enabled": false
},

should be added to the user's Preferences file. This file is located in their profile folder under ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/. If they are not logged into Chrome, the folder name is Guest Profile, and if they are logged in, it will be Profile N, where N is a number.

Answer 9

Installing a parental control may help you both ways, like K9 web projection.

1. It tracks all the browsing history.
2. It restricts social and porn.