Create Google Chrome Desktop Shortcuts to Specific Profiles

Google Chrome has an excellent built-in ‘Users’ feature that gives users the ability to create different profiles for each of their tasks. They can create separate profiles for their Home/Work accounts, and safely share their browser with friends or family members without worrying about their data. The only problem I have with this feature is that when I initially start Chrome, it opens to the last profile that was used. I then have to switch to the desired profile by clicking on the profile icon. It’s not a big issue, but just not efficient. If you are looking for a fix to this, read on.

In this post, first of all I will show you how to create a shortcut to the ‘default’ Chrome profile using a command line switche and then shortcuts to other profiles you create.

Create Chrome Desktop Shortcuts to Specific Profiles

You may already have a Chrome shortcut on your desktop. If you don’t have one, create a new shortcut with this path:

C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe

Replace user name with your own Windows user name.

Now that you have a Chrome shortcut on your desktop, right-click on it and select Properties.

In the Target field of the Properties window, add the following to the end of the path: --profile-directory="Default".

The complete target path should now look something like this:

C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --profile-directory="Default"

Click on OK button to save the changes.

If you launch Chrome using this shortcut, it will open to the default user profile. Test it, I will wait.

It works, right? Now to create shortcut to a second profile, duplicate the existing Chrome shortcut by copy-pasting to the same location. Again, go to its properties. This time in the Target field, replace “Default” with “Profile 1”, and save changes.

C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --profile-directory="Profile 1"

“Profile 1” is the second profile you create (or have created) in Chrome. Every subsequent profiles are named Profile 2, Profile 3, and so on. These are the user directories for each profiles. Check out the following location to see all created profiles:

C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data

The switch uses these names to open the correct profiles and not the one that you give the profile from within the browser. If you have already created couple of Chrome profiles, you may have to play with the target field a bit to get the profile that you want, but once it is set, it will save you time in the future.

That’s all! If you face any problem, drop a comment below so that I can help you out.