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Since Chrome version 38, there's a pretty ugly button in the title bar of the Chrome window that allows you to switch profiles quickly. Since I'm the only one that uses my computer, this is not really useful to me, and I'd rather reclaim the space for more open tabs. I've looked in the settings but don't see a way to disable it. How can I get rid of the button?
jstricker
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 2 455
52
For Chrome 45 and higher:
For Chrome 44:
--disable-new-avatar-menuFor Chrome 43 and lower:
chrome://flags/#enable-new-avatar-menu jstricker
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 2 455
Did not work with Chrome 45. – Allan Veloso – 2015-06-07T02:36:55.530
1@Magritte I found a solution that appears to work, and have edited my answer. Give it a shot. – jstricker – 2015-06-14T03:32:26.023
2It worked! If anyone is wonder how to add a parameter to a shortcut, you just need to right click on the shortcut > "Propreties" > "Shortcut" then add --disable-new-avatar-menu to the right of the "Target" attribute. In my case it became "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-new-avatar-menu – Allan Veloso – 2015-06-15T04:35:35.147
2Needed for Chrome 44+. Thanks! Sneaky of them to ignore the existing Chrome flag. :-/ – Eric L. – 2015-07-21T17:50:41.677
9@Eirik not sneaky, stupid. – degenerate – 2015-07-22T13:13:11.460
4And how do you remove this for Chrome 44 on Mac? – Jacket – 2015-07-24T10:23:17.843
2Please note that if you have Chrome running in background (icon in the notification area, near the clock) you have to close it from there to see this change in action. – Wizard79 – 2015-08-17T21:00:23.517
7This no longer appears to work in Chrome 46 – Sailing Judo – 2015-11-19T16:51:36.740
8The --disable-new-avatar-menu parameter stopped working after being updated to Chrome 47 for Mac. Is there another workaround? – Applecot – 2015-12-01T23:55:15.433
88
The following instructions only work for versions of chrome < 44 or version 46:
Disable this via chrome://flags
It's accessible by copy/pasting this URL in the omnibox:
chrome://flags/#enable-new-avatar-menu
Disable it to remove the button.
janv8000
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 1 625
1Thanks a lot. I kept repeatedly hitting this 'new' button (for those of us who don't use a profile with Chrome) instead of minimize. – Reimius – 2015-01-13T19:45:35.457
5Does not seem to work anymore with Chrome 40 (on Linux at least). – Giovanni Tirloni – 2015-02-15T13:44:50.577
@gtirloni: Still works for me at the moment, version 43.0.2357.45 beta-m (64-bit windows). Could you elaborate more? – janv8000 – 2015-05-19T06:22:01.267
11This no longer works in 45.0.2414.0 dev (Mac). – Chappers – 2015-05-29T22:05:03.870
7
It looks like there was a change in Chrome 45 that broke disabling the profile icon. There's a discussion going on https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=496829 if you want to read more.
– jstricker – 2015-06-07T03:11:58.6438So, that's a WONTFIX even for single-user because Google uses it for signin/sync errors, where previously the hamburger menu was used for that. What a regression, horror vacui at its worst. – Lloeki – 2015-06-07T11:34:52.900
5It seems this no longer works, as the enable-new-avatar-menu flag does not seem to exist anymore. Any suggestions for re-disabling it? – Kelmikra – 2015-07-25T14:37:13.877
10
For those who use OS X and Chrome 44 you can apply the following command in Terminal:
open -a "Google Chrome.app" --args -disable-new-avatar-menu
Make sure you have your Chrome closed before you do this.
kexxcream
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 281
Is there a way to apply this argument every time you open Chrome.app from the dock? – pkamb – 2015-08-13T16:49:24.220
Not working for me on Chrome 50.0.2661.86 Mac – Nick Woodhams – 2016-04-28T04:58:59.463
4
tl;dr: you can disable it. copy/paste this URL it in the omnibox: chrome://flags/#enable-new-avatar-menu, click disable, and click restart at the bottom.
Chrome recently launched a new update to the profile switching UI on desktop Chrome. Here are some of the potential advantages of the new UI:
Chrome says "There’s still polishing left to do, and we’re working hard to satisfy as many workflows as possible."
If you're finding that profile switching now takes an extra action, there are some opportunities. On mac and ubuntu-unity, you can switch profiles via the “People” menu in the toolbar in two clicks. Chrome indicates there are more improvements on the way for all platforms, but a fix for now is enabling the fast-user-switching flag in Chrome experiments:
This will put a list of profiles in the drop-down menu.
If you're seeing a yellow triangle next to your profile name, then it means there's an error in the Account Sync. Click into it and you can re-authenticate with your password so that Chrome is signed in with your Google account. (There's a few benefits of that) That will take care of the yellow triangle and get your Chrome back to a happy state.
Paul Irish
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 1 084
2This no longer works. Use the --disable-new-avatar-menu shortcut flag instead. That still works on Chrome 44 (July 2015) – degenerate – 2015-07-22T13:14:21.250
4
Unfortunately Google has completely deactivated the settings workaround since Chrome 45
More about it officially right here: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/ixjLlM-Bmgc
One workaround is to force install version 46 of Chrome and pass in the parameter or set the flag. It's hard to get your hands on an .exe installer that doesn't auto-redirect you to the latest chrome version.
Lupo
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 213
0
On Chrome 44 and newer on Windows, I managed to do it using the /disable-new-avatar-menu flag.
One of the other answers suggests adding --disable-new-avatar-menu to a shortcut, but this didn't work for me on Windows 8.1 (on Linux it did). On Windows, the trick was to replace -- with \, so now my shortcut has Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" /disable-new-avatar-menu
Andrei
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 25
This works for me as well in 44 (probably temporarily) +1: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" /disable-new-avatar-menu"(replace the 2 dashes (--) with a forward slash (/) – paul bica – 2015-08-15T14:15:10.963
-1
You can use the enable-new-profile-management flag to disable the multi-user mechanism altogether. Paste the this URL in the Omnibox chrome://flags/#enable-new-profile-management and switch the flag value to Disabled.
Fredy Muñoz
Posted 2014-08-31T01:47:46.450
Reputation: 101
3
This answer should be updated to reflect that the
– RHPT – 2015-09-07T01:07:00.207chrome://flagssolution no longer works as of Chrome 45. On Windows, the only way to disable it is to use the--disable-new-avatar-menuCLI argument. For OSX, well, there really isn't an easy way. You can try the solutions at http://superuser.com/questions/271678/how-do-i-pass-command-line-arguments-to-dock-items/271697#271697@RHPT The answer I accepted back in June (three months ago) is accurate and has the information you mention here. – jstricker – 2015-09-08T14:08:56.530
@jstricker Oops. You're right. I was looking at the most voted answer, which is incorrect. – RHPT – 2015-09-08T19:07:46.907
Work-around: Force Install Chrome 43, then the flag options and argument flags work as before. Copy can be found on filehippo: http://filehippo.com/download_google_chrome/62226/
– Eric Leschinski – 2015-12-17T01:56:52.133An alternative is install Slimjet from http://www.slimjet.com, a Chromium derivative, which offers a simple option "Show profile switching button on Window caption" to turn on/off this particular button.
– Stephen Cheng – 2016-01-21T21:48:15.490