Google Chrome shortcut suddenly no longer opens incognito window

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MrGlobe

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Not sure if this is the correct area, depending on whether it's a Windows problem or a Google problem.

TL;DR - sometimes my Google Chrome desktop shortcut will switch on it's own to opening a regular browsing window (saves pass/user and history) instead of an incognito window. It deletes the " --incognito" that I have added to the shortcut target line.





I have had this happen to me constantly over the last few months on both my work and my home computer. One using Win7 64 and one using WinXP.

I have my Google Chrome shortcut setup with " --incognito" added to the end of the target line. It works great for weeks, every time it opens it is automatically an incognito window. Then, for no reason and with no common theme, the shortcut will no longer open an incognito window but a normal browser window instead. If it is the first time it has happened in a while, I sometimes don't notice right away since the incognito window is mostly white as well.

It's not a huge deal, and every time that it happens I just go back into the shortcut properties and add the " --incognito" back onto the end of the target line. It is annoying though, as I will sometimes browse through my email, forums, etc and login with my user/pass which will then become auto-suggestions unless I completely erase the browsing history and saved data of Google Chrome.


Anyone else have this happen to them?
 
Could it be due to Chrome's updates? Have you noticed when this happens?
Some programs automatically edit their shortcuts after they've updated themselves.
 
I am pretty sure that it does not coincide with Google Chrome updating itself. I will make a note of the current version and any updates that are performed. Good suggestion though, I could see that being the culprit.
 
I had that happen once. I have Chrome taskbar pinned and right clicking it to open Private Browsing wasn't there. After launching the PB window from within a normal Chrome window (in the settings Gear) it 'remembered' and was back. This was awhile ago and I never figured out what it was nor noticed it but I will check later after work.
 
Just happened to me again tonight. I started this thread after it happened to me on the 8th. It usually doesn't happen twice in a week, more like once a month.

Google Chrome hasn't updated at all, I haven't changed the shortcut in any way, it hasn't crashed or acted weird. I used it an hour ago, and the shortcut immediately opens to an incognito window.... this time, however, it opens a regular Chrome window. When I look at the shortcut properties, NO INCOGNITO IN THE TARGET LINE!

I have no idea why Google hates me so bad
 
MrGlobe said:
Just happened to me again tonight. I started this thread after it happened to me on the 8th. It usually doesn't happen twice in a week, more like once a month.

Google Chrome hasn't updated at all, I haven't changed the shortcut in any way, it hasn't crashed or acted weird. I used it an hour ago, and the shortcut immediately opens to an incognito window.... this time, however, it opens a regular Chrome window. When I look at the shortcut properties, NO INCOGNITO IN THE TARGET LINE!

I have no idea why Google hates me so bad
Click to expand...

Hi, MrGlobe,

There was a Google Chrome update to day. So that is probably what is happening.

Chuklr
 
Really? When I checked the "About Google Chrome" tab, I swear it was the same version. I'll start writing down the version number so I could check. Thanks for the info about the update though, that is the number one contender for root of the problem. I can't believe there isn't a Google topic about the updates breaking the incognito link.
 
Create a whole new shortcut to the exe specifically yourself.

Applications are clever now in that they update existing short cuts when they update, and with Googles aggressive release cycle this is very frequent.
 
Well, I think you guys are right. I am pretty sure it is due to Google Chrome updating.

I used the 3 computers today that I normally use, and all three had the issue happen. Each one had the shortcut switch from incognito to regular. The one computer was logged into a different user, so when I switched users and started Google Chrome the first time, it hadn't updated so it immediately launched into incognito. After coming back to that computer after an hour or so, when I clicked on the icon it brought up the regular Google Chrome browser window, indicating it had updated Google Chrome and reverted to a regular shortcut.

Thanks for all the assistance in figuring this out. I was nearing the point of conspiracy theories since it was happening to me on multiple computers but I couldn't find anything on the net.
 
It happened to me with Skype updates. That's why I thought your problem could be the same.
To solve it I disabled Skype updates but I am going to try with a read-only shortcut now. It will probably work too.
 
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