Python/Selenium incognito/private mode

Question

I can not seem to find any documentation on how to make Selenium open the browser in incognito mode.

Do I have to setup a custom profile in the browser or?

Answer 1

First of all, since selenium by default starts up a browser with a clean, brand-new profile, you are actually already browsing privately. Referring to:

• Python - Start firefox with Selenium in private mode
• How might I simulate a private browsing experience in Watir? (Selenium)

---

But you can strictly enforce/turn on incognito/private mode anyway.

For chrome pass --incognito command-line argument:

--incognito Causes the browser to launch directly in incognito mode.

from selenium import webdriver

chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_options.add_argument("--incognito")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=chrome_options)
driver.get('https://google.com')

FYI, here is what it would open up:

For firefox, set browser.privatebrowsing.autostart to True:

from selenium import webdriver

firefox_profile = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
firefox_profile.set_preference("browser.privatebrowsing.autostart", True)

driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=firefox_profile)

FYI, this corresponds to the following checkbox in settings:

Answer 2

There is a really simple way to make a window open in incognito mode:

from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

chrome_options = Options()
# incognito window
chrome_options.add_argument("--incognito")

You can also use this library for maximizing the window and more, see the documentation: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/rb/Selenium/WebDriver/Chrome/Options.html

Answer 3

I have initiated both Chrome and Firefox in incognito/Private mode using ChromeOptions and FirefoxOptions successfully using the code snippets in Java as below:

    //For Firefox
    FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
    options.addArguments("-private");
    DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities();
    caps.setCapability("moz:firefoxOptions",options);

    //For Chrome
    ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
    options.addArguments("-incognito");
    caps.setCapability(ChromeOptions.CAPABILITY, options);

    WebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL(URL), caps);

Answer 4

For firefox : (Python) ==>

from selenium import webdriver    
firefox_options = webdriver.FirefoxOptions()
firefox_options.add_argument("--private")
browser = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_options=firefox_options)

Answer 5

Note: chrome_options is now deprecated. We can use 'options' instead of chrome_options

from selenium import webdriver

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("--incognito")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
driver.get('https://google.com')

Answer 6

PowerShell

try{
    # Import the Selenium DLLs
    Add-Type -Path "$Seleniumlib\Selenium.WebDriverBackedSelenium.dll"
    Add-Type -Path "$Seleniumlib\WebDriver.dll"
    Add-Type -Path "$Seleniumlib\WebDriver.Support.dll"
}
catch [Exception]{
    Write-Host ("Error: {0}" -f $_.Exception.Message)
    exit 1
}

$options = New-Object OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome.ChromeOptions
$options.AddArgument("--incognito")
$driver = New-Object OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome.ChromeDriver($options)

Answer 7

In Chrome Browser You Can Do This Using Python As Follows

As you can see when you uses chrome, you have the option of incognito mode in the options menu part of the chrome browser. So when you are using selenium, you can alter the things of options using

chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()

So, the code is:

chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_options.add_argument("--incognito")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="<path of chrome_driver.exe file>",options=chrome_options)

So the only thing you have to do is to give "webdriver.Chrome" this given value to its another parameter i.e. "options".