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InPrivate Browsing made easy with Internet Explorer 9 pinned sites
The problem with Firefox and Chrome, though, is that there's no one-click way to open a private browsing window. You have to fumble with some menus or hit a keyboard shortcut, then type in a full website address (or you could wade through our guide on how to force your browser to start in private mode). With Internet Explorer 9, however, you can pin an InPrivate Browsing tab to your taskbar! Simply open an InPrivate Browsing session by hitting Ctrl+Shift+P, navigate to the site that you want quick access to, then drag the tab to your taskbar. Every time you click the icon it will automatically open the site InPrivate Browsing mode; easy!
Of course, this doesn't mitigate the fact that you have a highly-visible icon on your screen that links to something you're probably trying to keep away from prying eyes. Still, for shared computers where you don't want to intermingle Google search histories or similar, it's an excellent solution.
Update: as commenter Dan Larson says, if you right click any pinned site you have the option to "Start InPrivate Browsing." All of the major browsers have this feature in Windows 7 (and Vista?), incidentally.
For more IE9 tips, see our tips index, or read our complete IE9 guide.
Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsguelthFeb 15th 2011 3:15PM
Hmm, I seem to remember InPrivate being around forever. Didn't Mozilla folks call it Porn Mode before baking it into FF 3.5?
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 15th 2011 5:34PM
@guelth I'm not sure if it came in with IE7 or with IE8. It's been around for a while though, for sure :)
Android underlingFeb 15th 2011 3:23PM
How can IE's InPrivate be an "answer" to Firefox's Private browsing? It came out before.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 15th 2011 4:15PM
@Android underling You know, I agonized over the wording of that sentence. I was going to say something like 'Chrome has X, Firefox has Y, and IE has THIS' but... this phrasing was easier.
Chronology isn't important here anyway!
Dan LarsonFeb 15th 2011 3:53PM
I haven't used the Firefox 4 Beta enough to know if they've added this - I rely on too many Firefox addons that haven't been updated for the betas - but I know Chrome has "New incognito window" as one of the tasks in the jumplist, so it's just a right-click away. Seems like the best possible solution for quick access to that feature.
Dan LarsonFeb 15th 2011 4:00PM
I failed to mention, IE9 also has InPrivate as an option in the jumplist, which seems to me to be a lot "safer" than having a nice big icon pinned to your taskbar that points toward something you don't want your computer to remember. ;)
ChrisSskFeb 15th 2011 4:04PM
@Dan Larson
IE9 (32 bit only), FF4 (I'm assuming because minefield has it) Chrome and Opera all have Jump Lists in Windows 7 and all have private browsing as a task in their lists
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 15th 2011 5:10PM
@Dan Larson Yeah! Fair point, actually :)
I should add that to this tip...
NyaRFeb 16th 2011 4:25AM
Ever heard of quicklaunch?