Extension for Chrome

Important: UiPath Inc. and its affiliates do not process, use, access, or store any customer data when using this product.

Important:

Chrome is resuming the transition to MV3 extensions. Chrome will begin disabling Manifest V2 extensions in pre-stable versions of Chrome (Dev, Canary, and Beta) as early as June 2024, in Chrome 127 and later.

Enterprises using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy to ensure the continued functioning of Manifest V2 extensions in their organization will have one additional year – until June 2025 – to migrate the Manifest V2 extensions in their organization. Browsers with the policy enabled will not be impacted by the rollout of the deprecation until that time.

See the full timeline for the Chrome migration to MV3 extensions here.

The UiPath Extension for Chrome MV2 installed by older versions of UiPathStudio.msi will stop working in Chrome. We highly recommend upgrading your UiPath Studio and Robot installations before this happens.

The UiPath Extension for Chrome MV3 is available starting with the following UiPathStudio.msi versions:

• 2022.10
• 2022.4
• 2021.10.8+
• 2020.10.14+
• 2019.10.9+

These versions can be downloaded from:

• Product Downloads in the UiPath Customer Portal.
• Resource Center in the UiPath Automation Cloud. To access Resource Center you need to login in your Automation Cloud Organization and click the Help button on the left navigation bar.

This extension helps you create browser automations in Google Chrome.

You can install this extension in multiple ways, as shown below:

Install from UiPath Studio

1. Open Studio.
2. Navigate to Home > Tools > UiPath Extensions.

3. Select Chrome > Install. Choose one of the available methods from the drop-down:

   • Group Policy Offline
   • Group Policy Online
   • All Users
   • Current User
   • Native Host Only
4. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions.
5. Enable the UiPath Web Automation extension if needed.

Install from the Studio installer

1. Run the UiPathStudio.msi installer.
2. Select an install mode, and then select Advanced Settings > Extensions > UiPath extension for Chrome. If Chrome is installed on your machine, the option is selected by default.
3. Click Install. Studio setup continues while also installing the extension for Chrome.

The UiPath Extension for Chrome can also be installed from the command line of UiPathStudio.msi.

Install from Group Policy

You can also install the UiPath Extension for Chrome by using Group Policies. This method silently installs the extension and enables it, without requiring user confirmation.

For both methods of Group Policy installation, the browser does not show the banner when the extension uses the debugger API.

We recommend using Group Policy Offline installation because the extension ID does not change when upgrading to newer versions. This method uses an extension that is signed by UiPath instead of the Chrome Web Store. This means that after updating the version, there is no need to update the internal Group Policies (i.e. the ExtensionInstallForceList policy) with a new extension ID.

Another advantage to re-using the same extension ID is that the settings configured for the extension (such as Allow in Incognito or Allow access to file URLs) are not reset after a version update.

Offline

The Group Policy Offline installation method requires that the target machine is joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain or Azure Active Directory.

It does not require access to the Chrome Web Store so it can be used in controlled environments for machines that have restricted Internet access.

UiPathStudio.msi uses this installation method by default if its requirements are met.

You can also use this installation method by running from an elevated command prompt:

&"C:\Program Files\UiPath\Studio\UiPath\SetupExtensions.exe" /chrome-policy-offline /silent

If your organization uses Group Policies for browser extension management then the following changes are also required to be made in your organization's group policy definition:

1. In the ExtensionInstallForceList policy, add the value:

   ndmegdjihnhfmljjoaiimbipfhodnbgf;file:///C:/ProgramData/UiPath/UiPath.Common/ChromeExtension_SelfHosted/extension_manifest_chrome.xml .
2. In the NativeMessagingAllowList policy, add the value: com.uipath.chromenativemsg_v2.

If you need to host the UiPath extension in your internal Web Store you can find the .crx file at this location:

C:\Program Files\UiPath\Studio\UiPath\BrowserExtension\uipath_extension_for_chrome_self_hosted_mv3.crx .

Online

The Group Policy Online installation method requires that the target machine has access to the Chrome Web Store (https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx and https://clients2.googleusercontent.com/crx).

UiPathStudio.msi uses this installation method if its requirements are met and the machine is not joined to a Microsoft Active Directory.

You can also use this installation method by running from an elevated command prompt:

&"C:\Program Files\UiPath\Studio\UiPath\SetupExtensions.exe" /chromepolicyglobal /silent

If your organization uses Group Policies for browser extension management then the following changes are also required to be made in your organization's group policy definition:

1. In the ExtensionInstallForceList policy, add the value:

   pgbnimfaaifjpebleldfhgcjdnaeafdi;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx.
2. In the NativeMessagingAllowList policy, add the value: com.uipath.chromenativemsg_v2.

Uninstalling

The UiPath Extension for Chrome can be uninstalled by running from an elevated command prompt:

&"C:\Program Files\UiPath\Studio\UiPath\SetupExtensions.exe" /chromecleanup /silent

You can also uninstall by opening Studio, navigating to Home > Tools > UiPath Extensions, and selecting Chrome > Uninstall. The extension will be uninstalled with the same method used for the installation. This method is displayed in the disabled drop-down next to the Uninstall button.

Chrome version requirements

The UiPath Extension for Chrome MV2 requires Chrome version 64 or greater.

The UiPath Extension for Chrome MV3 requires Chrome version 98 or greater.

When using one of the installation methods described above, the browser version will be checked and the extension with the appropriate format (MV2 or MV3) will be automatically installed.

New extension features

Automating Chrome apps

Starting with UiPathStudio.msi 2022.4 the UiPath Extension for Chrome can be used to automate Chrome Apps.

Multiple Chrome instances with multiple user profiles

Starting with UiPath version 2023.10, the UiPath Extension for Chrome supports automating multiple browser instances running with multiple user profiles at the same time.

For versions lower than 2023.10, the UiPath Extension for Chrome did not support automating multiple browser instances running with multiple user profiles at the same time. As such, browser automation required you to close all active instances of Chrome and restart the browser using a single user profile. Starting with version 2023.10 we can accommodate scenarios of multiple browser processes running under different browser profiles, such as the case when a specific application must run on a dedicated profile to isolate sensitive data from other applications.

Note: Automating multiple browser profiles requires UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities v23.10 or newer and browser extension installed with UiPathStudio.msi v2023.10 or newer.

Opening the browser with a specific profile is now possible when using the Use Application/Browser activity. To specify a profile at browser start-up, you must append an argument to the browser command line. To do so, use the Arguments property in the Unified Application Target input section.

For Chrome, the required argument is: --profile-directory="profile_path".

The profile_path is the relative path to the User data folder path specified for that Use Application/Browser activity. If the User data folder path isn't specified, then the profile path is relative to the default user data directory %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data%. To find the profile path, navigate to chrome://profile-internals/ and retrieve it from the Profile path entry.

Troubleshooting

Your system administrator might have configured Group Policies that prevent the UiPath Extension for Chrome from working. To enable it, please follow the instructions from the Group Policies page.

For any other issues regarding the UiPath Extension for Chrome, please view the detailed troubleshooting page.