Recently we reported Chrome 86 has got the Caret Browsing feature integrated and also has new features behind the flags, the ability to create a desktop shortcut for Incognito mode is one of them. The flag is now working in Chrome Canary and adds a “Create shortcut” menu item to the incognito menu when enabled.
Generally, with private browsing, the browsing session with information about websites you visited and searches you performed will be cleared when you exit. There is an extra benefit of using Chrome’s incognito mode, it blocks third-party tracking cookies by default, so you will be tracked less when you browse privately in Chrome.
To use Chrome private browsing mode, you need to launch Chrome and select “New Incognito Window” option in the menu or you can also use shortcut Ctrl+Shift+N when Chrome is open.
Create shortcut option in Incognito menu
You can avoid the above steps and launch Chrome in Incognito mode from the desktop when you add “–incognito” switch to the Target field of Chrome shortcut properties dialog. Similarly, you can launch Chrome in guest mode if you append “–guest” switch.
Chromium team is now adding a new button to incognito menu in Chrome for the users to create a desktop shortcut for incognito mode, which you can take advantage of, for that.
- Launch Chrome browser
- Visit chrome://flags page
- Search for “Enable Incognito Desktop Shortcut”
- Select “Enabled” from the dropdown and restart the browser
- Click on the menu and select “New Incognito window”
- Click on Incognito icon on the toolbar and select “create shortcut”, use the shortcut created on the desktop to launch Chrome in incognito mode from now onwards.
Tip: The newly created shortcut will be the same as the Chrome Canary shortcut, we suggest you rename the shortcut to “incognito”.
If you observe the shortcut Target field, you’ll notice Google has added “–profile-directory=”Default” –incognito” switch for the shortcut to work.
Related articles:
Chrome Update dialog now warns Incognito Windows won’t reopen if you relaunch the browser
Fix Incognito Mode not working in Chrome on Windows 10
Chrome 76: Websites now can’t detect if you’re in Incognito mode
Websites Still detecting Chrome Incognito Mode despite loophole fixed by Google
