If you have started to love Google Chrome and have made it the default browser on your computer, here’s a useful tip regarding your privacy. The tip is more relevant for people who have computers in the living room and that same machine is shared among all other family members.
The address bar in Google Chrome is almost as dangerous as the awesome bar in Firefox.
Why You Need Separate Profiles in Google Chrome
Google Chrome makes it very easy for you to access your web search history including the search queries that you may have typed in the past. Now this may sometimes lead to an slightly embarrassing situation if someone else use your browser because all your past interactions are exposed the moment he or she begins to type in the address bar.
To prevent yourself from getting into this ‘not so comfortable’ situation, what you can do is create a separate user profile in Google Chrome. Thus all your browser history, bookmarks, cookies, search terms, etc. are not shared with anyone else in the family.
How to Create Profiles in Google Chrome Browser
Unlike Firefox that ships with a Profile Manager, the only way to create multiple profiles in Google Chrome browser is manually. Here’s how:
Step 1: Load Chrome and choose "Clear Browsing History" from the Tools menu. This will clear all your private data.
Step 2. Open your Google Chrome installation folder that is available at:
For Windows Vista - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome
For Windows XP - C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome
Step 3: Open Windows Explorer and switch to the "User Data" folder available inside Chrome installation folder.
Then select the subfolder caleld "default" and make a copy of it in the "User Data" folder itself. Give that copy a name, say, Your_Name. (See screenshot).
Step 4 (Optional): We will now initialize this new "Your_Name" profile to the factory default settings.
Open "Command Prompt", switch to the Chrome Application folder and run the following command:
chrome.exe --user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_Name" -first-run
Step 5: So our new user profile is ready. To run Google Chrome using this profile instead of the default profile, just create a shortcut on your desktop, Quick launch bar or your Windows Start Menu.
Right click anywhere on the desktop, choose New -> Shortcut and type the following for location:
For Windows Vista: C:\Users\Aryaman\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_Name"
For Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_Name"
Give this shortcut a "hard to guess" name, change the icon to use that of, say, Microsoft Word and you’re done.
Now none of your visits to those "adult sites" would be known to anyone else in the family. And no need for you switch to that incognito browsing mode.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/create-family-profiles-in-google-chrome/4394/
Tags: best, feature, google chrome, hacks, privacy, Software
Reader Comments
Yesterday, I noticed this problem, is the failure of chrome, thanks for your tutorial
Written by 禾草唐楷 on 09.04.08
Seems there are lot of options in chrome which are hidden or may be will be added one by one. Anyway its just launched and we can obviously expect a lot more. Just compare Gmail to the oldest email provider yahoomail and check out whats the best of two. The same would go with Firefox and Chrome in couple months.
Written by Amit Bhawani on 09.04.08
Great tip buddy!
I’m sure this is gonna help a million out there. :)
Written by TechTrends on 09.04.08
I think there is an error in your tutorial. I have not tested on Vista but, with XP, you have to frame the path with quotes. The command line will return an error 300.
Written by Jean-Noël on 09.04.08
I really like Google Chrome because its very fast… but i keep my Firefox !
Written by Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 09.04.08
Likes google chrome, it is really very fast, but the scroller of my touchpad does not working in chrome, I dont know there is a bug or something else. Because the scroller works fine elsewhere.
Written by Fimbas on 09.04.08
Alternatively you could set up your PC with a different userid for each person using it and then this won’t be a problem – what with Chrome being a per user install.
Written by fen_boy on 09.04.08
Or else just use the incognito window while browsing “sensitive” sites
Written by tiago on 09.04.08
Use incognito window. Ctrl+Shift+N
Written by Anurag on 09.04.08
In incognito mode of google chrome(stealth browsing mode),no browsing history records are stored at all..hence that solves the purpose..isn’t it ?
Written by Prashant on 09.04.08
Great post. Small correction, though — you can put the profiles anywhere. In fact, placing them in “…\User Data” is wrong, since it is already a root of the main profile. If you look into it, you’ll see there’s “…\User Data\Local State” file and “…\YourNewProfile\Local State” file as well.
Written by dbkk on 09.04.08
Great tip. I don’t really care about “sensitive” sites but this will keep my son’s bookmarks seperate from my bookmarks and avoid either one of us being stuck with the other persons thumbnails on new tabs.
Written by dave bonar on 09.04.08
Anyone having issues with importing bookmarks from IE? I’ve done three different installs, and on one of my machines, it won’t import any of the IE bookmarks.
Written by David on 09.05.08
when i put it in exactly as it says in the command prompt (minus the names of the files)
after pressing enter
it still says chrome.exe is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Written by Erik on 09.06.08
well i’m using xp
but when i’m in the command prompt
after i put in the exact thing it said to put in the command prompt
chrome.exe –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\Fred” -first-run
it says
chrome.exe is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
i know where the chrome folder is at and i know how to make the shortcut the only problem i have is with the command prompt
and yes i used fred as what i want the profile called
Written by erik on 09.06.08
Is there a command line option to start Chrome in Incognito mode?
Written by incognito on 09.07.08
This is brilliant!!!!!
This makes it possible to have/use multiple gmail-accounts, with any logout/login constantly…
Fantastic… I see possibilities here… :D
Written by Lars Bargmann on 09.11.08
One thing I noticed…in multiple user OS like XP and Vista…Chrome installs directly in user profile folder. So If 1 user installs Chrome on his profile..it won’t work on second profile. So second user will obviously have to install his own chrome. So making a separate profile using your method does not seem to be necessary at all. Maybe Google kept this thing in mind and made such a feature into Chrome! Try running chrome from different account. It won’t launch unless you install it on that account too.
And this brings another point…Chrome does not need Admin rights to install. Office employess—get happy. You can surf porn and hide it too from Admin account unless he is too geeky!
Written by Navjot Singh on 09.13.08
yes I would like it best if there was a startup switch aka command line option to start in incognito, for a shortcut or something. I looked in the source code but I couldn’t find anything… maybe I wasn’t looking in the right spot.
Written by Andrew on 09.13.08
thanks for the great tip.
we can also extend this to create separate application shortcuts for multiple gmail accounts.
Written by mojo_lo on 09.14.08
Uuuugh – finally figured it out… quotes in the wrong place…. sheesh!!
It SHOULD look like this :
For Windows XP: “C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\”
..where the “” sections are substituted for your machine’s foldernames.
Written by MichaelP on 10.07.08
regarding above – the < markers. They don’t show up in my last post.
Written by MichaelP on 10.07.08
actually, I couldn’t be bothered with this. Incognito would be a helluva lot easier, don’t you think?
Written by Jet on 11.16.08
Incognito is easy, sure – but it doesn’t save any history at all.
This allows you to have a completely seperate install, and run both at the same time. Personally, I love it.
Written by SenorCola on 11.16.08
I have just tried to add –incognito to an existing application shortcut – and it seems to work (I am running Chrome 0.4.154.25). I cannot create a shortcut from incognito mode though.
Example:
“C:\Documents and Settings\********\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –incognito –app=https://mail.google.com/mail
Written by Peter Frandsen on 12.02.08
“C:\Documents and Settings\********\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –incognito
Just incase someone reading this doesn’t know, the character that looks like this: -– that is infront of the commands are supposed to be two of these -!
The editor that is used to post combines them if they are bunched together.
Written by JamesS on 12.18.08
A few corrections.
- There is no need to remove history first if you re-initialize with the -first-run option.
- Copy the full “..\Chrome\User Data” to make a new profile. Example: “..\User Data” -> “..\Private Data”
Also note: You can add switch “–incognito” to start Chrome directly in incognito mode, and this works with profiles as well. So you can have a separate “incognito” profile with its own collection of bookmarks. Additional bookmarks you make will remain, even if you are in incognito mode.
Otherwise, great article! Thanks.
Written by Whyhell Youneedknow on 01.15.09
I Cannot create shortcut with following command stated in the tutorial!
“C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\my name”
Written by real on 02.26.09
Procedure for multiple account creation on same computer is much more frustrating than doing in Firefox. Need to make it much simpler.
Written by hkl on 03.08.09
I am trying to create windows XP shortcut but I am getting error that the location is invalid. I have checked it several times and found address 100% correct. Also, it works if I don’t pass the parameters to chrome.exe
Any solution for this? means how to pass the parameters?
Written by Riz on 03.18.09
@Whyhell
What you see as a single long hyphen before user-data-dir should actually be a double hyphen. It’s probably a word procesor quirk.
Try:
“C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” -–user-data-dir=”..\User Data\my name”
Written by tin on 04.26.09