No matter how many dedicated apps you have installed on your PC, you probably live most of your life in the browser. Google’s well aware of this — it’s the entire concept behind ChromeOS, after all — and now, it’s bringing a new setting that’s going to allow Windows users to launch Chrome right from the jump.
Currently, Google Chrome doesn’t include the ability to launch right from a Windows boot. Although it does support Windows’ startup apps list, keeping that toggle enabled just activates the browser in the background — it doesn’t specifically auto-launch a new Chrome window. There are methods to making this work, but you’ll typically need to input some command line prompts to get it started, and for the vast majority of PC users, that’s a tricky hoop to jump through.
As reported by Chrome Story, the latest Canary build of Chrome is changing this, thanks to a new flag added to settings that specifically “launch[es] Chrome automatically to begin browsing instantly.” Currently, this flag is off by default; toggling it on brings about a permissions prompt that reads “Begin browsing instantly: Chrome can now launch when Windows starts,” along with an Allow button. Unlike the basic startup apps list, this option specifically opens Chrome as a foreground window, rather than simply keeping it active in the background.
Chrome will sporadically display an infobar when opening the browser to inform users of the new option to launch it when Windows starts. Clicking "Allow" enables the new option. AFAIK, the infobar will not reappear if it is dismissed via the "X" button:https://t.co/2map4t7lt7 pic.twitter.com/dMkVcPc978
— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) February 7, 2026
Now, while there are obvious reasons you might want this, any regular Windows user can also tell you that startup apps can be particularly annoying, especially depending on what you’re using your PC for. To that end, it’s great to see Google keeping this disabled by default. Simultaneously, though, Twitter user @Leopeva64 has tested the feature and found that Chrome will occasionally announce this feature outside of the flags menu, in order to persuade users to turn it on. It appears as though dismissing the prompt closes it semi-permanently, but obviously, anything could change between this Canary debut and a wide rollout.
Assuming nothing stands in its way, expect that rollout to eventually arrive in stable sometime in the weeks to come.
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