Bauer Automate is a Microsoft 365 and Power Platform consultancy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We publish two free browser extensions for people who review AI-generated files in GitHub: GitHub HTML Preview renders an HTML file as a live page inside an isolated frame, and GitHub Office Preview renders Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the browser with our own renderer. Install them from the stores in two clicks, or have your IT team deploy them to every Microsoft Edge machine by policy.
Book a free consultationJump to the IT deployment steps
Pick one or both
Two extensions, both free
Each adds one Preview button to the file toolbar on GitHub, and nothing anywhere else.
FreeGitHub HTML Preview
Best for: Anyone who commits HTML files to GitHub and wants to see them render without setting up hosting.
- Adds a Preview button to any .html or .htm file page on GitHub.
- Renders the page live, with its scripts running in an isolated frame that cannot read your GitHub session, cookies or tab.
- Optional auto-preview, which asks before running a file that contains scripts, and a switch that renders every preview with scripts off.
- One permission: storage, to remember those two settings. Works on private repositories you can already view.
Chrome Web StoreMicrosoft Edge Add-ons
FreeGitHub Office Preview
Best for: Anyone who reviews .docx, .xlsx or .pptx files in GitHub and is tired of downloading them to look.
- Adds a Preview button to Word, Excel and PowerPoint file pages on GitHub, in place of the "could not be rendered" notice.
- Word files render as formatted pages, Excel as data tables with a tab per sheet, PowerPoint as a scrollable list of slides.
- Rendered entirely in your browser by a renderer we built on open-source parsers. The file is fetched once from GitHub and never uploaded anywhere.
- One permission: storage, for the auto-preview setting and the size threshold. Works on private repositories you can already view.
Microsoft Edge installs it from the Chrome Web Store too. Edge asks once to allow extensions from other stores.
Chrome Web Store
Two clicks
Install it yourself
Three steps, no account, no sign-in.
1. Open the store page
Use the button on the card above. In Microsoft Edge, the Chrome Web Store page shows an "Allow extensions from other stores" prompt first; accept it, then add the extension.
2. Add it to your browser
Click Add. The browser lists the one permission (storage) and installs it.
3. Open a file on GitHub
Open any .html file (or any .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file) in a repository you can view. A Preview button appears in the file toolbar, next to Raw and Download. Click it to render the file, and click Code to switch back.
For IT
Deploy it to every Microsoft Edge machine by policy
Microsoft Edge installs an extension silently on every managed device when its ID is on the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy. In Microsoft Intune the setting is in the Settings catalog under Microsoft Edge, Extensions, "Control which extensions are installed silently"; in Group Policy it is under Administrative Templates, Microsoft Edge, Extensions. Each entry is the extension ID, then a semicolon, then the update URL of the store it comes from.
Paste these two entries:
nkeoihkfedjnlladlnblkglejodknmig;https://edge.microsoft.com/extensionwebstorebase/v1/crx
mjbffgolcklmpdlkkahkifcmjibpipeg;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx
The first is GitHub HTML Preview from Microsoft Edge Add-ons. The second is GitHub Office Preview from the Chrome Web Store, which Edge installs when the update URL names that store. Users cannot remove a force-installed extension; if you would rather let them turn it off, use the ExtensionSettings policy with the installation mode set to normal_installed instead. Google Chrome has an equivalent force-install policy; ask us in the consultation if you want both browsers covered.
What they can touch
Privacy and permissions
Both extensions were built to check our own AI-generated files faster, so they keep nothing and send nothing.
- Neither asks you to sign in, and neither has a server. Each contacts github.com only, to read the file you are already looking at.
- Each requests one permission, storage, and uses it to remember its own two settings on your machine.
- GitHub HTML Preview runs a previewed file's scripts inside an isolated frame with a throwaway origin. The file cannot read your GitHub session or cookies, change the GitHub page you are on, or navigate your tab. Inside its own frame it can still do what any web page's script can do, so the consent prompt is there for files you did not write.
- GitHub Office Preview parses the file in your browser with bundled open-source libraries. No Microsoft or Google viewer is involved, and the preview is an approximate rendering, not a pixel copy of the original application.
Coming next
Coming next
Meeting Transcript Copy, an extension that copies a Microsoft Teams meeting transcript to your clipboard in one click, is built and not yet in either store. The product roadmap shows what is in development and what is available now.
See the roadmapTell me when it is ready
Before you install
Frequently asked questions
Five questions people ask before they click Add.
Are the extensions really free?
Yes. Both are free in the Chrome Web Store and GitHub HTML Preview is free in Microsoft Edge Add-ons. There is no account, no trial and no paid tier.
Do they work on private repositories?
Yes. Anything you can already view on github.com, you can preview. The extension reads the file through your own signed-in GitHub session and never sends it anywhere else.
Does any file leave my browser?
No. Each extension talks to github.com only, to read the file you are already looking at, and renders it locally. There is no Bauer Automate server and no third-party viewer in the loop.
Why does Microsoft Edge ask me to allow extensions from other stores?
Because GitHub Office Preview is installed from the Chrome Web Store, and Edge asks once before it installs anything from a store other than Microsoft Edge Add-ons. Accept it, and Edge installs and updates the extension from the Chrome Web Store from then on.
Can our IT team deploy them to everyone?
Yes. Microsoft Edge installs them silently on managed devices through the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy, set in Intune or Group Policy. The two entries to paste are in the IT section above.
