How to set default browser for Guest user on Monterey

[jacklevics]

Hi there,



I have some school M1 iMacs running on Monterey 12.6.1. I am trying to set the default browser on the Guest accounts to Chrome as we're a Google organisation.



Of course, all the settings are wiped on logout of Guest. I've tried so far copying the Guest profile files into the EnGB-Iproj folder in the user preferences folder through Admin account whilst staying logged into Guest. Doesn't seem that this has worked.



It did work for other setting such as colour theme and secondary click; they stayed after a full restart, however, default browser didn't.



Any ideas what else I could try?



Many thanks,



Jack

 

[jacklevics]

Oh, also, they are not enrolled in any sort of policy management yet, so that would not be affecting this.

 

[bogdanw]

You can create a launch agent for all users to open Chrome with the argument --make-default-browser

 

[jacklevics]

Hi there, appreciate the help. Would you mind briefly elaborating on how I could do that? (Apologies. I am not yet too familiar with Macs)

 

[bogdanw]

I don’t have time to test right now, but here are some great resources
https://www.launchd.info
https://eclecticlight.co/2021/09/13/running-software-automatically-using-launchd/
and what I consider might work as a plist in /Library/LaunchAgents

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>Chrome.LaunchAtLogin</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>open</string>
        <string>-a</string>
        <string>/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app</string>
        <string>--args</string>
        <string>--make-default-browser</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

 

[bogdanw]

I’ve tested and unfortunately it doesn’t work.
Using –make-default-browser requires user confirmation in Monterey.
Chrome offers some management policies https://chromeenterprise.google/browser/download/#manage-policies-tab
and check out
https://community.jamf.com/t5/jamf-pro/changing-default-browser/m-p/257246
and
https://github.com/targendaz2/Mac-Set-Default-Apps