What is meant by “User Profile” in Google Chrome?

Question

Is there some way to create a new profile?

Can I backup my profile?

Answer 1

If you're not the only Google Chrome user on your computer - even for the same Windows user (common on PCs at home, shared among family members for example) - you can keep your private data, like the surfing history, separate from each other using Chrome user profiles.

There is a command line switch for the Chrome application that allows specifying the user data folder:

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

Here is a good tutorial how to create these different user folders in Google Chrome.

You can backup these profiles by simply copying the content of your folder(s). The default folder for Windows are:

• Windows Vista:
  C:\Users\<WINDOWS-USER-NAME>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

• Windows XP:
  C:\Documents and Settings\<WINDOWS-USER-NAME>\Local Settings\Applications\Google\Chrome