How to manage Chrome profiles, user and guest accounts

With Google Chrome it is possible to change users without having to restart or end the session on our computer: in doing so we can open a new browser page dedicated to other users who use the PC or open various instances of Chrome each with its bookmarks, its favorites and extensions register with a specific Google account.

In the following guide we will show you how to manage chrome profiles, creating a separate Chrome for each user account we want to use; for completeness of information we will also show you how to use guest accountgreat for connecting friends or relatives who come to visit us.

READ ALSO -> Always open Chrome incognito or Firefox anonymously

1) Create and manage Chrome users

To create a new user account on Chrome, open the browser, press the profile icon at the top right, click on add and follow the instructions on the screen to create the new account.

If we want to immediately associate a Google account with the profile we are creating, press on Log in; alternatively we can also create a simple local account (without synchronization) by pressing on Continue without an account.

In the new screen, choose a name for the new profile, change the profile image (using any photo or image on your computer), choose a color for the theme of the new profile and make sure to tick the item Create a desktop shortcut to create a valid profile shortcut on our desktop.

To confirm, all we have to do is press on end; to manage the profiles already present on the PC, just open Google Chrome from the Start menu (the profile selection window will open) or press the profile icon at the top right and finally click on the gear icon next to the item More profiles.

2) Associate Chrome profiles to Google accounts

If we have already created Chrome profiles and we want to sync them with a google account at a later stage we can intervene by opening the profile selection screen (as seen at the end of the previous chapter), clicking on the local profile to be updated and, once the dedicated Chrome instance is open, press the icon at the top right profile and click on Turn on sync.

Now all we have to do is enter a valid Google, Gmail, Android or YouTube account, validate your password and confirm two-factor authentication to synchronize your bookmarks, history, extensions, open tabs and anything else that can be synchronized; more advanced users can also choose to synchronize only some of the available items (for example, only bookmarks and passwords).

To learn more, we can read our guide on how to save credentials on google account.

3) Delete Chrome users

To delete a user profile from Chrome, go to the profile selection screen, press on the three dots at the top right of the profile pane and finally press on Delete. Deletion will delete all data saved from the local profile and from the instance of Chrome: if we hadn’t synchronized, the data will be lost forever, with no possibility of recovery.

If we had synchronized the profile with a Google account we can still recover all the synchronized data by taking us to the page Google Dashboards and pressing on the app Chromewith the possibility of viewing all the data and downloading them locally (by pressing the button Download).

4) Use the guest account

The guest account is perfect for getting a complete stranger to use Chromeso you don’t have to use our sites, bookmarks and passwords to access your personal sites (which could seriously damage our privacy).

To activate it quickly, open any Chrome profile, press the profile icon at the top right and press up Guest. Alternatively we can open the profile management window and click on the Guest mode button at the bottom left.

Anything done in guest mode is not stored therefore no history will be saved in the browser cache and neither will there be the risk that the owner of the computer will be able to see the passwords entered to access the mail or Facebook. If you use Chrome on another person’s PC, we can use guest mode ourselves to leave no traces on that computer.

Conclusions

With these simple tricks we can manage the various Chrome profilesmanage access to the Google account and take advantage of the guest account without problems, creating various instances of Chrome for each of our personal profiles (for example a Chrome for work and a Chrome for private life) or various instances of Chrome for each PC user.

Since everyone can open everyone’s profiles from Chrome we recommend that you separate Chrome profiles within individual Windows accountsusing a password or a fingerprint reader to obtain maximum browsing privacy.

In this regard we can read our guides on How do you create a user account on windows come on how to protect opening chrome, firefox, edge with password.

For further information, we can also read the article on how to create a separate and secure Guest account for friends or guests.