Chrome profiles - why did no one tell me about these awesome things

[timeshifter]

Maybe I'm old school, but when I think of browser profiles I'm reminded on 2006 editions of Firefox and messing around with shortcuts to get the correct profile to load and a system rebuild or whatever. Since then I'd never given profiles a lot of thought. But then I noticed someone talking about them in the new Microsoft Edge and they looked pretty cool and I thought maybe I'd look into them. Well if Edge has them then certainly they're in Chrome. And of course they are, and you're all going "duh, how can you be in IT and not know about that".

When working for different clients I'd use a different browser (currently have Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Brave). That worked but all the remnants for different sign ins would accumulate in different browsers over time. Also used Incognito windows some time.

But now, I've started adding a profile here and there for different clients and it's pretty nice. I'm thinking about going all in and using a separate profile for each client and adding a bunch of them to my main Chrome browser on my laptop.

Wondering if there's any issues with having 30 profiles or whatever. Seems like it's only a bunch of folders to my computer.

Do you use profiles extensively?

 

[nlinecomputers]

I don’t understand the benefit per customer for you.

 

[timeshifter]

I’m frequently logging in to their accounts: Microsoft, AT&T, GoDaddy, etc.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I’m frequently logging in to their accounts: Microsoft, AT&T, GoDaddy, etc.

I have a password manager. That way seems overly complicated.

 

[timeshifter]

I have a password manager too, had one for over 10 years. That doesn’t solve the problem of being logged in to two different Microsoft 365 accounts at the same time. Or the problem where you’ve logged out of one and into another, you go to do something with the other and you’re back in the first one. I could go on.

 

[britechguy]

This is one of those things where what's most convenient for you is the way you should go.

I've never had an instance where four browsers, with the option for four separate private/incognito sessions at one time, were not enough if I need to be "pretending to be a client."

If, however, you find yourself having to impersonate (and I don't mean that pejoratively nor that you're doing anything wrong) lots of clients very frequently, and browser profiles allow you to create separate worlds with ease, then why not?

 

[nlinecomputers]

What he said. What works for you is always the proper answer.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I use Firefox Containers. I make a container per customer, right click open in container then login to what I need.

Ingognito is handy, but not terribly functional in M365 admin land. So I just have a container per client, and I can even save the tokens in there for faster login later.

Since I can swap "profiles" with a new tab being opened, I find it a ton less clunky than Chrome's Profiles... which aren't meant for this, but instead actual different users.

4 different browsers? Screw that... Firefox Containers, one browser to rule them all!

 

[britechguy]

Firefox Containers, one browser to rule them all!

And, again, we come back to, "Tool to task." It sounds like, for this specific task, Firefox is best suited.

 

[timeshifter]

I'll have to look into Containers. Never heard of them. At first blush it sounds like a profile.
edited to add: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers


Note that that's not the only reason I have all those browsers. A big part of the reason is to have different ones to test on, experiment, etc.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@timeshifter Oh certainly, and I do use Edge and Chrome a fair bit. But once I had containers online, and I could put tabs in a single Firefox browser color coded to my clients... I found myself using those other browsers A LOT less. There are days when I have Firefox up with 3-4 M365 admin accounts logged in, bouncing between them and their respective Azure admin panels just by swapping tabs.

Here's the add-in: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/

And, a related plugin that has some value if you don't like Facebook but are stuck using it...

Facebook Container – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

Download Facebook Container for Firefox. Prevent Facebook from tracking you around the web. The Facebook Container extension for Firefox helps you take control and isolate your web activity from Facebook.

addons.mozilla.org

The above lights up the functionality and lets you make containers for each whatever... So you can have as many cookie bubbles as you need to do whatever.

The second plugin shoves Facebook into a dedicated Facebook container, and other websites that try to get into Facebook stuff are blocked unless given explicit access. You can think of it as a dedicated means to sever Facebook's tracking. Which will also remove comment sections powered by facebook from websites that use them again... unless explicitly granted access.

 

[fincoder]

The second plugin shoves Facebook into a dedicated Facebook container, and other websites that try to get into Facebook stuff are blocked unless given explicit access

Thanks for mentioning this. I use Edge and it isn't available for that browser, but SessionBox is and it effectively does the same thing. I'm giving that ago for Facebook.

 

[HCHTech]

I could be fooling myself, but I "trust" (well, to be honest, I believe it presents a smaller attack surface) BitWarden more than I trust Google or Mozilla. I don't keep any of my clients passwords there, though, which shows the limit of my "trust".

 

[Sky-Knight]

I could be fooling myself, but I "trust" (well, to be honest, I believe it presents a smaller attack surface) BitWarden more than I trust Google or Mozilla. I don't keep any of my clients passwords there, though, which shows the limit of my "trust".

The best thing to do would be to host it on premise in a VLAN or on dedicated hardware that cannot be accessed online. You have to sync up in the office, then go out in the field with a local copy. It limits exposure to physical device theft, which is far easier to handle. You can do this "free" with the VaultWarden open source project. But I just pay Bitwarden and use it. I have my logins to it 2FA protected via TOTP stored in the Duo mobile app. Which backs up to my Google MFA protected drive, with a vault encrypted with a use once password that's stored on paper in my fireproof safe.

So if you want my vault... you'll need my password, my unlock code for my phone, and my phone... OR you'll need my Google account password, my phone, and the recovery key from my fireproof safe and the vault's password. Someday I'll grow a brain and just use Yubikeys because they're easier.

That's not Fort Knox... but it's as close to such as I know how to build. Because I keep all my stuff in there, that IS the castle.

 

[cypress]

I could be fooling myself, but I "trust" (well, to be honest, I believe it presents a smaller attack surface) BitWarden more than I trust Google or Mozilla. I don't keep any of my clients passwords there, though, which shows the limit of my "trust".

Yup same here

 

[timeshifter]

I could be fooling myself, but I "trust" (well, to be honest, I believe it presents a smaller attack surface) BitWarden more than I trust Google or Mozilla. I don't keep any of my clients passwords there, though, which shows the limit of my "trust".

At first I thought you meant to respond to a different thread about password managers. My intention with using profiles has nothing to do with the browser's password save function. I NEVER use those either.

 

[Sky-Knight]

At first I thought you meant to respond to a different thread about password managers. My intention with using profiles has nothing to do with the browser's password save function. I NEVER use those either.

I don't either, but that's also why I brought up containers. Because they're an easy way to get separate cookie collections without using private browsing. For M365 management... that's a Godsend!

 

[bdeustis]

Containers. Sounds like it is a very good idea. Need to try. Cookies are isolated by chrome/edge profile. What am I missing?

Password Managers remind me of Y2K remediation. What is the best thread for password manager discussion, pls?