Roaming Client for Chromebooks: Option of hide the DNSFilter icon at the top of the Chrome browser.
Gregory Brown
New ChromeOS Roaming Client logo appears in Chrome browser.
Clicking brings up debug.dnsfilter.com screen and shows all of my high school students which categories are not blocked. It is a source of distraction to students using Chromebooks.
I am requesting that either this icon be removed, or that super admins are given the ability to hide it so students are not able to click it and see the debug screen.
Gregory Brown
Thank you for looking into my suggestions, Minetta.
Gregory Brown
Minetta, thank you for responding my request.
I will take a look at the Google Workspace Extension Settings, but I want to get a couple of points across:
The new Chromebook Roaming Client icon is the only one of the many Chrome extensions that advertises on the toolbar that it exists. (see picture)
When I click on the GoGuardian extensions using a student Chromebook, I get no information at all, which is appropriate, and the way that the original DNSFilter Roaming Client used to "not respond".
Clicking on Additional Details takes me to Configuration Details, with the Site Key and the Client ID. I feel that this information might be useful to the administrator or person troubleshooting an issue with DNSFilter.
Clicking on Debug Page brings up the Content Categories, which I do not wish the students, or anyone besides an admin, to see. Perhaps the list of Content Categories and their status of allowed and blocked would interest an adult that purchased the product for their own use.
I get the feeling that there is a movement within DNSFilter to create brand awareness with the customers/clients. But in the use case at our school, you are pushing your brand upon clients who probably don't want to have their content filtered. The people you should be influencing are the IT directors who purchase, and the admins that manage, DNSFilter.
Perhaps the icon and the Content Categories could be made visible depending on the user classification. If there were a classification called "student", I would want the extension to be as invisible as possible, and not provide Content Category information to the student.
Thank you.
Minetta Gould
Gregory Brown: Thanks for the detailed follow-up! We’ve added this to our backlog to explore with some upcoming ChromeRC updates, because honestly—while we’re tinkering under the hood, why not see if we can squash this one too? 😊
Minetta Gould
Thanks for raising this concern, Gregory — we understand how distracting that icon can be for students.
At the moment, the ChromeOS Roaming Client icon is subject to Google’s browser rules, so it can’t be completely removed. However, you can use Chrome Enterprise Policies to keep it from appearing in the toolbar. This doesn’t disable the extension, but it “buries” the icon so students won’t see it by default.
We did a little research and came up with this example method. Wanna give it a try and see if it helps?
➡️ Google provides a policy called "ExtensionSettings" that lets you configure per-extension behavior. You can set "toolbar_pin": "false" to hide the extension’s icon from the toolbar for all users.
Here’s an example JSON policy:
{
"extension_id_here": {
"installation_mode": "force_installed",
"toolbar_pin": "false"
}
}
"extension_id_here" Replace with the actual extension ID (the long alphanumeric string in the Chrome Web Store URL).
"force_installed" ensures the extension installs silently.
"toolbar_pin": "false" keeps the icon out of the toolbar (though it will still be accessible under the puzzle-piece Extensions menu).
This approach should reduce visibility and distractions for your students while keeping the Roaming Client active.