No doubt you know about your browser's incognito mode: a special browser state in which software does not track your activities in detail. Most of us use our browsers as normal most of the time, switching to incognito mode when needed - perhaps when we need to search for something we don't want to remain on our records and included in our browsing history .
However, you can also choose to launch the browser in incognito mode from the beginning on both desktop and mobile devices. This means you leave less of a digital footprint and may suit you better as your default way of working.
How incognito mode works
Whenever you use incognito (or private) mode, you need to know what is and isn't being tracked in your online activity. Simply put, your invisible browser doesn't log the websites you visit or searches you run. Cookies - small data files used by websites to remember who you are - are also not saved (if you clear your browser cookies, you may find that you need to log in again to all your online accounts).
So if you close a tab in incognito mode, you can't perform the common trick of reopening it: your browser has forgotten that it exists. It's best used when you don't want searches and website visits to reappear later - whether you're researching a sensitive medical issue or buying a secret and surprise gift for a loved one.
However, incognito mode does not prevent your internet provider from seeing what you are doing (you need a VPN for this). If you are at work, your employer can still see the website you are loading. If you log in anywhere—Google, Amazon, Facebook—then those sites will still record your activity as normal. This is not something that makes you completely anonymous.
If you don't want your web activity to be remembered at all, then you'll want to take additional steps besides using Incognito mode, such as using tools provided by Google to automatically clear away evidence of where you've been and what you've done. Incognito mode is a useful option as long as you know how it works.
Launch incognito on desktop
To launch Chrome or Edge in incognito mode in Windows, you first need to create a desktop shortcut - the easiest way is to drag the app icon from the Start menu to an empty part of the desktop. Then, right-click on the newly created shortcut and select Show more options and properties .
You will see the path to the browser program in the Target field. All you need to do is add some text (called a flag) to this path to tell the browser to launch in incognito mode. For Chrome, add "-incognito" (without quotes) outside the quotes pointing to the actual browser file. For Edge, it's a space and then "inprivate" (without quotes) at the end of the quoted file path.
Firefox makes this easier: click the three horizontal lines (top right corner), then click Settings and Privacy & Security , then check the "Always use private browsing mode" option. On all three browsers, you can also right-click the browser icon on the taskbar to launch an incognito window - so if the browser is pinned to the taskbar, this is another way to launch it in private mode.
On macOS, in Safari, you can open the Safari menu, then click Settings and open the General tab to find the relevant options: Make sure the drop-down menu is set to "New Private Window" when Safari opens , and every When launching the browser, you will first see a private window.
For other browsers on macOS, you need to use the Script Editor, which you can find in the Utilities folder of the Finder's Applications pane. Select New Document and you need to enter a specific line of text: for Chrome it is "do shell script "open -a /Applications/Google Chrome.app --args --incognito"" and for Edge it is "do shell script "open -a /Applications/Microsoft Edge.app -n --args --inprivate" (With Firefox, you can use the settings we've already mentioned).
Select File and Save , give the new file a name and add a ".app" extension, and make sure Application is selected as the File Format . This new browser shortcut appears in the Apps pane, and from there you can place it in the dock, drag it to the desktop, or place it anywhere else you like.
Launch incognito on mobile devices
If you want to launch your browser app of choice in incognito mode on your phone or tablet, the secret is long press. On Android, most browsers (including Chrome, Edge, and Firefox) will display some sort of option to launch an invisible tab if you press and hold an icon on the home screen or app drawer.
Users with iPhone or iPad devices will also see the Incognito mode option when you long-press the icon on the Home screen or in the App Library for most browsers, including Safari, Edge, and Firefox. For Google Chrome, the option actually appears as Incognito Search , but it opens a normal incognito window - you can run a search, but you can also just enter the website URL or do whatever you need to do.
