How to: Launch Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 in InPrivate Mode!

How to: Launch Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 in InPrivate Mode!

I think the next wave of browsers will have a very important feature of private browsing. Not that it's not already there, but most of the browsers have this feature in the testing phase.

Why do you need the inPrivate or similar features in a browser. Let's say you are going to use a public computer and you don't want any of the private data to reside on such PCs for privacy issues, then I am sure you'll appreciate a feature like this. Also, if you want to browse porn and don't want others in the house to know about it then this feature will come to your rescue.

The only browser that has this feature in the final running mode is chrome. Chrome's privacy feature is called as incognito and you can launch a new incognito chrome window using the shortcut CTRL+Shift+N. But launching chrome directly into incognito mode is not possible. I searched the web for ways to achieve this but in vain.

The only way to launch chrome's incognito is to first launch the normal chrome and only then launch the incognito window. So, I got curious to know if this achieving this functionality in Internet Explorer Beta 2 is as impossible as chrome. Good news is that you can actually launch the IE beta 2 directly into the inPrivate mode without having to start it in normal mode first. But before we do this, let us understand what inPrivate mode is and how it affects your browsing.

InPrivate™ Browsing lets you control whether or not IE saves your browsing history, cookies, and other data.

While InPrivate Browsing is active, the following takes place:

• New cookies are not stored
  
• All new cookies become "session" cookies
  
• Existing cookies can still be read
  
• The new DOM storage feature behaves the same way
  
• New history entries will not be recorded
• New temporary Internet files will be deleted after the Private Browsing window is closed
  
• Form data is not stored
  
• Passwords are not stored
  
• Addresses typed into the address bar are not stored
  
• Queries entered into the search box are not stored
  
• Visited links will not be stored

Isn't this handy! Now let's see how to start IE 8 beta 2directly into the inPrivate mode.

1. On the desktop, right-click your mouse and select New->Shortcut
2. Type in the following line into the Shortcut window prompted out:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" –private
3. Click Next.
4. Add a name for this new shortcut, e.g. IE-InPrivate
5. Click Finish.

You now have an Internet Explorer shortcut that'd start you IE 8 beta 2 directly into inPrivate mode. Enjoy hassle free browsing!