If you’re like most people, you probably use a shortcut to open your incognito browsing window. This is a shortcut that opens the window in a different tab or window, so you can continue browsing the web anonymously. There are many different ways to set up an incognito browsing window from a shortcut. You can set it up on your desktop, in your browser, or even on a mobile device. Here’s how:

  1. Set up an incognito browsing window on your desktop: To set up an incognito browsing window on your desktop, first open the Start menu and select “All Programs.” Then click on " Accessories." In the " Accessories" folder, find " Incognito Window." Double-click on it to open it in a new tab or window.
  2. Set up an incognito browsing window in your browser: To set up an incognito browsing window in your browser, first open the Firefox browser and click on the three lines at the top of the Firefox main screen (the three lines that look like this). Then click on " Preferences." In the " Preferences" dialog box, find and select " Security & Privacy." Under " Protection," select " Incognito Window." Click OK to close Firefox’s preferences. Now open another Firefox browser and try setting up an incognitwordingwindow this way.
  3. Set up an incognitwordingwindow on a mobile device: To set up an incognitwordingwindow on a mobile device, first open Google Play Music and sign in with your Google account (or create a new account if you don’t have one). Then click on “+ Add Account” at the top of the screen and enter “@incognituwp”. Click OK to add this account to your list of accounts for when you want to set up an incognituwp windowson mobile devices.

Sometimes you just want to pop the browser open for a quick web search without reloading all your saved tabs; read on as we show a fellow reader how to make a quick private-browsing shortcut.

That’s a rather clever work around to your problem. Since you’ve already done the hard work of figuring out the solution you need, we’re more than happy to help you across the finish line. The magic you seek is available via what are known as “command line options” which allow you to add additional parameters and switches onto a command.

I came up with a solution to my problem, but I need your help implementing it. I typically have a ton of tabs open in my web browser and, when I need to free up system resources when gaming or using a resource intense application, I shut down the web browser. The problem arises when I find myself needing to do quick web search while the browser is shut down. I don’t want to open it up, load all the tabs, and waste the resources in doing so all for a quick Google search. The perfect solution, it would seem, is to open up one of Chrome’s Incognito windows: it loads separate, it won’t open up all the old tabs, and it’s perfect for a quick Google search.

Is there a way to launch Chrome with a single Incognito window open without having to open the browser in the normal mode (and load the bazillion tabs I have sitting there)?

Sincerely,

Tab Crazy

RELATED: How to Always Start Any Browser in Private Browsing Mode

 

By appending the command the Chrome shortcut uses, we can easily tell it to launch in Incognito mode. (And, for other readers following along at home, we can do the same thing with other browsers like Firefox).

First, let’s look at Chrome’s default shortcut:

If you right click on it and select the properties menu, you’ll see where the shortcut points:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”

If you run that shortcut, you’ll open up normal browsing mode in Chrome and your saved tabs will all load. What we need to do is use the command line switches available for Chrome and tell it that we want it to launch an Incognito window instead. Doing so is as simple as appending the end of the “Target” box’s command line entry with -incognito, like so:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” -incognito

We’d also recommend changing the icon to it’s easy to tell the default Chrome shortcut apart from your new Incognito shortcut. When you’re done, make sure to hit OK/Apply at the button to save the changes.

RELATED: How Private Browsing Works, and Why It Doesn’t Offer Complete Privacy

You can recreate the same private-browsing-shortcut effect with other major web browsers too. Repeat shortcut editing steps we highlighted above, but change out the -incognito with -private (for Firefox and Internet Explorer) and -newprivatetab (for Opera).

With just a simple command line switch applied, you can now launch a lightweight single browser window for those quick web searches without having to stop your game and load up all your saved tabs.

Have a pressing tech question? Email us at ask@howtogeek.com and we’ll do our best to answer it.