How to Make Chrome Shortcuts “Open as Window” (Now that Google Has Removed Them).
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Chrome has the useful ability to open a website as a window that doesn’t show the browser interface or open external links in a new tab. Or rather, it did: In a late 2018 update, Google disabled this functionality on Windows and macOS.
We can’t tell you why Google decided that only its own ChromeOS devices would get this functionality from now on, though if you’re upset about its loss, you’re not alone. I’ve spent years using the “Open as Window” feature to make makeshift web apps easy to open and manage.
But there is a way to get them back, at least for now. That is how.
Update: As of , the “open as window” functionality linked above has been restored to the Windows version of Chrome. It is also available in Chrome on macOS, but you must enable the following options in Chrome://flags:
The new bookmarking app system
allow hosted apps to open in Windows
Once both flags are enabled, click the Chrome menu button, then “More Tools” and then “Create Shortcut.” The “Open as Window” option is there, just like in Windows.
Step One: Use Applicationize.me
it turns any standard website into a downloadable CRX file, which can then be “installed” in Chrome as if it were a Chrome extension. It’s not, the “app” will just be the website you choose, in its own slim window with a link. However, it is a useful little trick.
Please note that we normally advise users to be careful with unnecessary browser extensions and applications. But in this case, you are simply using a standard website and it is no more dangerous than any other (although of course make sure that the site itself is not dangerous).
To do this, open the site you want to use as an “Open as Window” link, then open in a new tab. Copy and paste the site from the first tab into the field marked “URL of WEB APPLICATION”.
Click on the web button that says “GENERATE AND DOWNLOAD CHROME EXTENSION”. A CRX file, named after the web URL you used, will appear on your desktop.
Step Two: Install the CRX File
Now open another tab in Chrome and go to the address chrome://extensions. This is a local browser page, showing all the extensions you have installed.
If you don’t already have it enabled, enable the “Developer Mode” switch in the top right corner.
Drag and drop the CRX file from your desktop to the Extensions tab. Click “Add App” in the confirmation window.
Step Three: Create the Shortcut
Now open another new tab, this time by going to chrome://applications. The CRX file you installed will appear in the list.
Right-click on the new icon and then on “Create Shortcuts”. In Windows, it will ask if you want them on the desktop, in the Start menu, or both. For our example, we’ll use the desktop, but it doesn’t matter which one you choose. On macOS, it will download to the “Chrome Apps” folder, which should open automatically.
Now, when you double-click the shortcut, it will open the site you chose in its own window, with no address bar or other UI elements. Any links you click that are not part of the domain (such as an external download link in a winadmin.it article) will automatically load in a separate Chrome window (or in a new tab in an existing open Chrome window ). Also, you won’t have access to the context menu when you right-click a link (although you’ll still get a context menu when you right-click an image).
You can place your shortcut anywhere in Windows or macOS, and it will act like a normal shortcut file. I like to set a custom icon in Windows and pin it to my taskbar to create semi-permanent web apps.
Note that these manually uploaded “apps” don’t sync across Chrome installations, unfortunately. So if you are using this hack on multiple computers, you may need to set it up again for each one.
