They asked me a question today, I quote: “ Ivan, good afternoon! Please tell me how to put a password on Google browser Chrome? I want to limit Internet access for my child. Is this even possible? Thank you.“. The question was asked by Maria K. from Irkutsk.
Maria, as promised, I am writing an article about this. The answer to your question is that it is possible to set a password on Google Chrome! However, I want to warn you right away that if your child is smart, he can open the browser Internet Explorer and calmly visit any site that interests him. If your child is small and his computer knowledge is not enough to use another browser, then the option I described will suit you!
Now let's think about why else you can restrict access to the browser? I don't know about you, but I store all my passwords in the browser. Yes, I know that it’s not safe, that it’s not correct and all that... But I’m not particularly worried about this, since I change my passwords about once every two months. In 10 years of working on the Internet, my mail.ru account was hacked only once, but I never really used it.
So, why am I telling you about passwords... If you also store passwords in your browser and are afraid for their safety, and even more so if your computer has physical access to unauthorized persons (for example, a work computer), then you simply need to be able to block browser access.
Setting a password on Google Chrome using the LockWP extension
Now let's set up browser blocking. For these purposes I will use the LockWP plugin. An excellent plugin that copes with its responsibilities 100%.
After installation, you need to start setting it up. Press the button “ OK”
In the next window you are asked to enable the extension for the “ Incognita“, to do this, follow the link (blue button)
and check the box
After which you will be automatically redirected to the information page. I advise you to read the information and then click the “ Further“. Now let's set up the extension
All you need to do is enter your password twice and specify your locking options. I did not turn on automatic blocking (it blocks when idle), I indicated minimizing when blocking. That's all! Press the button “ Save” and restart the browser.
When you launch it for the first time, the browser will open and immediately collapse, instead you will see a field for entering a password
In the stable version of Google Chrome 41, they found the ability to hide your profile from prying eyes, closing it with a password. In fact, we have talked about such experiments before, but so much time has passed that we will tell everything again.
You should already be familiar with the new profile switching manager. It appeared relatively recently and was deservedly criticized by many users, for whom it is very important to quickly switch between different profiles. Now it doesn’t work quickly because an additional window opens. Such a step is only puzzling, given that at one time Google developers Chrome specifically abandoned all additional windows in favor of tabs. And then suddenly there was a 180 degree turn. But that's not what this is about...
If you want to prevent your user from being launched in this window, you must create at least one controlled user. We also talked about them, but let us remind you that this is a type of profile where its settings are actually controlled from the outside. Simply put, a “child” profile that can be managed by a “parent” (regular) one. It's easy to create. You need to add a user from a regular profile synchronized with Google and check one single box.
It is logical that the “parent” settings need to be protected from “children”, so now you will have an item in your profile menu responsible for logging out and blocking.
Nothing complicated.
But! Never forget that such “password protection” only blocks the browser from launching with your data and settings. This will do nothing to protect the physical profile folder located on your hard drive. Any program or any user with physical access to the computer can access this data. By the way, encrypted passwords for sites that you store in your browser are also easy to decrypt and retrieve, because the key is stored locally. Therefore, from hackers and third party software this method will not save you in any way. But it will completely help protect your profile from sabotage from children, wives, parents, and drunken friends.
Most browsers today provide the user with the ability to remember passwords for accounts on sites they visit. On the one hand, this is convenient, because there is no need to remember and enter passwords for web authentication every time, but on the other hand, the risk of compromising all passwords at once increases. This is one reason to think about additional browser protection. A browser password can be useful even for those users who do not save passwords in the browser, because such protection will help protect settings, bookmarks and browsing history from prying eyes and accidental deletion. This is the second reason. Finally, blocking is useful for those who have small children. Such a “block” is the easiest way to protect curious children’s eyes from the dangers of the global Internet.
The first method described is protecting access to saved passwords. Unlike various password managers, Chrome does not allow you to set a master password to access the authentication database. Instead, the function of viewing saved data is protected by requiring you to re-enter your system account password. To enable Chrome integration with operating system, do the following:
Protecting Browser Settings
Chrome also gives you the ability to block access to browser settings, and each computer user (useful if you're not the only one using the computer) can save their settings separately from others. You can do it like this:
Password to launch Google Chrome browser
The third method of blocking, which may be easier for an untrained user, is to install the LockPW extension. This is done like this:
It should be noted, however, that none of the described methods provides absolute protection; profile data on local disk are not encrypted in any way and can be relatively easily read if you have physical access to the computer, especially under an administrative account. Much better protection provide specialized, strong cryptographic mechanisms. But browser-level protection can still be useful in cases where the information on the computer is not particularly sensitive, and it has to be protected from not particularly qualified users.
Modern browsers allow you to save passwords that the user enters on various sites. This function is very convenient because... allows you not to waste time remembering and entering a password when visiting any page.
On the other side Passwords saved in the browser may be accessible to other users. Therefore, when using this feature of browsers, you should think about the security of your data. Even if you don't save passwords in your browser, you may simply want to protect your browser settings, saved bookmarks, browsing history, etc. from unauthorized access.
Let's use the Google Chrome browser as an example to look at how to protect your personal information.
How to view saved passwords in Google Chrome
Passwords that Chrome has saved can be viewed through the browser settings. To do this, in the browser menu you need to select the “Settings” item, then at the very bottom of the page click on the “Show additional settings" In the “Passwords and Forms” section, click on the “Manage Passwords” link.
After completing these steps, a window should open with a list of sites for which passwords have been saved. At the same time, the passwords themselves are hidden. When you select any line, a “Show” button appears next to the hidden password; when clicked, the password should be displayed.
Google Chrome doesn't have the option to set a master password to protect all of your saved passwords, but modern versions of the browser include another feature to keep previously entered passwords safe. It's called "Password Manager Reauthentication".
If this feature is enabled, then when you click on the “Show” button to display the hidden password, the system account manager will be called. And only after the user enters the password for his account Windows entries(this feature is also available for Mac users), the hidden password will be displayed.
If the Account Manager does not load when you click the button, then most likely your “Password Manager Reauthentication” feature is disabled. To enable it follow these steps:
- Check if you have the latest installed Google version Chrome and update it if necessary.
- Launch your browser and address bar enter chrome://flags to go to the functions page.
- Find the item " Disable password manager re-authentication” and set it to “Enable”.
- Restart Chrome to save changes.
In order for this function to work, the system user must have a password set.
Lock Google Chrome with a password
To prevent unauthorized access to your browser, you can set a password for it. New Chrome versions contain a feature that allows you to block browser settings associated with your Google account. This is a very convenient feature that allows you to block access to your personal data, such as bookmarks, extensions, browsing history, saved passwords, etc.
In order to use this function you need to do the following:
- In your browser's address bar, type chrome://flags and go to the list of functions.
- Find the item " Turn on new system profile management" and set the value to "Enabled".
- Restart Chrome to apply the changes.
After restarting the browser, you will see a button in the upper right corner with the name of the current user. If you haven't signed in to Chrome, the button will display the word "You". To use the blocking feature, you must be signed in to Chrome using your account. Google posts.
After logging in account To lock your browser, simply click on the button with your account name at the top and then click on the padlock icon.
Now when launching Chrome A window will appear asking you to enter the password associated with the specific account. Also, when you set these settings, you have the option to sign in to Chrome with a guest account. This will load a new profile with default settings.
! Addendum (05/20/2015)
In the current version of Chrome, the process for blocking the browser using the profile manager has changed slightly. Now, for the profile blocking function to be available, you must first log in Google account and after that create at least one controlled user (Settings -> “People” section -> Add user).
In this case, when creating a user, you must check the box, as shown in the figure above.
Now, after clicking on the button with the account name, you will see that a new item “Log out and block” has been added there. Use it to block your account.
Setting a password using a Chrome extension
The disadvantage of the previous method is that the lock must be set manually each time. If you want Chrome to be locked automatically after each session ends, then the LockWP extension will help you with this. When using this extension, the browser will ask for a password every time you launch it. Follow these steps to install and use the LockWP extension in Google Chrome:
- Download and install the LockWP extension.
- After installation is complete, the extension should automatically open a settings window. If this does not happen, open the settings manually through the browser menu -> Settings -> Extensions -> LockWP Settings.
- In the extension settings, check the “Allow use in incognito mode” checkbox.
- Next, a window will open with instructions, following which you can set a password, enable safe mode, limit the number of login attempts, etc.
After completing all Chrome settings Every time you start it will require a password. If the user tries to close the password entry window or wants to switch to another tab, the browser will automatically close.
Using the LockWP extension, you can also lock your browser while working without closing it. To do this, just click right click mouse on current Chrome page and in context menu select “LockWP”.
Hi all! Have you ever thought about protecting your browser? After all, in your absence, other users will be able to look at any information that interests you (pages visited, search queries, correspondence on social media networks, personal data, etc.) If you live yourself, then there is nothing to worry about. Otherwise, you should take care to protect your browser from prying eyes. After reading this article, You will learn, how can you set a password for your browser.
We will set the password, as you understand from the title of the article, for the Google Chrome browser. If you want to restrict Internet access for your children, then this method may not be suitable in some cases. After all, there is also a standard Internet browser Explorer, through which you can easily enter the global network. If you surf the Internet at work, and other employees have physical access to the work computer, then my instructions on “how to set a password for the Google Chrome browser” will be especially helpful.
Well, let's go!
To set a password on Google Chrome, we will use a special LockWP extension. This plugin does its job well. To install it go here
OK button
and check the box as in the screenshot,
When you launch your browser again, a password entry window will open.