Our personal computers are meant to provide us a safe and secure computing space. However there are times when we are bound to share our personal computers with others such as our friends and relatives. We can’t deny them access to our personal computers, so a better option would be to create a separate user account for the operating system. This should provide them restricted access to your personal computer.
As most of you would have already known, Google Chrome lets you create separate user profiles. So if someone just wants to access your web browser, you can create separate user accounts and this way they won’t be able to access your web browsing history. However it’s very easy to switch between two user profiles on Google Chrome, so a better way to protect your browsing history on Google Chrome would be to lock your user profile when you’re not using chrome.
The Profile Lock feature in Google Chrome was introduced in late 2013, but just a few months later it disappeared silently. According to the developer notes, the profile lock feature wasn’t actually removed. As per the new changes made in Chrome’s code, the lock would only appear if you add a new supervised profile. Here’s how you can lock your user profile on Google Chrome.
Follow the instructions provided in this guide to create a user profile on Google Chrome: How to create a user profile on Google Chrome.
How to create a user profile on Google Chrome.
- Step 1: Open Google Chrome and type the following text in the URL address and press enter.
chrome://flags/#enable-new-profile-management
- Step 2: Enable the “ Enable new profile management system “ option.
- Step 3: Click on Relaunch to apply the Changes.
- Step 4: Go to the settings again and select Add person under the heading People
- Step 5: Next choose a name, profile picture and select the two options provided in the bottom. Make sure that you select the last option i.e “ Control and view the websites this person visits… ”. Finally click on add to create the new user supervised user account.
Click on your profile and there will be an “ Exit and childlock “ option in your primary chrome profile.
If you click on the “ Exit and childlock “ option, Google chrome would get locked and you will need to enter your gmail account password to unlock it.
