Catalyst Knowledge Base

Expand allClose all

Browsium Catalyst version history and support lifecycle

Applies to All versions of Browsium Catalyst. Summary This document details the release dates, version numbers, and end-of-support dates for Browsium Catalyst General Distribution Releases (GDRs) – releases that are available for evaluation kit download and are automatically updated on your organization’s …

    Continue Reading...

What are the system requirements for Catalyst?

The following minimum system specifications are required to run Browsium Catalyst. Operating System Windows 7 or later Windows Server 2008 R2 or later (for multi-user terminal servers) Browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10, or 11 Microsoft Edge 40 or …

    Continue Reading...

Extension Enablement Guidelines

Applies To Browsium Client 4.5+ Summary If the current auto-enablement does not work in your environment you can use Group Policy to force the installation and enablement of the various extensions utilized by the Browsium Client. Details Microsoft Internet Explorer …

    Continue Reading...

Where can I find the latest Catalyst documentation (Admin Guide)?

The Catalyst Administration Guide can be easily accessed from the Help menu of the Catalyst Configuration Manager. You can also download it directly from our website.

    Continue Reading...

Important notice regarding Microsoft Edge

Applies To Users of Microsoft Edge with Catalyst, Proton Summary Microsoft has released a stable build of it’s new Chromium-based Edge browser. Installing this build will remove the existing AppX-based Edge browser from your system and Microsoft has indicated that …

    Continue Reading...

Update to Group Policy Extension Strings

Applies To: All versions of Browsium Client for customers using Group Policy to install/enable the Chrome and/or Chromium Edge extension. Summary We have moved the XML and CRX files for the Chrome and Chromium Edge extensions to a new, high …

    Continue Reading...

Important notice regarding Catalyst and Chrome 73

Applies To Catalyst 3.0+, 4.0+ Summary Chrome has changed how it responds to Catalyst’s “Same Page” action and that change has resulted in some unexpected behavior for “Same Page” re-directions from Chrome to other browsers. For Catalyst installations with the …

    Continue Reading...

Catalyst Chrome extension is now persistent

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 3.0 or later Summary To enhance the functionality of Catalyst in Chrome, the Catalyst extension is now a persistent Chrome process that runs in the system tray at login. This ensures that Catalyst automatically redirects from …

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Client system requirements and impact

Applies to All Browsium Software Summary This article highlights both the system requirements and average CPU, memory and disk impacts on a modern business-class desktop workstation. We’re providing this data based off of a system consisting of a quad-core desktop …

    Continue Reading...

Additional requirements for the Legacy Edge extension on Windows 10 Enterprise 1809

Applies to Browsium Client 4.4 and later Summary Windows 10 Enterprise 1809 is missing some key .NET Native components that are required for the Browsium Client Legacy Microsoft Edge extension to be installed. These components are packaged as .AppX files …

    Continue Reading...

Recovering from manual deletion of the Catalyst extension for Chrome

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 2.0 or later Summary To function properly, Browsium Catalyst requires browser extensions to be installed and enabled in Internet Explorer, Chrome, and (optionally) Firefox. All of the extensions can be centrally managed via Group Policy per …

    Continue Reading...

How does the Catalyst 30-Day Evaluation Kit function?

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 1.0 or later Details The Browsium Catalyst Evaluation Kit can be used on an unlimited number of PCs in your organization and be used to test both local registry and Group Policy deployment. It will time …

    Continue Reading...

Managing virtualized IE6 with Catalyst and ThinApp

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 2.0.x Summary Browsium Catalyst provides administrators with the ability to add custom browsers to any configuration so that browsers without a Catalyst extension can be the target browser for any Catalyst Rule. Custom browsers can be …

    Continue Reading...

Catalyst rules don’t always work on homepages in Chrome or Firefox

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 1.0 or later Summary The first page loaded when a browser is launched is known as the ‘homepage’. Organizations using Browsium Catalyst may want to ensure users view the corporate homepage using either Google Chrome or …

    Continue Reading...

Enabling the Browsium Client extension for Microsoft Edge on non domain joined machines

Applies to Browsium Client 4.4.0 and newer Summary Microsoft now requires machines to be domain joined or sideloading to be manually enabled to successfully sideload extensions for the Edge browser. This presents some problems for deploying in a non-domain joined …

    Continue Reading...

Whitelisting the Browsium Client with Endpoint Protection

Applies to Browsium Client 4.0 and newer Summary Various endpoint protection or virus scan suites that employ active memory monitoring can sometimes flag the Browsium Client for various security exceptions. This is due to the way that the Browsium Client …

    Continue Reading...

Catalyst rules invoked in Google Chrome before URL is completed in the address bar

Applies To Catalyst 2.x or earlier (does not affect Catalyst 3.x) Summary Google Chrome includes a ‘predictive’ network capability, called “predict network actions”, designed to improve page load performance. As designed, this feature pre-fetches pages based on URLs entered into …

    Continue Reading...

Using Browsium Catalyst to control which browser is used for which Security Zone

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 1.0 or later Summary Browsium Catalyst has the ability to define Rule actions based on several categories: URL Pattern Matching Regular Expression Security Zone This knowledge base article reviews how security zones work and ways to …

    Continue Reading...

Resolving “Loading of unpacked extensions is disabled by administrator.” error in Chrome

Applies to Browsium Client 4.4.0 and newer Summary Depending upon your environment’s settings you may see the following error when the Browsium Client attempts to auto-enable it’s extensions. This is caused by a conflict between Chrome’s security settings and the …

    Continue Reading...

Catalyst Extension for Chrome not enabled by default

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 1.0 or later Details Google has added functionality to Chrome version 25 and later to prevent software installers from enabling extensions for Chrome by default. Details on this Chrome feature can be found here. This may …

    Continue Reading...

Privacy modes and Browsium Catalyst

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 1.0 or later Summary Modern browsers include more security and privacy features than ever before. One of these new features provides the ability for users to avoid leaving ‘tracks’ on the local computer about where they …

    Continue Reading...

Why does Catalyst require a reboot after installation?

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 1.0 or 2.0. Does not apply to Catalyst 3.0. Summary It’s a good practice to close browser windows before installing the Catalyst Client. A reboot (or logoff/logon) is always recommended to ensure the Catalyst software is functioning …

    Continue Reading...

Resolving “Browsium Management Service failed to start” errors

Applies to Versions 4.0 through 4.3.0 of Browsium Catalyst, Ion and Proton Summary On certain machines the Browsium Management Service (BrowsiumService in Services) can fail to start due to dependencies on other services that are slow to start on the …

    Continue Reading...

Using Browsium ADM and ADMX Templates for Ion and Catalyst

Applies To: Browsium Ion 3.3 or later Browsium Catalyst 3.0 or later Summary Starting with Browsium Ion 3.3 and Browsium Catalyst 3.0, configurations can no longer be stored in the registry. Instead, a single registry value points to the Ion …

    Continue Reading...

Upgrading Browsium Client 4.1 or 4.2 deletes Browsium Policy registry keys

Applies To Upgrades from Browsium Client 4.1 and 4.2 to 4.3 Summary Upgrading to the latest version of Browsium Client from versions 4.1 or 4.2 will delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\[Wow6432Node\]Policies\Browsium key from the registry. After the upgrade completes, the Browsium Client …

    Continue Reading...

Can Catalyst control the browser to use by IP address rather than URL string?

Yes, any address with a valid protocol (scheme) prepended to it that is recognized by the operating system to be opened up in a browser will be manageable from Catalyst.

    Continue Reading...

Installing Browsium software without Internet access

Applies To Ion/Catalyst/Proton Versions 4.3 and above Summary This KB provides guidance on how to install Browsium products on machines without internet access. If this guidance is not followed before installers are started, you may notice one of the following …

    Continue Reading...

Installing legacy Firefox extension for Browsium Client 4.3

Applies To Proton 4.3+, Catalyst 4.3+ Summary Starting with Browsium Client 4.3 the Firefox extension has been updated to use the WebExtensions extension model. For users who wish to use the legacy extension (4.2.1) we have provided a command line …

    Continue Reading...

How does Catalyst handle web pages with sub-frames which come from other domains?

Catalyst currently handles top-level navigations only. For example, if a page primarysite.com contains a sub-frame from anothersite.com, only primarysite.com, the top-level page, is used in evaluating the Catalyst rules.

    Continue Reading...

Converting Browsium Client setup from an EXE to MSI

Applies To Browsium Client 4.0 and later Summary In order to support Internet Explorer’s Enhanced Protected Mode, Browsium’s Client software is now packaged in an executable (.EXE) that contains both 32 and 64 bit components. Command line switches used with previous …

    Continue Reading...

If Catalyst rules are found for both the machine and the user, which takes precedence?

Catalyst follows the Windows Policy-Preference standard, the same standard followed by all Microsoft products. The following list is in order of precedence, 1 being the highest and 3 being the lowest: Machine policy (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Browsium\Catalyst) User Policy (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Browsium\Catalyst) User Preference (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Browsium\Catalyst)

    Continue Reading...

Creating a rule for Windows Update on Windows XP

Summary By default, Windows Update will only run in Internet Explorer when run on Windows XP. (Windows Update has its own Control Panel Applet on Windows 7). If the Block Other Requests setting for Internet Explorer is enabled in Catalyst, …

    Continue Reading...

Can the Catalyst software and/or configuration be distributed via SCCM?

Yes, any enterprise software distribution tool can be used. The Catalyst client software installer is an MSI file and the configuration is stored in an XML file for simple distribution and management throughout the enterprise. Refer to section 5 of the …

    Continue Reading...

Ion and Catalyst do not work with Enhanced Protected Mode

Applies To: Browsium Catalyst prior to version 4.0 and Browsium Ion prior to version 3.7 Summary Starting with the release of IE10, Microsoft added an additional layer of security called Enhanced Protected Mode. Enhanced Protected Mode is designed to (in …

    Continue Reading...

Configuring XenApp to close Ion or Catalyst processes when closing a session

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 3.0 or later Browsium Ion 3.0 or later … with XenApp 5.0, 6.0 and 6.5 Summary When an end user disconnects from a XenApp application that utilizes Ion or Catalyst, the user’s session might not close properly …

    Continue Reading...

Ion and Catalyst do not work with Internet Explorer Pinned Sites

Applies To: Browsium Ion and Catalyst (all versions) Summary Starting with Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft added the ability to “pin” sites by dragging and dropping the icon from the address bar onto the desktop or taskbar. Pinned sites can also …

    Continue Reading...

Downgrading to IE8 may result in incorrect taskbar shortcut

Applies To All versions of Browsium Ion and Browsium Catalyst Details Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Editions include both a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version of Internet Explorer. The 32-bit version of Internet Explorer can …

    Continue Reading...

Pro Tip: Using “Absolute URI” and “Is” in a rule? Don’t forget the forward slash!

Applies to: Ion 2.x Catalyst 2.x or 1.x Details: Using “Absolute URI” and “Is” in your rule is handy when you need an exact match to a very specific page, but don’t need everything else on the site to use an …

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.7.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.7.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.7.1-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.7.0 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.7.0 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.7.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.6.0 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.6 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.6-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.5.0 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.5 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.5-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.4.2 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.4.2 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.4.2-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.4.0 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.4.0 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.4.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.3.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.3.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.3.1-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.3 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.3 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.3.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.2 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.2 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.2.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.1.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.1.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.1.1-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.1.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 4.0 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 4.0 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-4.0.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 3.2 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 3.2 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-3.2.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 3.1.2 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 3.1.2 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-3.1.2-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 3.1.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 3.1.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-3.1.1-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 3.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 3.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-3.1.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 3.0.1 Release Notes

The Browsium Catalyst 3.0.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-3.0.1-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 3.0 Release Notes

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 3.0 Details The Browsium Catalyst 3.0 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-3.0.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 2.0.2 Release Notes

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 2.0.2 Details The Browsium Catalyst 2.0.2 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-2.0.2-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 2.0.1 Release Notes

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 2.0.1 Details The Browsium Catalyst 2.0.1 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-2.0.1-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

Browsium Catalyst 2.0 Release Notes

Applies To Browsium Catalyst 2.0 Details The Browsium Catalyst 2.0 Release Notes provide specific details on what’s new and known issues for this version. Browsium-Catalyst-2.0.0-ReleaseNotes.pdf

    Continue Reading...

More questions? Read our Catalyst General FAQs.

Request Demo

Internet Explorer End of Life problems?Learn More