Two Ways to Use IE8's InPrivate Mode Faster

In the new version of Internet Explorer, IE8, there’s a feature called InPrivate mode which lets you surf the net without leaving any tracks behind. When surfing in this mode, your history isn’t saved, nor are your cookies, your form entries, your searches, your temporary internet files…nothing! This is definitely handy when you’re using public computers but it can also be useful on your home PC.

If you find yourself using InPrivate mode a lot, you can make your life easier by adding a registry entry which adds a new option to the Internet Explorer icon in the Start Menu. The new option will read “Browse in InPrivate Mode” and can be accessed upon right-clicking the IE icon. That makes it a lot faster to launch the browser directly in this mode.

The REG file adds the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Clients \ StartMenuInternet \ IEXPLORE.EXE \ shell \ private \ command

and sets the following command for the (default) value

%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe –private

You can download the file from here (.zip file) courtesy of the Winhelponline blog.

That registry file works on Windows XP computers, but if you’re running Vista or 7, you may want to try a different option instead: create a desktop shortcut. To do so, right-click on the desktop and choose “New” then “Shortcut.” Then use the following command for the shortcut:

iexplore.exe –private

Clicking on that shortcut will then launch IE8 in InPrivate mode by default.