Google is looking to make it easier for users to access the Incognito Mode, right from their desktop on Windows PCs. This feature was first spotted earlier this week in the form of a Chrome flag. But, it wasn’t functional back then. Today, however, you can create a desktop shortcut for opening an Incognito window with a click.
First reported by Techdows, this feature is currently hidden behind a Chrome flag in the Canary build instead of the stable build. You need to be updated to Canary build #86.0.4233.0 to be able to make a desktop shortcut for Incognito mode. We’re quite familiar with the boon that’s Incognito mode. It enables you to browse the Internet privately, without saving your browser history, and blocking third-party trackers as well.
Create ‘Incognito Mode’ Desktop Shortcut for Chrome
1. Fire up Chrome Canary and navigate to ‘chrome://flags’ to first enable the feature.
2. Search for ‘Incognito’ at the top to see the ‘Enable Incognito Desktop Shortcut’ flag under the available section.
3. From the dropdown menu next to the ‘Enable Incognito Desktop Shortcut’ flag, you need to select ‘Enabled’ and restart the browser.
4. Open a ‘New Incognito window’ by clicking the three-dot menu at the top right.
5. Now, click on the ‘Incognito’ icon next to the address bar to see a new ‘Create Shortcut’ icon. Click on this once to see a Chrome shortcut appear on your desktop.
This feature still seems to be under development as the shortcut created looks like any other Chrome shortcut. You cannot differentiate between the standard and ‘Incognito Mode’ shortcuts, which really bugs me. The latter should, perhaps, have a gray-colored icon like the Incognito logo.
This feature seems highly unnecessary to me as someone who uses Chrome regularly will have it pinned in the taskbar. If they don’t, they should as they can simply right-click on the Google Chrome icon in the taskbar to launch a “New Incognito window” easily. This is a much better way of accessing Incognito mode than cluttering your Windows desktop.
The ability to create a desktop shortcut for opening Incognito windows is currently limited to Chrome Canary. It could make its way to the stable Chrome 86 release very soon.
