Google Chrome: Tips, themes and hacks

Google Chrome, Google’s web browser, was released yesterday (read our review of Chrome). A few minor problems aside, Chrome has been well received.

Being a new browser, there is bound to be several dozen new tricks discovered, so we figured it was time to compile a Best Of post. This post will be updated continuously as new tricks are discovered – so you might want to bookmark it on Del.icio.us.

Portable Google Chrome

Google Chrome has a portable version: read more and download it.

Backup/manage profiles

Much like Firefox backup managers, Google Chrome backup creates backups of profiles, restores them and manages them with ease.
Download Google Chrome backup

Change default Chrome theme

Changing the theme for Google Chrome requires replacing the default.dll file with the new theme file. Location for theme folder is as follows:

(for Vista Users)
C:UsersUserNameAppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplication?.2.149.27Themes

(for XP Users)
C:Documents and SettingsUserNameLocal SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeApplication?.2.149.27Themes

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Chrome themes

There are two dark themes already: PitchBlack and Chrome Dark.

Chrome Themes Gallery also chronicles good Chrome themes.

Altaf Sayani also has three color variations of a theme: Dark, Green and Orange. Download his themes here.

FreeChromeThemes is a Chrome Theme site, although it was not launched at the time of writing (Update: FreeChromeThemes is online and sports several good themes).

Create separate profiles in Chrome

• Open Chrome installation folder at:
  C:UsersAppDataLocalGoogleChrome (for Windows Vista)
  C:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsApplication DataGoogleChrome (for Windows XP)
• Go to User Data folder available inside Chrome installation folder.
• Create a copy of the “default” folder in the “User Data” folder itself. Give that copy a name.
• To run Google Chrome using this profile instead of the default profile, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking on desktop, choose New -> Shortcut and enter location:
  C:UsersAppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe –user-data-dir="..User DataYour_Name" (for Windows Vista)
  C:Documents and SettingsUserLocal SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe –user-data-dir="..User DataYour_Name" (for Windows XP)

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Google Chrome easter eggs

Entering the following will bring up some interesting easter eggs, Firefox-style:
about:internets
about:version
about:stats
about:memory
about:plugins
about:histograms
about:cache

about:dns
about:network
about:crash

Have fun with Chrome!