Separate taskbar icons for Chrome and Chrome Incognito

Question

How can I create separate taskbar icons in Windows 7 for Google Chrome and Google Chrome's incognito mode?

I tried several solutions so far with no success.

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Of course I tried doing one shortcut for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --incognito and one for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" but they always end with sharing the same element in the Windows taskbar.

I also tried a trick: duplicate chrome.exe into chrome2.exe and have these shortcuts: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --incognito and "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome2.exe" , but this didn't work as well: it works temporarily, but after a reboot, it seems that both taskbar icons have merged into one.

Answer 1

Windows really doesn't want to give you full access to these shortcuts (and they have good reasons). The problem is that you can't pin 2 of the same application. But what if we pin a second application to launch the first?

1. Pin Google Chrome to the taskbar as you would normally.
2. Pin the Command Prompt to your taskbar as well.
3. Press -R to bring up the Run dialog, and enter the following location:
   %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
4. Edit the properties of the Command Prompt shortcut and change the Target to:
   C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c start "" "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --incognito

   CMD /C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates but it won't terminate until after the command has completed.
   start can initiate a process without waiting for it to complete

5. Change the icon to the incognito icon (browse for the Chrome executable).
6. On the General tab, change the shortcut name to "Chrome Incognito" or similar. (You need to restart the explorer process or reboot for the icon to change).
7. On the Shortcut tab, change the Run setting to Minimized.

Note: since Chrome running in incognito mode is still Chrome, it appears under the original Chrome icon, not the incognito one.

Surprisingly I'm now allowed to pin the command prompt to the taskbar again. I really did not expect that to work, since I already pinned it.

All if this is so difficult because you can't simply put any shortcut you want into the %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar folder. From my searching, this post shows it best why. The shortcut data is written in the registry in binary.

Answer 2

The easiest way to achieve this would be to have two separate installations of Chrome, one Chrome stable and another Chrome Beta. You can set the --incognito flag to any one of them and they should work fine.

Answer 3

Here is how I added to the taskbar an icon for Chrome with incognito that looks like this:

1. Position to the Chrome folder, usually at C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application
2. Right-click the file chrome.exe and choose Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)
3. This will create a desktop icon for Chrome
4. Right-click the icon and choose Properties
5. In the Properties dialog that opens, in the Target box append --incognito
6. Still in the dialog, click Change Icon ...
7. Click another icon than the default and then click OK
   
8. You could also optionally click on the General tab and change the shortcut text
9. Click OK
10. Right-click the desktop icon and choose Pin to taskbar
11. You now have the taskbar icon with the chosen icon image and where the popup text when hovering with the cursor is as set in step 8 above. You may also now delete the desktop icon.

Answer 4

¡Hi! I know is too late. I was trying to do the same in Windows 10's taskbar. And i've found a simple solution:

1. Enter chrome in normal mode (no incognito) and go to any website
2. Create a shortcut to that website, it'll appear on your desktop
3. Right-click it and then go to propeties
4. In destiny erase all from right to left until you get to proxy.exe"
5. Write in front of proxy.exe" the next: -incognito
6. Change the icon if you want and then click accept or aply or both wathever
7. Drag and drop the shortcut on taskbar, it will be linked and it will stay there forever no matter if you reboot the system.

This works because when Chrome installs a shortcut it actually installs it, i mean, you can find it on programs in control panel, as you can see below.

How the shortcut should be edited

The web that I used's shortcut "installed" as an independent program

Answer 5

Make a shortcut to %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe "& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe' --incognito". Bring the incognito icon from C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe if you want to (Change Icon). Pin it to the taskbar.

This way, you can have the three different shortcuts on your taskbar.

• Windows PowerShell
• Chrome
• Chrome (incognito)