Enterprise policies that impact extensions

Policies enable you to control the capabilities of Firefox. This article summarizes the policies that affect the installation, behavior, and update of web extensions. For a full list of policies, see mozilla/policy-templates on GitHub. For details on how to implement policies, see Manage settings via policy.

Relevant policies

These policies control whether users can install, disable, or remove web extensions, and the domains from which they can install extensions.

  • BlockAboutAddons – This policy removes access to about:addons. Removing this access means that the user is unable to disable or remove extensions, or access extension preferences unless the extension provided alternative access.

  • Extensions This policy controls the installation, uninstallation (removal), and locking of extensions. It enables the specification of a list of extensions that are:

    • installed when the policy is deployed. Extensions are specified by path or URL.
    • removed when the policy is deployed, specified by extension ID.
    • locked when the policy is deployed, so the user cannot disable or remove the extension, which are specified by extension ID.
  • ExtensionUpdate – This policy provides for the setting of the configuration (about:config) option extensions.update.enabled. This enables you to determine whether extensions are updated when Firefox detects updates. If you choose to disable automatic updates, you can use the Extensions policy to push web extension updates.

  • InstallAddonsPermission – This policy sets whether the user can install extensions and which domains web extensions can be installed from.

Other relevant policies

These policies may affect the behavior of third-party extensions because of the Firefox features these policies disable or restrict.

  • DisableDeveloperTools — This policy removes access to all developer tools. With this policy in place, it limits users’ ability to create extensions effectively.

  • DisableFirefoxAccounts — This policy disables Sync. With this policy in place, third-party extensions that make use of the sync functionality may not work correctly.

  • DisablePrivateBrowsing — This policy removes access to private browsing. With this policy in place, third-party extensions that make use of the private browsing functionality may not work correctly.

  • EnableTrackingProtection – This policy affects tracking protection. With this policy in place, third-party extensions that enhanced privacy or tracking prevention functionality may not work correctly.

  • SanitizeOnShutdown — If this policy is set to true, Firefox clears all browsing data when it closes. This data includes browsing and download history, bookies, active logins, cache, form and search history, site preferences, and offline website data. With this policy in place, third-party extensions that rely on storing data locally may not work correctly.

Other useful information: