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Tips For Quickly Enrolling Chromebooks

Enrolling Chromebooks can take some time, but if you plan ahead then the process can happen much quicker.  Here are some tips that I have done to help the process along.

Tip 1: Use a usb-to-nic adapter.  Connecting to wifi during the enrollment will slow down the process considerbly.

Tip 2: In the Admin Dashboard set up a network policy so that Chromebooks in your desired Org get a device-based SSID.

  1. Open the Google Admin Dashboard
  2. Navigate to:  Device management => Networks  => Wi-Fi
  3. Select the appropriate Org.
  4. Add a device based Wifi

Tip 3: Set up an easy to type username / password.
  • Place the username into the same Org as you want the devices to go into (See Tip 4);
  • The username does not need any special permissions
  • Make the name simple to type, like: 121@yourdomain.com
  • Make the password easy to type, like: 1234567890
  • You can disable the user (or make a more complex password) after the bulk of the enrollment process is done.
Tip 4: Have the devices automatically go into a specific Org when enrolled. 
  1. Open the Google Admin Dashboard
  2. Navigate to:  Device management => Chrome  => User Settings
  3. Select the appropriate Org.
  4. Scroll down to Enrollment Controls Section
  5. In device Enrollment select "Place chrome device in user organization"
  6. If you do any asset tagging, or location tagging, I also suggest enabling the "Asset Identifier During Enrollment"

Are keystroke automation tools worth it?

  • Ones I have used: I have played with the USB Rubber Ducky, and heard of Centipede.  
  • What they do: They basically mimic keystrokes, as soon as you put the usb key into a computer, allowing you to skip the repetitive keying in.
  • Are they worth it? For our network they were not worth it; mostly because we enter the asset tag and location during enrollment.   We also found that between the Nic-to-USB and the easy to type enrollment user, the process went so quick that the above were not worth it for us.