Open a Chrome profile in its own window on a specific monitor

The free method

Everything here uses Chrome and Windows as they come. Nothing to install.

1. Find the profile's folder name

   Chrome shows a friendly name ("Work") but the command line wants the folder name. Open the profile you want, type chrome://version in the address bar, and read the Profile Path. The last part is the folder name: Default, Profile 1, Profile 2 and so on.

2. Launch that profile in a new window

   Close nothing. In PowerShell, point chrome.exe at the folder name:

   & "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" `
     --profile-directory="Profile 1" --new-window

   If Chrome was installed for your user only, the path is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe. Add a web address to the end and that page opens in the new window.

3. Move it to the right monitor

   Press Win+Shift+Left or Win+Shift+Right to send the window to the neighbouring monitor.

   To have Chrome open there directly, add a position and size. The numbers are pixels, counted from the top-left corner of your primary monitor. A monitor to the right of a 2560-pixel-wide primary starts at 2560; one to the left has a negative number.

   & "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" `
     --profile-directory="Profile 1" --new-window `
     --window-position=2560,0 --window-size=1280,1440 `
     https://mail.google.com

4. Make it a shortcut with its own key

   Right-click the desktop, choose New → Shortcut, and paste the chrome.exe path in quotes followed by the same arguments. Then open the shortcut's Properties, click the Shortcut key box and press a key. Windows turns it into Ctrl+Alt plus that key, so each profile gets its own hotkey.

Where the free method runs out

• It won't raise a window that's already open. When Chrome is running, the command is handed to that running copy. A web address goes to the profile's most recently used window, and that window isn't brought to the front, so it can stay behind other windows or on another monitor. This is the gap people keep hitting.
• --new-window fixes that by always opening another one. Run the shortcut twice and you have two windows.
• Position flags are a hint, not a promise. Chrome also remembers where each profile's window last was, and on a desk with mixed scaling (say, a 4K monitor at 150% beside a 1080p one at 100%) the pixel numbers can land differently than you expect. Expect to adjust them by trial.
• Positions are coordinates, so a replug breaks them. Dock or undock, change a monitor's arrangement, and the numbers mean something else.
• It's one window. Your editor, chat app and notes aren't placed, and nothing gets out of the way.
• PowerToys Workspaces can pass the same arguments, but users have reported that the profile argument doesn't reliably land (issue #35187). See the three-way comparison.

For one profile that you open now and then, the shortcut above is enough. The trouble starts with two or three profiles, several monitors, and wanting the same arrangement every morning.

How Modus does it

Modus is a workflow switcher for Windows. You arrange a desk once, press Capture, and a hotkey brings that whole arrangement back. For Chrome profiles it does three things the command line can't.

It knows which profile each window belongs to

Chrome tags every window with its profile. At capture, Modus reads that tag and matches it against Chrome's own profile list, so a window titled with your work account is stored as Profile 1 without you looking up the folder.

It finds the window instead of asking Chrome to raise it

On activation Modus first looks for an open window of that profile. If there is one, it takes it over, moves it into its saved place and brings it forward. If there isn't, it launches the profile and places the new window. Either way the tabs you listed are opened, skipping ones it knows are already there. If you'd rather always get a fresh window, one setting (whenAlreadyOpen) does that.

It remembers a position on a monitor, not a pair of pixels

A saved position is a rectangle given as fractions of a monitor's usable area, on a monitor Modus identifies by a stable ID rather than by its number. Scaling changes and rotation keep working because positions are saved as fractions, not pixels. The same press also opens your other apps and minimizes everything you didn't ask for, keeping a safelist (your music player, say) visible.

You don't write any of this by hand; capture fills it in. This is what one Chrome window looks like in the config, for the curious:

"chrome": {
  "profileDirectory": "Profile 1",
  "urls": ["https://mail.google.com", "https://calendar.google.com"],
  "whenAlreadyOpen": "addTabs",
  "placement": { "monitor": "ultrawide", "rect": [0.0, 0.0, 0.35, 1.0] }
}

That is the left 35% of the monitor named "ultrawide", from top to bottom.

Questions people ask

Related guides

• PowerToys Workspaces vs Raycast vs Modus What each one covers, with untested claims marked.
• Voice control for Modus with Windows Voice Access Say a phrase, get the whole desk.

Sources

• PowerToys issue #35187, Chrome profile arguments: github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/35187
• Report that --profile-directory doesn't bring an open profile's window forward, Vivaldi forum (Chromium behaviour): forum.vivaldi.net/post/570354
• Chrome command-line switches, including --new-window, --window-position and --window-size: peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches