Hackszine.com: Start Chrome in incognito mode

Start Chrome in incognito mode

Maybe you don't want a bunch of cached data hanging around after your browser session exits. Maybe you travel a lot with your laptop and don't want a bunch of private information on a machine that might be stolen. Maybe you do a lot of "birthday shopping."

Whatever the reason, if you prefer to use Chrome in incognito mode for most of your day to day browsing, Michael T. Bee sent us a convenient script that starts up Chrome in incognito mode automatically. Here it is in all it's glory:

//Chrome_Incognito.js - start new chrome incognito(sort of)

var liWait=175; //wait ms (double on older pc)

var oSh=new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
oSh.Run("chrome.exe"); //start chrome
WScript.Sleep(liWait);
oSh.Sendkeys("^+N"); //start new incognito window
WScript.Sleep(liWait);
oSh.Sendkeys("%{Tab}"); //go previous(first) browser window
WScript.Sleep(liWait);
oSh.Sendkeys("%{F4}"); //close first browser window

Just drop this in notepad and save it as chrome_incognito.js on your desktop. When you double click it, it will launch Chrome, make an incognito window, and then close the first window. It does all this by sending artificial keypress events to the application through the Shell ActiveX object, a technique which might come in handy for scripting other standard Windows applications.

If you have an older or slower machine, you might need to adjust the liWait variable to give your machine time to launch Chrome before the application starts sending fake keypresses to it.

Going Incognito At Startup

Posted by Jason Striegel | Oct 26, 2008 07:51 PM
Google, Life, Web | Permalink | Comments (7)

Comments

Newest comments listed first.

Posted by: rio on October 27, 2008 at 5:10 PM

Another trick

Thanks! I was searching for this trick for a while! Anyway, if you want the incognito window to be maximized, replace the line:
oSh.Run("chrome.exe"); //start chrome

with:
oSh.Run("chrome.exe -start-maximized"); //start chrome

nJoy!

Posted by: Dylan on November 2, 2008 at 8:57 PM

This is completely unnecessary - there is a much easier way

simply append --incognito to the file path, and Chrome will start in incognito mode. you can make this adjustment in the file properties very easily.

Posted by: howiem on November 3, 2008 at 6:45 AM

Command line works...script needed a change of location

SXaving the script to the desktop got me a script error (WSH error). However, when I moved the script file to the Chrome application folder, created a shortcut and put the shortcut on the desktop, it worked.
Agree that the command line entry in properties is easier, but some people don't always want to run incognito.
Does anyone know how to tell from within Chrome that it is in fact running incognito?

Posted by: howiem on November 3, 2008 at 6:46 AM

Command line works...script needed a change of location

Posted by: howiem on November 3, 2008 at 6:47 AM

Command line works...script needed a change of location

Posted by: magicm00 on November 6, 2008 at 7:39 PM

Make a new shortcut

howiem, wouldn't it be easier to just put a shortcut on the desktop with the "--incognito" switch enabled, instead of linking to the script which just does the same thing?

You can tell that a Chrome window is in incognito mode from the incognito symbol in the upper left corner. You know, the one with the hat and the trenchcoat.

Posted by: on November 27, 2008 at 10:06 PM

Doesn't work.