Disable developer mode extensions pop up in Chrome
google-chrome, google-chrome-extension, selenium-chromedriver, watir-webdriver
Solution
The official way to disable the popup is this:
Pack your extension: go to `chrome://extensions`, check Developer mode and click Pack extension
Install the extension by dragging and dropping the `.crx` file into the `chrome://extensions` page.
You'll get an "Unsupported extensions disabled" popup if you try restarting Chrome at this point.
Then for Windows 7 or Windows 8:
- Download Chrome group policy templates here
- Copy `[zip]\windows\admx\chrome.admx` to `c:\windows\policydefinitions`
- Copy `[zip]\windows\admx\[yourlanguage]\chrome.adml` to `c:\windows\policydefinitions\[yourlanguage]\chrome.adml` (not `c:\windows\[yourlanguage]`)
- In Chrome, go to the Extensions page: `chrome://extensions`
- Check Developer Mode
- Scroll down the list of disabled extensions and note the ID(s) of the extensions you want to enable.
- Click Start > Run, type `gpedit.msc` and hit enter.
- Click User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Google Chrome > Extensions
- Double click Configure extension installation whitelist policy
- Select Enabled, and click Show
- In the list, enter the ID(s) of the extensions you noted in Step 7
- Click OK and restart Chrome.
That's it!
EDIT: As of July 2018, this approach no longer works: it seems Google has stopped honouring the "whitelist".
EDIT 2: As of December 2018, this approach works in `Chrome Version 69.0.3497.100 (Official Build) (64-bit)`:
Temporarily enable Developer mode in `chrome://extensions`
Uninstall the extension that causes the popup using the Load unpacked.
Click on Pack extension, and find and select the folder containing the extension files. Don't enter the private key file if you don't have it.
Click Pack extension. A `.crx` and `.pem` file will be created near the root directory of the extension. Install the extension using the `.crx` file and keep the `.pem` file safe.
Copy the `.crx` installed extension ID to the whitelist and restart Chrome.
The popup should be gone.
Problem
Since the latest release of chrome (34.0.1847.116) last week, I have been receiving the “Disable developer mode extensions" when running automated tests using watir-webdriver. This seems to be the offensive extension but it doesn't make sense to me that this is a potentially hazardous extension given its used by the chromedriver. Anyone that has found a fix for this, as i am unable to roll back to the previous version or find an installer for an older version to roll back to and this is playing havoc with my tests.