How to open shortcut links in Private window without editing shortcut?
For work, I receive and send lots of desktop shortcut links. I want to be able to click on them and for Firefox to automatically open in Private mode.
I see this question asked a lot, but the main "solution" is to edit the shortcut with "-private". However, other people whom I send the shortcut files to use different browsers, so I can't edit the shortcut files.
Another solution I have seen is to change regular Firefox to never remeber history. However, this isn't a solution for me either, because I want Firefox to remember my history during normal browsing, just not when opening these work links.
I simply want to be able to select "Firefox Private mode" as my default browser option, so shortcut links open in private mode. Then I can have a regular-mode Firefox button pinned to my taskbar to open regular-mode Firefox windows when doing my normal browsing.
Is this possible?
Chosen solution
This may not work in every situation, but it is pretty fast to set up. (I tested on Windows 7.)
Part One: Create a Firefox shortcut that loads a private tab
right-click the edge of the Desktop > New > Shortcut
Location of the item (including the quotation marks):
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -private-window
Name for the shortcut:
PrivateFox
Note: -private only works in the initial startup, not if any non-private windows are already open, so we use -private-window instead.
Part Two: Convert New Shortcut to "Send To" item
In the Windows system search box, type or paste
shell:sendto
and press Enter.
Resize the resulting Windows Explorer window so you can see the PrivateFox shortcut and drag it into this folder.
Part Three: Test
Right-click any .url type shortcut > Send to > PrivateFox
Firefox should load the standard private tab welcome page (purple background) and then the URL of the shortcut should load in its place.
What do you think?
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Chosen Solution
This may not work in every situation, but it is pretty fast to set up. (I tested on Windows 7.)
Part One: Create a Firefox shortcut that loads a private tab
right-click the edge of the Desktop > New > Shortcut
Location of the item (including the quotation marks):
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -private-window
Name for the shortcut:
PrivateFox
Note: -private only works in the initial startup, not if any non-private windows are already open, so we use -private-window instead.
Part Two: Convert New Shortcut to "Send To" item
In the Windows system search box, type or paste
shell:sendto
and press Enter.
Resize the resulting Windows Explorer window so you can see the PrivateFox shortcut and drag it into this folder.
Part Three: Test
Right-click any .url type shortcut > Send to > PrivateFox
Firefox should load the standard private tab welcome page (purple background) and then the URL of the shortcut should load in its place.
What do you think?
Thanks, jscher2000 - that solution works perfectly.