How to manually install a third-party extension in Google Chrome

Usually, when you install a chrome extension, you do this from the Chrome Web Store. However, some extensions are not published in the online store. This may be due to the fact that they use additional functions that are not supported by the rules of the online store, are developed independently or are beta versions.

Over the years, Google has increased its restrictions on installing third-party Chrome extensions to help protect Chrome users from malicious code. A few years ago, you could simply install the extension from the developer’s site without any hassle. Last year, you only had to enable developer mode before installing the CRX file (Chrome extension). Now, according to Google,

To protect you while browsing, Chrome only allows you to use extensions that have been published to the Chrome Web Store.

If you’re willing to take the risk, Google will give developers the opportunity to open the door to test their extensions, which you can use to install extension from outside the Chrome Web Store. And here I say again that installing unverified extensions from unknown sources is dangerous and could expose your computer to malicious code. Act at your own risk.

By the way, here is how you can easily publish your extension to the Chrome Web Store following simple steps.

How to run Chrome extensions not from the WebStore store

  1. Download the extension. The usual third-party extension is in the archive.
  2. Unzip the extension using the archiver.
  3. Launch the Google Chrome browser.
  4. Open the browser menu. Three vertical dots in the upper right corner.
  5. Go to Advanced Tools> Extensions.
  6. Switch the “Developer Mode” toggle switch to the “on” position, which is located in the upper right corner of the “Extensions” page.
  7. Click on the “Download Unpacked Extension” button.
  8. Find the unpacked folder with a third-party extension, select it and click “Select Folder”.
  9. Done. We manually installed a third-party extension in the Google Chrome browser.
  10. Done. We manually installed a third-party extension in the Google Chrome browser.