Manage a Chromebook with Google Workspace

Tech Lockdown Team

Updated July 2, 2024

Go to workspace.google.com and click "get started"

Come up with a business name or just a name like "John Smith's Network." You don't need a legitimate business to sign up.

You'll need a website address (domain name) with an email address. If you don't have an email like [email protected], you'll need to register for a domain. I'll assume you don't have your own domain/business email address. In this case, we'll click "no, I need one."

Come up with a domain name that you'll use to set up an email account. I'll use techlockdown.org for this tutorial.

In the Business Information section, you can just enter your home address.

Create an email address. You'll use this email to access Administrative features within Google Workspace.

Sign in with the email you just created then start your free trial. Note: For this tutorial, we will downgrade to a $6/user/month plan.

Go to the Admin Console. If you aren't redirected to the Admin Console after logging in, click this link directly: Admin Console

Using the sidebar, navigate to Billing > Subscriptions

Click "Google Workspace Business Standard"

Click Upgrade or Downgrade

Switch to the starter package

Go back to Billing > Subscriptions and click add or upgrade a subscription

In the devices category, select the Free Trial for the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade

Go to Home > Users > Manage

If you already have a Chromebook that is set up, you'll need to hard reset it. Most Chromebooks are automatically backed up to Google Drive, but you should double check that everything important is backed up.

On the login screen, press the keys CTRL SHIFT ALT R at the same time, then click "restart"

When the Chromebook restarts, the powerwash screen will appear. Click "powerwash" to hard reset the Chromebook.

Once it restarts, go through the setup process (connect to Wifi etc.)

Once you get to the "who's using this device" screen, click the "Enterprise Enrollment" button at the bottom left side of the screen.

Then, sign-in with the desired business/organization email address that you created in Google Workspace. If you didn't create another user/email, this will be the same Admin email account.

In the sidebar, navigate to Devices > Chrome > Settings > Users & Browsers

Open the browser's finder tool using Ctrl + f (windows) or command + f (mac)

Search for "Content"

Enforce Safesearch and Youtube restricted mode

Scroll down to the "Images" option and decide if you want to allow the browser to display images. This is a fairly extreme setting (this blocks all images on all websites), so we will leave the default option checked.

Scroll to the URL Blocking section

Enter any URLs you want to block. It's recommended that you block admin.google.com so that managed device settings cannot be changed from the Chromebook (you have to use another computer).

Under the "Multiple sign-in access" section, it's recommended that you allow secondary accounts to sign in so that personal accounts can be utilized.

Scroll down to "Browser Guest Mode" and prevent guest browser logins

Search for "Chrome Safe Browsing" and enforce safe browsing

Scroll down and enforce SafeSites URL filtering

Switch from the USER & BROWSER SETTINGS tab to the DEVICE SETTINGS tab

Under Enrollment and Access, decide if you want to allow the Chromebook user to trigger a Powerwash (hard reset). If you set this to disabled, you'll need to trigger a Powerwash via admin.google.com.

Under "Sign-in Settings", disable guest mode

Then, restrict sign-in to a list of allowed users. The list of allowed users should only be your organization email addresses. The simplest way to enforce this is to add *@yourdomain.com (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name).

Note

This only restricts your ability to login to the Chromebook with an organization email. You can still login to a personal Google account (for Gdrive, Gmail etc.) after you login

Save changes. The Chromebook should reflect these changes after a few minutes.

Manage a Chromebook with Google Workspace

Cost

Configure Google Workspace

Enroll Device

Configure Device Restrictions

Note