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Technical document
Centrally conguring and
deploying the NetSupport
School Student extension
for Google Chrome
In this guide, we will explain how an IT administrator can use the Google Admin Console to centrally congure
and deploy (force install) the NetSupport School Student extension to the required student Chrome accounts. For
instructions on how to install the additional NetSupport components required to facilitate a connection between a
teacher’s PC or Chrome device and student Chromebooks, refer to the technical document, Conguring NetSupport
School for use in a Google Chrome environment.
Note: Starting in June 2024, Chrome extensions will change behaviour following Google’s migration from
Manifest v2 to v3. We are working on updates to our Student extensions to meet the new requirements but in
the meantime, to ensure that the changes don’t impact the behaviour of any of your installed extensions, we
recommend extending the use of Manifest v2 in the Google Admin Console using the steps outlined in the
following article:
https://kb.netsupportsoftware.com/knowledge-base/netsupport-chromeos-extensions-and-manifest-v3/
One of the benets of using Chrome devices is that the Google apps and extensions you use can all be managed
and deployed centrally at user level using the Google Admin Console, avoiding the traditional need to physically
install a program on a device. This is particularly useful when deploying the NetSupport School Student extension
for Google Chrome to each student account.
The assumption is made throughout this document that you are already familiar with Google Admin best practice.
If guidance is required, refer to Google’s online help, but as a starting point, you should ensure the following steps
have been taken to ensure a smooth deployment of the NetSupport School Student extension:
• To be able to enforce the policies you set in the Admin Console, make sure you have ‘enrolled’ your Chrome
devices correctly. You must enrol a device before any user signs in to it (including the administrator). If a user
signs in rst, your policies will not apply, and you must wipe the device to restart enrolment. See How to enrol
ChromeOS devices.
• Congure your Organisational Unit (OU) structure within the Admin Console to allow you the ability to force
install/congure the NetSupport School Student extension settings for the required user accounts at the
appropriate OU level. See How the organisational structure works.
Centrally deploying the NetSupport School Student extension for Google Chrome
The Google Admin Console enables you to centrally prepare your Google apps and extensions at user (OU) level to
ensure they are automatically available when the required users’ log in to their Chrome account from any Chrome
device. But in the case of the NetSupport School Student, there is an additional step to follow to ensure each
student can then make a connection with the teacher’s machine at the start of the lesson.
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Step 1 – Set the NetSupport School Student extension to ‘force install’ at the correct OU level
1. Log in to the Google Admin Console.
2. Click on the ‘hamburger’ menu option in the top left corner of the Console and select Devices. (It is
recommended that you always use the ‘hamburger’ menu to navigate and not the icons).
3. Select Chrome.
4. Select Apps and extensions.
5. Select Users and browsers.
6. Select the OU level that contains the required student accounts that you want to force install the NetSupport
School Student extension onto.
7. Search for the NetSupport School Student. In the bottom right of the screen, click the option to add from the
Chrome Web Store.
8. Search for the NetSupport School Student and click Select.
9. Once added, select the Installation policy drop-down menu next to the NetSupport School Student extension
and select Force Install. (You can choose to force install with a pin if required.) This setting can be applied
locally or inherited from your top-level OU.
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10. Click Save in the top right of the screen.
11. The NetSupport School Student extension is now set to force install when the selected users (students) log in
to a Chrome device.
To complete your NetSupport deployment, you also need to generate a conguration le (policy) containing
the required NetSupport connectivity settings. It is these settings that will facilitate the connection between the
student and teacher machines. Once created, the le is copied to the Google Admin Console.
Step 2 – Creating the NetSupport School Student conguration le
For convenience, NetSupport provides a ready-made template, the ‘NetSupport School > Options’ page, to help
you congure the required connectivity settings (policy). This is accessed outside of the Google Admin Console
with the generated le then copied to the Google Admin Console. The easiest way to access the NetSupport
School Options page is to install the Student extension on your local machine.
1. Open a Chrome browser on your local machine and go to the Chrome Web Store.
2. Search for the NetSupport School Student and click Add to Chrome.
3. Once installed, right-click on the NetSupport School icon at the top right of the screen and select Options.
The ‘NetSupport School > Options’ page will appear.
Gateway Address and Port
A Name & Connectivity Server (or Gateway) is required in order to manage connections between the
teacher’s machine and the student Chromebooks. This needs to be installed on a Windows Server, with the IP
address and port (443 by default) of the machine entered on the Options page to conrm how the Student
Chromebooks will connect to the teacher’s PC or Chrome device. See Conguring NetSupport School for use in a
Google Chrome environment for full installation instructions.
Room Name
To maximise teaching time, NetSupport School’s Room mode oers a quick and easy method for teacher and
student devices to connect to each other at the start of a lesson. Depending on how you organise access to
your Chromebooks, the student devices can be congured in one of three ways:
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This Student is Always Located in the Following Room
If the Student is always assigned to the same classroom, enter the room name here.
This Student Moves Classes and May Be In One of the Following Rooms
If the Student moves between classrooms, you can enter multiple room names separated by a comma. (To
select the correct room, the Student simply clicks on the NetSupport School Student icon in their Chrome
browser and the room list will be displayed.)
This Student Moves Classes and The Room will be Entered Manually
Select this option if there are no set rooms and you want the students to enter the room name manually
each time they want to join a NetSupport-managed lesson.
Client Name
This is a unique identier for each Chromebook user and is the name that will also be displayed in the
NetSupport School Tutor interface to enable the teacher to identify each Student device. By default, this
will display the rst part of the logged-in user’s email address (as associated with their Google account).
Depending on your preferred mode of connection (User mode, Browse mode etc), you can change the value
but it must remain unique and up to a limit of 30 characters.
As explained below, it is recommended that the applied options are protected to prevent students from
making changes. However, should you nd that the page has been accessed during a session and the Client
Name eld manually changed, you can insert a reset instruction in the conguration le that reverts back to
the default Client name next time the NetSupport Student extension is launched.
Enter the parameter as follows: “resetClientName”:true,
Note: At the start of a lesson, the teacher also has the option to create a Student Register within the NetSupport
School Tutor program that can be used to replace the generated Chromebook Client name with, for example, the
actual student names.
MAC Address
If your Chrome devices are centrally managed and enrolled within the Google Admin Console, NetSupport
School will form the address based on the registered device ID up to a limit of 12 characters. Alternatively, the
address will mirror the Client Name eld, again up to a limit of 12 characters.
In circumstances where the full ID is required in order to fully identify each device, generally, when PC mode
is the preferred connection method, a parameter can be added to the NetSupport conguration le (Cong.
json): “useFullDeviceIdentier”:true,
Protect the Conguration
It is recommended that you always password protect the NetSupport School conguration settings. This
ensures that if a student attempts to access the Options page from their Chromebook, they are blocked from
making changes.
Click Save to store the conguration.
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Export as File
This nal stage creates the le required by the Google Admin Console to complete your centrally managed
NetSupport School policy, as explained in step 1. However, before the le is generated, you have the option to
allow certain future changes to the Options page, the Client Name and MAC Address. This will allow authorised
administrators to manually edit these details if needed.
Click Generate File. A basic conguration le is generated (named Cong.json) and will be stored by default in
your downloads folder.
Example content of an advanced Cong.json le including the information provided in the NetSupport
Options page and any manual entries, such as the Reset Client Name and Use Full Device Identier parameters:
4. Open the conguration le and copy the JSON information. Return to the Google Admin Console, select the
NetSupport School Student extension in the required OU (step 1 above) and paste the JSON information into
the ‘Policy for extensions’ section.
Note: If you are using the JSON information from the basic conguration le generated from the Options page, you
may want to manually add the Reset Client Name and User Full Device Identier parameters (see above screen shot),
as they are not automatically included.
5. Click Save. The settings should apply automatically to any connected devices. If not, restart the devices.
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Appendix A
Change of behaviour for viewing student screens from version 2.0.2.0 (released November 2020)
Version 2.0.0.0 of the Student extension introduced the ability for a teacher (using the NetSupport School
Windows Tutor) to view, in both thumbnail and view modes, a student’s full desktop as well as the previous default
behaviour, the open browser window only.
To facilitate this new option, students would need to acknowledge a ‘share full screen’ prompt that would appear
on their screens. Until the students respond, the thumbnails at the Tutor would remain blank.
From version 2.0.2.0, this behaviour has been further modied in order to remove the blank thumbnail limitation.
The previous default of capturing a student’s open browser on connection has been reinstated, but the share
screen prompt remains, should you also want the exibility of viewing the full desktop.
However, if you prefer not to oer this option and remain with the student’s browser capture only, the prompt can
be disabled by adding the following conguration string into the NetSupport School Student policy (.JSON), as
explained above. “useLegacyThumbnails”:true,