Forum Discussion
How do you create separate shortcuts for different profiles?
- Jan 20, 2020
if I pin Edge to the taskbar I get a shortcut with this command
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Beta\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 1"
open the directory
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge Beta\User Data\and check if there are Profile folders called like
- Profile 0
- Profile 1
- etc....
if you need to identify them:
inside these directories you have a file called Preferences
open it with a text editor (i.e. notepad.exe) copy everything into https://jsonbeautifier.org/ click Format/Beautify and then open the profile tree
there you find the name of the Profile associated to your profile folder "Profile x"
USMA56795The way profile works are the original will be "default". Any additional profiles will start with profile (then a number) like Profile 1, Profile 2, etc.
If you want to open your second profile, it will be this below in the Target text box.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Dev\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 1"
I hope this helps.
Eric E.
- Koen ZomersOct 07, 2019Copper Contributor
Eric_MS If I try this, it just creates a new profile named "Profile 1" for me, even though I replaced it with "Work" which is an existing profile in Edge. How can I make it open an existing profile I have in Edge Chromium?
- DlhousemFeb 16, 2021Copper Contributor
Koen Zomers edge://version/ This page gives you the profile directory path for the current profile you are using.
- chris_conleyOct 07, 2019Brass Contributor
Koen Zomers Unfortunately you have to know what profile number is associated with the displayed profile name.
For example, on one of my laptops Profile 1 = firstname.lastname@outlook.com, Profile 2 = firstname.lastname@work.com, Profile 3 = whyisthissohard@edgedev.com, etc.
If I want to access my work profile, my shortcut Properties looks like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Dev\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 2"
It would be great if Microsoft supported profile names in the argument, such as this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Dev\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory="firstname.lastname@work.com"
- AllanRossJan 16, 2020Copper Contributor
I renamed my profiles to "WORK" and "HOME" - crazy naming convention, I know. Now trying to create a shortcut with --profile-directory and everything I try just creates a new profile.
--profile-directory ="profile 1" [fail]
--profile-directory ="Profile 1" [fail]
--profile-directory ="profile 2" [fail]
--profile-directory ="profile 3" [fail]
--profile-directory ="work" [fail]
--profile-directory ="WORK" [fail]
--profile-directory ="home" [fail]
A little documentation would be good. How does using the profile name not work?