Introduction
To fully manage, secure, and deploy policies to Chromebooks within a corporate or educational environment, the devices must be enrolled in Google Workspace Enterprise Management. Enrollment allows administrators to force Wi-Fi settings, install extensions, restrict logins, and remotely wipe lost devices. This guide covers the manual enterprise enrollment process for ChromeOS devices.
Prerequisites
You require:
- An active Google Workspace or Google Workspace for Education domain.
- ChromeOS device management upgrades (licenses) available in your Admin console.
- An administrator account with privileges to enroll devices, or a user account assigned to an Organizational Unit (OU) where enrollment permissions are granted.
- A Chromebook that has not yet been logged into by a standard user.
Step 1: Prepare the Device (Powerwash)
If the Chromebook is brand new out of the box, you can skip this step. If a user has already logged into the device, it cannot be enterprise enrolled until it is wiped. To wipe (Powerwash) the device, turn it on and press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R at the login screen. Follow the prompts to reset the device to factory settings.
Step 2: Connect to Wi-Fi
Turn on the Chromebook and proceed through the initial welcome screen. Connect the device to a reliable Wi-Fi network. Do not attempt to log in immediately after connecting to Wi-Fi.
Step 3: Trigger the Enrollment Process
Once connected to Wi-Fi, you will reach the standard Google sign-in screen. Do not enter an email address yet. Instead, press the following keyboard shortcut to switch to Enterprise Enrollment mode:
Ctrl + Alt + E
The screen title will change from “Sign in to your Chromebook” to “Enterprise Enrollment.”
Step 4: Authenticate and Enroll
Enter the email address and password of an administrator or an authorized enrollment user within your Google Workspace domain. Click Next.
The device will communicate with Google’s servers, consume one Chrome Enterprise Upgrade license, and download the initial device policies.
Step 5: Verify Enrollment
Once the screen displays “You are enrolled successfully,” click Done. The Chromebook is now managed by your organization.
To verify the enrollment from the Admin console, log in to admin.google.com, navigate to Devices > Chrome > Devices, and search for the Chromebook’s serial number. From here, you can assign the device to a specific OU to apply targeted policies, disable guest mode, or push mandatory Android and Chrome apps to the hardware.