-Ubuntu Linux: Start Edge Browser in Private Mode by Default

This blog post explains a hack that you can use to configure the Microsoft Edge browser on Ubuntu Linux to start in private mode by default, even when clicking links in emails.

Update 15.Dec.2025: After years of frustration with WordPress, I am finally abandoning this blog. The content will likely stay here for some time, but new content will appear here:

• jpw3.com

I wanted to make the icon for the browser in the dock open in private mode by default. To run the browser in private mode, I need to launch microsoft-edge-beta with the –inprivate command line argument. It’s interesting to see a software beta at a version number greater than 100.

This command lists the favorites on the dock:

/usr/bin/gsettings get org.gnome.shell favorite-apps

This lists an array such as the following:

['thunderbird.desktop', 'libreoffice-writer.desktop', 'code.desktop', 'gnome-control-center.desktop', 'org.gnome.Terminal.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop', 'microsoft-edge-beta.desktop']

You can use the gsettings command to update the favorites, but I could not figure out how to pass command line parameters.

Instead, backup the /usr/share/applications/microsoft-edge-beta.desktop file and then edit it. After removing comments and translations that are irrelevant in my case:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Microsoft Edge (infinite beta)
GenericName=Web Browser
Comment=Access the Internet
Exec=/usr/bin/microsoft-edge-beta %U --inprivate
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Icon=microsoft-edge-beta
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=application/pdf;application/rdf+xml;application/rss+xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xhtml_xml;application/xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;image/webp;text/html;text/xml;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
Actions=new-private-window;new-tracking-window;

[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=New Private Window
Exec=/usr/bin/microsoft-edge-beta --inprivate

[Desktop Action new-tracking-window]
Name=New Tracking Window
Exec=/usr/bin/microsoft-edge-beta

The key changes are in bold. First, I added –inprivate to the first Exec, which is apparently the default. Then, I removed the default new-window entry, reversed the order of the last two entries, updated those two entries to be more specific, and updated Actions to reference those two entries.

I tried setting Terminal to true so I could see the debugging messages coming from the microsoft-edge-beta process, but it did not seem to affect anything.