up vote 11 down vote favorite
3

I would like to be able to open Chromium in incognito mode automatically. I'm new to Linux and I love it so far but I haven't yet found a way to do this. I'm using Ubuntu 14.04.

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This should work for all flavours of Ubuntu, no? – Bruno Pereira Feb 3 '14 at 10:12
    
Sure, I don't see why not. – Evan Carroll Feb 3 '14 at 17:55
up vote 11 down vote accepted

I assume you mean the Chromium Web Browser.

You have to change one line in the chromium-browser.desktop file. The best is to do that locally:

  1. Copy the file from /usr/share/applications to /home/yourname/.local/share/applications
  2. Open the file with gedit (open gedit and drag the local desktop file on to the gedit window)
  3. Find the first line in the file that begins with Exec=
  4. Replace the line by Exec=chromium-browser --incognito

a few remarks:

  • The folder /home/yourname/.local/share/applications is a hidden folder by default. To make it visibe: go to your home folder, type ctrl + h, the .local folder will appear.

  • You can copy the chromium-browser.desktop file to your local folder with the command: cp /usr/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop

  • You might have to log out and back in before the changes to take effect.

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Yep, logging out/in did the trick. Thank you so much :) – user278752 May 6 '14 at 21:32
1  
I downvoted this too, more complex and not as good as this older answer. This method doesn't open it by default, it makes a shortcut that opens it specifically. – Evan Carroll Nov 4 '16 at 1:40
    
Is there a proper icon for Chrome Incognito? – orschiro Feb 21 '17 at 6:38
1  
Hi @orschiro I found this: tekrevue.com/tip/incognito-mode-shortcut or more precisely this: cdn1.tekrevue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/… – Jacob Vlijm Feb 21 '17 at 8:17
    
Thanks, @JacobVlijm. So, the Ubuntu Google Chrome package doesn't ship a default one? – orschiro Feb 21 '17 at 9:57
up vote 8 down vote

There are two steps,

  1. Run sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser and select /usr/bin/chromium-browser. This will make Chromium your system's default browser.
  2. Run sudo -e /etc/chromium-browser/default (edit as root), and change the line that reads CHROMIUM_FLAGS="" to CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--incognito".

That's it. Changes are instantaneous.

Also, if you ever want to open chrome without incognito mode, just hold Ctrl + n in incognito mode.

This may break some Chromium-Apps, like Signal.

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1  
The question asks for incognito for both Chromium and Google Chrome—where in the world is the default file for Chrome? – Oxwivi Nov 6 '15 at 6:25
    
@Oxwivi your distro doesn't control or bundle Google Chrome. The version of Google Chrome that they do bundle, they call Chromium. Google forces them to rename the browser because they technically publish their own patches, like the one that has the default file. It also doesn't make sense to have "a default" for more than one browser because the WM will only launch only one when you click a link. – Evan Carroll Apr 20 '17 at 3:10
up vote 7 down vote

This is how I do it using alacarte (main menu). Install alacarte (aka main menu) from the Ubuntu Software Center if you don't already have it. Launch it.

On the left hand side, under Menus, make sure Applications is expanded. Look for Internet. Single click it. Now look for Chrome under Items. Single click it. Look for Properties on the right hand side. Single click it. A little window appears. (I've dragged it to the right for clarity.) Look for Command. For me, I see /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome %U.

using alacarte

Carefully change that to: /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --incognito %U

Click Close on the little window and then click Close on the Main Menu window. You need to log out and log in to make the change register.

You're done.

(I just did it so I know it works.)

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up vote 4 down vote

I prefer simply setting CHROMIUM_FLAGS in /etc/chromium-browser/default:

CHROMIUM_FLAGS="-incognito"

Works on Ubuntu 12.04

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This is the simple and direct answer to the question, that does not need external apps, or "hacking" the launchers. – Tim May 5 '17 at 21:08
    
This should have been the accepted answer. Apart from being the only reasonable solution, this one-liner has the demonstrable benefit of working anywhere – on any Linux distribution (including but not limited to Ubuntu) under any windowing environment (including but not limited to Unity, GNOME 3, and KDE Neon). In short, this answer simply works. – Cecil Curry Sep 28 '17 at 6:49
up vote 1 down vote

You need create a Chorme incognito.desktop file like with the following contents,

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Chorme incognito
Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --incognito
Terminal=false
Icon=google-chrome
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml_xml;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;

save this file, open a nautilus with root permission. (run gksu nautilus)

Browse to /usr/share/applications and paste the file here.

Now you can drag this icon to your launcher.

Click on launcher icon, chorme will start in incognito mode.

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Can't one just use ala carte (main menu) to do this via a GUI? – user25656 Jul 4 '12 at 17:33
up vote -1 down vote

The solution which worked for me:

  1. open an incognito window
  2. lock it to luncher
  3. remove the other chrome from luncher
  4. whenever you click this icon in luncher an incognito window of chrome will be opened.
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