Browsium Catalyst 2.0 or later
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 the guidance in the Catalyst Administration Guide. If the Catalyst extension for Chrome is not centrally managed, it is possible for an end user to delete the extension and cause Catalyst to stop working on that PC, as evidenced by the Catalyst Controller attempting to start and silently failing.
This article explains how to work around the problem by reacquiring the Catalyst extension for Chrome from the Chrome web store.
When the Catalyst Client is installed, the Catalyst extension for Chrome is side-loaded into Chrome. This extension must be manually enabled, or enabled via Group Policy per the instructions in the Catalyst Administration Guide. If the extension is enabled via Group Policy, end users will not be able to change its state to disabled, or delete the extension. If the extension is not managed, end users can delete it from the Chrome://Extensions page, which causes Catalyst to break. Uninstalling and reinstalling the Catalyst client is not sufficient to repair the configuration because deleting an extension puts it on Chrome’s blacklist.
To repair this configuration, the extension must either be manually installed from the Chrome Web Store, or the Chrome User Data folder (found at C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome) must be deleted and allowed to rebuild itself the next time Chrome is launched. This latter option works well for the Catalyst extension, but may have unintended consequences for other Chrome extensions. Browsium therefore recommends manually installing the Catalyst extension from the Chrome Web Store by following this guidance:
Note: This guidance is only required when recovering from a deleted Catalyst extension for Chrome. A standard installation of the Catalyst Client will install the Catalyst extension for Chrome, with no need to visit the Chrome Web Store.
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