Since Chrome version 53, the default Incognito window, aka the InPrivate window, has the dark theme that looks like this.
Quite black. That’s because of the Material Design that’s been integrated into this version of Chrome. If you still prefer a light theme of Incognito window like before, here is a quick way of doing it.
Open your Chrome browser and go to the Flags page by typing in chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md in the address bar and pressing Enter.
Then select Non-material from the drop-down option list and press Relaunch Now button that pops up after you changed the option of the setting.
The top menu in the Chrome browser will switch back to the way it was, including the Incognito window.
/update on Dec. 15, 2016/
As of version 55, the #top-chrome-md flag has been changed to the following three options instead:
- Default
- Normal
- Touch
That means, since version 55 you will no longer be able to disable Material Design anymore. The only choice remaining will be using a Chrome Theme that mimics the old Chrome style to get around it. For example, Flying Paint seems to be a pretty good choice.
Material Incognito Light Theme is another theme designed just for this matter that lets you change the Chrome incognito color scheme throughout the browser to light instead of the pitch dark color.
Please also share if you have any other options or better theme choices.
As of today, this extension doesn’t work. The flags don’t have that “Material Design in the browser’s top chrome” option. The link takes me to:
UI Layout for the browser’s top chrome Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
Toggles between normal and touch (formerly “hybrid”) layouts. #top-chrome-md
Any ideas? I had done this once before and it randomly changed back again today. Grrr.
Thanks for bringing it up. I’ve updated the post with an option that uses the theme instead of disabling Material Design in chrome.
Google is fucking evil. There’s no reason to do this…
Hello! I just wanted to ask how you put a chrome theme in the incognito mode? Thank you!
I don’t think you need to do anything. Once a theme is installed, it will be used by default whether it’s in the incognito mode or not. Also, the Material Incognito Light theme is the theme only available in the Incognito mode.