Is there a way to have multiple broswer icons that open different tabs when starting?

Factual Questions
1

Here’s what I would like to do:

For work, in the morning, I need to do a scan of various news websites. Opening them all individually is a hassle. Not a big deal but still…

I know I can have Firefox (or Chrome or whatever) open multiple tabs when I start the program. That’s a great way to just have them all come up but the problem is there are plenty of times I do not want them to all open when I start the program.

So, is there a way to make a “business Firefox” icon and a “normal Firefox” icon on my desktop such that clicking on one to open the browser will auto-open multiple tabs and the other just starts normally?

2

Right click on your desktop and choose new/shortcut

For the location of the item:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” “site1.com” “site2.com”

Give it a name and you’re done

3

Thanks. That works but the number of characters allowed in that field is seriously limited. Given the length of some URLs I can only fit two or three tabs to be opened in there. I need closer to ten.

4

One way around that is https://tinyurl.com/

5

With Firefox, you can define profiles, and open them with a command line switch.

If you set your homepage to a folder of bookmarks, it will open each in tabs.

6

This is exactly what you’re looking for. However, it should be noted that almost nothing is shared between profiles, so each will have it’s own set of bookmarks, extensions, cookies, history, layout, and the like.

7

This isn’t exactly what you asked, but you could also create bookmarks of all the websites, within a folder in the browser. Both Firefox and Chrome will easily let you then open all those booksmarks in tabs.

8

Maybe not quite what you’re looking for, but the Firefox extension Session Manager allows you to save an entire session or just one window, so with a couple clicks you can open a bunch of tabs and replace your existing session or open a new window with them. I’m sure there’s a Chrome equivalent.

9

In your regular chrome profile, use the multiple tab thing.

Then make a separate shortcut to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” google.com

That second one will just open google.com, whereas the normal chrome shortcut will open all your other tabs

10

I use a batch file to open up various on-line comics in different tabs (I have Win7 and Firefox, and haven’t tested it for Win10). It’s actually multiple .bat files, the first one (on my desktop) when clicked opens the folder that has about 5 or 6 .bat files, each with multiple lines for each comic. (Having too many tabs open at once seems to overload Firefox, so I just click a batch file, read and dismiss each tab, then click the next .bat file to get more.)

So, on the desktop is #run_comics.bat:

echo off
start c:\MyDocs#run_comics

That folder opens with a list of files, run_comics_A.bat, etc. I have a special one that just pops open the Sunday comics. Each line is similar to

start “SeattleTimes Arlo and Janis” htp://www.uclick.com/client/sea/aj/

Apparently the “quoted” part is optional. (I know it’s http; just so it doesn’t put the link in.) If you have multiple Firefox windows open, this puts the new tabs on the last one focused. I suppose you could have this list on the desktop directly, I just wanted to keep the desktop clear.

There is some batch functions for day of week actions which I haven’t tried. Before Windows, batch files got very sophisticated.

11

It’s much easier just to create a folder on your bookmark bar with all your sites, and then right click and choose Open All or similar.

Sure, you have to launch your browser first, and then do the option, but it’s easy to do without having multiple profiles or trying to cram all the URLs on the command line.

If you are really dedicated to having separate desktop icons, you can always use a CMD file (on Windows). The command line in them allows over 8000 characters. Just create a text file with a single line (replace the path with the path to your browser):


@"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" "url1" "url2" [...]

Then name the file “business-chrome.cmd” (with the quotes). Make a shortcut to that file for your desktop.

If you don’t like that it pops up a quick black window before launching Chrome, you can use a VBS file instead. Make it the same way as the above, but you’ll need two lines:


set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
shell.Run("""C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe""  ""url1"" ""url2"" [...]""url20""")

Name this file “business-chrome.vbs” (with the quotes).

12

Also, just a scrollwheel-click will do that. (This is a moderately obscure function, but I use it all the time.) Firefox will warn you if there are many tabs to be opened. But due to a recent update, if you go ahead at that point, Firefox opens the tabs but does not load any web page until you click on its tabs. Quicker and convenient.