How to Always Open Specific Websites in Google Chrome Incognito Mode

Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode is a fantastic tool for browsing without leaving a local trace. When you close an Incognito window, Chrome instantly forgets your browsing history, cookies, site data, and information entered in forms. This makes it ideal for checking bank accounts on a shared computer, researching sensitive topics, or logging into secondary email accounts.

Usually, you have to manually open an Incognito window (Ctrl+Shift+N) and then type in the URL. However, if there is a specific website (like a banking portal) that you always want to visit in private browsing, relying on your memory is risky. If you forget and open it in a normal tab, you leave a trail.

You can create a custom desktop shortcut for Google Chrome that forces a specific website to open directly in Incognito Mode every single time you click it.

Creating an Incognito Shortcut for a Specific Website

This process involves duplicating your existing Google Chrome shortcut and modifying its target path to include specific command-line arguments.

1. Go to your Windows desktop.
2. Right-click on your existing Google Chrome shortcut icon. (If you don’t have one on your desktop, search for Chrome in the Start Menu, right-click it, select “Open file location,” right-click the shortcut there, and choose “Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)”).
3. Select Copy.
4. Right-click on an empty space on your desktop and select Paste. You should now have a second shortcut named “Google Chrome – Copy.”
5. Right-click this new duplicated shortcut and select Properties.
6. Ensure you are on the Shortcut tab.
7. Look for the text box labeled Target. It will look something like this: "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
8. Click inside the Target box, press the End key on your keyboard to move your cursor to the very end of the text string (make sure you are outside the final quotation mark).
9. Press the Spacebar once to add a space.
10. Type -incognito
11. Press the Spacebar again.
12. Type the full URL of the website you want to open. For example, if you want it to open Wikipedia, type https://www.wikipedia.org
13. The final text in the Target box should look exactly like this:
    "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -incognito https://www.wikipedia.org
14. Click Apply, then click OK.

Renaming the Shortcut

To avoid confusing this new shortcut with your standard Chrome browser, you should rename it to clearly identify its purpose.

1. Right-click the newly modified shortcut.
2. Select Rename (or click the Rename icon in Windows 11).
3. Change the name to something descriptive, such as “Wikipedia (Private)” or “Banking Secure.”
4. Press Enter.

Now, whenever you double-click this specific shortcut, Google Chrome will immediately launch an Incognito window and navigate directly to your chosen website. Your regular Google Chrome shortcut will remain completely unaffected and will continue to open normal, trackable tabs.