How To: Create Incognito Browsing Shortcuts in Windows

Since the computer ended up taking most of our daily time, it quickly became a personal space, where you want to be sure that private stuff stays safe. This especially applies to Internet navigation, with modern browsers equipped with a Private feature that stealthily takes you online.

In order to switch to this private navigation method you need to launch the browser in the specific state, which can take a little while. So why not be able to travel the information superhighway with the lights out directly from your desktop.

Just like everything depends on code, doing so requires to inject a special parameter in the browser’s shortcut. If the web didn't let you know so far, you’ll find below how to do so for some popular browsers, which you might be using right now.

General step: Create a shortcut of the target browser on your desktop.

Setting up Internet Explorer

Step 1: Right-click the desktop shortcut and hit the Properties list item.

Step 2: Switch to the Shortcut tab.

Step 3: Identify the Target input field (the one with the app path), and at the end, leave a space and add -private.

Step 4: Hit Apply, and OK to confirm, and enjoy your InPrivate browsing.

Setting up Mozilla Firefox

Step 1: Right-click the shortcut and go to Properties.

Step 2: In the Shortcuts tab, find the Target field.

Step 3: Leave a blank space at the end, and write down -private.

Step 4: Apply, and OK to permanently save changes.

Setting up Opera

Step 1: Access the shortcut’s Properties panel through the context menu.

Step 2: Go to the Shortcut tab and look for the Target field.

Step 3: At the end, leave a blank space and then add -private.

Step 4: Confirm changes and safe browsing.

Setting up Google Chrome

Step 1: Just like all the rest, bring up the Properties panel.

Step 2: Move to the Shortcut tab for the Target field.

Step 3: Unlike the others, here you need to add -incognito after a blank space at the end.

Step 4: Apply all changes and go Incognito.