Quickly Hide All Open Tabs

SUMMARY: Don't want others seeing which web sites you are browsing in Google Chrome? Press the panic button!

 

Tired of others snooping around and looking to see what you are doing on your computer? Don't want others to know you are taking a quick break to check Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, or other web sites via Google Chrome?

The PanicButton extension offers a one-click option to quickly hide your open tabs. Just press the exclamation point in the red circle that is added to the right of Google Chrome's address bar and all open tabs become hidden. By default, the circle is replaced with a green circle and the number of closed tabs, though this can be changed.

To install:

1. From Google Chrome, visit the "PanicButton" page.

2. Click the "Install" button.

3. Click "Install" in the "Confirm Installation" dialog box when prompted.

Confirming installing the "PanicButton" extension in Google Chrome

By default, PanicButton shows the "New Tab" page when the button is pressed. Since the "New Tab" page shows the list of recently closed tabs and other private information, this and other options can be changed by right-clicking the button and selecting "Options" from the pop-up menu.

Options include:

* "Keyboard shortcut?"- Define a keyboard shortcut that activates the PanicButton. This may not work to activate the button on https pages. However, it is useful to re-show the button if you hide it after activation so it does not show the number of hidden tabs (see below).

* "Password protection?" - Optionally set a password that is required to restore your hidden tabs (this may not be 100% secure).

* "Set a safe page" - Change the shown page after pressing the PanicButton. Choose "custom page" to show an URL of your choosing.

* "hide PanicButton toolbar after activation" - Set to "yes" so the button and number of hidden tabs is not shown after activation.

Setting options for the "PanicButton" extension in Google Chrome

This tip was written regarding Google Chrome v7.0.517.41 and PanicButton v0.12 running on a Windows XP machine. Features, information, and screenshots are subject to change between versions and operating systems.