is it possible to have multiple sessions of chrome?

[Dorfdad]

Is it possible to have multiple sessions of chrome open at once? Not websites but the actually application itself?

is there a hack or trick to doing this? anyone know?

Before you ask WHY!? Im trying to have my google application shortcuts to run in thier own tab on the taskbar. I hate that slacker radio, gmail and all other application shortcuts run under the 1st chrome window that is launched.

 

[mickey megabyte]

picture 1:

with me, i can double-click on the chrome shortcut in start menu to open another instance.

or middle-click pinned taskbar icon.

or you can just drag a tab onto your desktop to make a new chrome window.

is this what you meant?

picture 2:

or right-click taskbar >> properties >> taskbar buttons >> never combine - but this will effect all your taskbar entries, not just chrome

 

[Dorfdad]

No thats not what I mean. I have chrome shortcut on the taskbar. I cant launch two sessions of the program. If I click on chrome again once its already open it just take me to the open chrome sessions.


I want to be able to open chrome than open chrome again in effect running two seperate copies of chrome at the same time. Not a session of one chrome.

 

[johngalt]

Middle click the chrome icon - does it still take you to the current session?

 

[SquonkSC]

If you drag one of the tabs outside the window, it creates a new window.

You can also grab a single tab window and drag it into an existing window.

In that case Chrome merges the two sessions to one.


Also in win7, if chrome is already opened, right clicking on chrome button in the taskbar should give you the option to open other instance.

good luck

 

[mickey megabyte]

sorry, it seems that i don't understand what you were after.

isn't picture 1 what you wanted? middle clicking your taskbar button will give you multiple instances of chrome? you can close one instance down without affecting the others.

picture 2 shows separate taskbar buttons.

 

[profaisal]

You can use two different sessions.
One using the Chrome Incognito Window (Private Browsing) and the other using regular Chrome Window.

So if you open a new Window (it would not work with a new tab in current window), using Ctrl-Shift-N (instead of Ctrl-N),
or open through the menu [Spanner Icon]->New Incognito Window, you can instantiate another completely separate session. All incognito windows would share one session, and all non-incognito windows would share another.

I am also looking for a way for multiple sessions in Chrome (I need more than two).

 

[gregrocker]

If you've Pinned the program to taskbar, you should have the ability to generate another instance of it when you rightclick the taskbar icon and choose it's Program name.

 

[profaisal]

You can create an Incognito window from the task bar on chrome taskbar icon.

I found an extension that allows you to open new Google window in a complete different session (though this extension is not searchable from chrome web store).

Musatcha.com / New Chrome Session - Google Chrome Extension

This works but I am not sure whether it is safe to use it.

 

[kado897]

If this is what you want.




then just create the App by navigating to the site you want and "wrench->tools->create application Shortcuts"

 

[Bdobek]

Found another solution to this. If you start chrome with using the "user-data-dir" parameter it will start a new instance. See Creating and Using Profiles - The Chromium Projects

 

[kado897]

Welcome to Seven Forums Bdobek. Using profiles is a good solution.

 

[Odd Ramos]

As of 2014-10-05, the easiest way to run multiple sessions, versions or instances of Chrome is to use Google Chrome Portable, downloaded from:
Google Chrome Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives

Currently I'm running 4 separate instances of Google Chrome v37.0.2062.124. One instance is installed and three other instances of Google Chrome are portable.

Here's how my Windows 7 Taskbar looks like when all 4 instances of Chrome are opened:

If you want to change Google Chrome icon that is shown on the Windows Taskbar once Google Chrome is started, then you should follow this link:
windows 8 - Is it possible to customize taskbar icons? If so how? - Super User

The answer is given in comments: you need to change icons that are stored in chrome.dll using Resource Tuner (use Trial version) or Resource Hacker (free).

I've used IcoFX (Trial version) to generate various .ico icons.

 

[johnywhy]

hi, this might fit your need better than PortableChrome.

Check out the "user-data-dir" flag. It's used this way:

chrome.exe --user-data-dir=D:\MySeparateChromeFolder

Before using this flag, create the D:\MySeparateChromeFolder (change the name and location to whatever you want), but don't put anything in it. Then run the above command (with your desired name and location) from a command-window, the Run box, or make a new shortcut containing this command.

This will launch a completely independent Chrome -- more extreme than profiles. Chrome launched with this flag will have almost nothing in common with Chrome launched without this flag. It will have separate extensions, history, settings, bookmarks, etc, and other startup flags used with this instance will have no affect on other chrome instances.

This may be preferable to PortableChrome, because it does not require a separate installation of Chrome, but still gives extreme separation.

 

[Odd Ramos]

At first I was using Chrome Portable approach posted above.
Then I switched to using setup (installed) versions of Google Chrome + Google Chrome Canary + Chromium.

Now johnywhy posted even better solution: user-data-dir flag.

I've just tested user-data-dir flag and it works just fine.

One thing to keep in mind is if you're creating a custom folder for your new separate instance of Chrome and the path to that folder has some spaces, put the path in quotes "":

--user-data-dir="C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Chrome Work"

If one is creating a shortcut to a separate instance of Chrome by using Right mouse click - New - Shortcut, location of the item should look something like this:

C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --user-data-dir="C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Chrome Work"

Thank you, johnywhy.

 

[RolandJS]

Also consider adding Session Manager to each Google Chrome. With session manager, you can "snapshot" the desired tabs, and whenever you want -- click Session Manager, click desired saved session, and it will ADD [**] those tabs to the tab line. Reason for mentioning this: with just two clicks, you can have what you want on the tab line.
[**] However, you do have to close the unwanted tabs forced on you by ThePowersThatBe just before invoking a saved session from within Session Manager.