Make Google chrome with specific user profile as default browser

Question

Is it possible to set Google chrome with a custom user profile as the default browser?

When I set google chrome as the default browser, it picks the "default" user profile as against the custom one I have setup. I tried setting google chrome as default browser after opening it from that particular user profile, but it doesn't seem to have an effect.

I googled around but could only find another poor soul like myself who asked a similar question here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=69f0a6e776ceab1c&hl=en

There weren't any responses to that question.

Cheers.

Answer 1

Ok, so i did a search and replace of all the chrome.exe in my registry with the specific command link So

"C:\Users\PROFILE-NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -- "%1"

was replaced with

"C:\Users\PROFILE-NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --user-data-dir="C:\Chrome Profile \location" --omnibox-popup-count=10 -- "%1"

everywhere and so far haven't run into any troubles. But there should definitely be a more easier/elegant way of doing this.

Answer 2

There's an explanation of how to use multiple Chrome profiles here.

The gist of it is to look inside

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome

(Windows XP)
or

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

(Vista, Win7)

and copy the "User Data\Default" folder to "User Data\your_profile".

Then run chrome with some command-line options:

chrome.exe --user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_profile" -first-run

and thereafter, you can run Chrome with that profile by using:

chrome.exe --user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_Name"

And you can add that --user-data-dir option to a shortcut.

Now how you would use that setup for the default browser, I don't know. Might involve some tinkering in the Registry, around HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell

Answer 3

This question is basically the same, and the answers indicate that unfortunately, there is no practical solution yet.