Create a desktop shortcut to open Google Chrome in Incognito Mode

Posted on December 6, 2008 at 5:19 am

The Google Chrome developers release 10 new versions of Google Chrome a day, each with some kind of minor enhancement. Earlier I wrote about how to export Google Chrome bookmarks, a process made drastically simpler with the newer releases.

If you download the latest release from the nightly builds, you’ll now be happy to know that you can add a command line switch to open the Chrome browser in Incognito Mode. This is nice because to open the browser in Incognito Mode right now, you have to open the normal browser window, click on the Tools icon and then choose New Incognito Mode window, which is a pain.

First, copy the Google Chrome shortcut that you have on your desktop so that there are two icons.

new chrome window

Now right-click on the copy and choose Properties. In the Target box, go all the way to the end and add the following text to the end:

–incognito

incognito mode

Note that there is a space after the end quotation mark and before the two dashes. Now click OK and double-click on your new icon. And viola! An Incognito window pops up!

secret window

You can now rename the shortcut to something more appropriate and use Chrome in Incognito Mode directly. Basically, the browser in the mode will not store your browsing history, IP addresses, cached page text, snapshots of the pages you visited, or records of anything downloaded. Enjoy!

» Filed Under Google Software/Tips

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Comments

4 Responses to “Create a desktop shortcut to open Google Chrome in Incognito Mode”

  1. Geoff said on : December 6th, 2008 at 10:46 am

    Your instructions were very clear, so I tried it. Thanks. This is so easy and effective.


  2. easychess said on : January 12th, 2009 at 6:07 am

    Ich würde gerne Chromes Incognitomodus als Standardbrowser benutzen und nicht nur einen Link erstellen, in welchem ich diesen Starten kann.

    Übrigens wurde das Deutsch auf dieser Seite mit einem ganz üblen Übersetzungsprogramm erstellt. Das tut richtig weh beim Lesen!


  3. abdeen said on : December 10th, 2009 at 2:34 am

    Google chrome shortcut is not appearing on the desktop.Why?


  4. e0a said on : January 28th, 2010 at 1:21 am

    Thanks a lot! I was just wondering if this was possible in Google Chrome, and here i got my answer!


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