How to control the installation of Add-Ons in Internet Explorer.

For many organizations, controlling what can be added to clients help to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a network. Controlling what extensions can be added to Internet Explorer is part of the TCO reduction effort by preventing the IT staff from support issues caused me non-approved Add-ons.

The first thing we need to do is to discover the GUID of an Add-On that we want to prevent from being installed. For this reason, you fist need to install it on a test client.

Once installed, open Internet Explorer.

Click Tools / Manage Add-ons.

Browser to the Add-on that you want to prevent the installation of.

Right mouse click the Add-on and select More Information.

Record the GUID ( curly braces as well ) and the Name.

Close the window.

Open a Group Policy that is scoped to the computers that your want to prevent add-ons from being installed.

Browse to Computer Configuration / Policies / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Internet Explorer / Security Features / Add-on Management.

Enable the policy for Add-on List.

Click Show and enter the Name in the Value Name field and the Class ID/GUID in the Value field. Click OK when done.

Click OK again.

Enable the policy for Deny all add-ons unless specifically allowed in the Add-on List.

Now, only the Add-on that you listed can be installed once this GPO is applied to your clients.

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