Run chrome in fullscreen mode on Windows
Running chrome.exe --start-fullscreen --app=https://google.com will not get you Chrome in fullscreen, but in kiosk mode.
However, running chrome --start-fullscreen --app=https://google.com (notice : it's chrome instead of chrome.exe) worked in my case.
It's very easy.
"your chrome path" -kiosk -fullscreen "your URL"
Example:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -kiosk -fullscreen http://google.com
Close all Chrome sessions first !
To exit: Press ALT-TAB > hold ALT and press X in the windows task. (win10)
I would like to share my way of starting chrome - specificaly youtube tv - in full screen mode automatically, without the need of pressing F11. kiosk/fullscreen options doesn't seem to work (Version 41.0.2272.89). It has some steps though...
- Start chrome and navigate to page (www.youtube.com/tv)
- Drag the address from the address bar (the lock icon) to the desktop. It will create a shortcut.
- From chrome, open Apps (the icon with the multiple coloured dots)
- From desktop, drag the shortcut into the Apps space
- Right click on the new icon in Apps and select "Open fullscreen"
- Right click again on the icon in Apps and select "Create shortcuts..."
- Select for example Desktop and Create. A new shortcut will be created on desktop.
Now, whenever you click on this shortcut, chrome will start in fullscreen and at the page you defined. I guess you can put this shortcut in startup folder to run when windows starts, but I haven't tried it.
Update 03-Oct-19
new script that displays 10second countdown then launches chrome/chromiumn in fullscreen kiosk mode.
more updates to chrome required script update to allow autoplaying video with audio. Note --overscroll-history-navigation=0 isn't working currently will need to disable this flag by going to chrome://flags/#overscroll-history-navigation in your browser and setting to disabled.
@echo off
echo Countdown to application launch...
timeout /t 10
"C:\Program Files (x86)\chrome-win32\chrome.exe" --chrome --kiosk http://localhost/xxxx --incognito --disable-pinch --no-user-gesture-required --overscroll-history-navigation=0
exit
might need to set chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy if running an older version of chrome (60 below)
Update 11-May-16
There have been many updates to chrome since I posted this and have had to alter the script alot to keep it working as I needed.
Couple of issues with newer versions of chrome:
- built in pinch to zoom
- Chrome restore error always showing after forced shutdown
- auto update popup
Because of the restore error switched out to incognito mode as this launches a clear version all the time and does not save what the user was viewing and so if it crashes there is nothing to restore. Also the auto up in newer versions of chrome being a pain to try and disable I switched out to use chromium as it does not auto update and still gives all the modern features of chrome. Note make sure you download the top version of chromium this comes with all audio and video codecs as the basic version of chromium does not support all codecs.
Chromium download link
@echo off echo Step 1 of 2: Waiting a few seconds before starting the Kiosk... "C:\windows\system32\ping" -n 5 -w 1000 127.0.0.1 >NUL echo Step 2 of 5: Waiting a few more seconds before starting the browser... "C:\windows\system32\ping" -n 5 -w 1000 127.0.0.1 >NUL echo Final 'invisible' step: Starting the browser, Finally... "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chromium\chrome.exe" --chrome --kiosk http://127.0.0.1/xxxx --incognito --disable-pinch --overscroll-history-navigation=0 exit
Outdated
I use this for exhibitions to lock down screens. I think its what your looking for.
- Start chrome and go to www.google.com drag and drop the url out onto the desktop
- rename it to something handy for this example google_homepage
- drop this now into your c directory, click on my computer c: and drop this file in there
- start chrome again go to settings and under on start up select open a specific page and set your home page here.
Next part is the script that I use to start close and restart chrome again in kiosk mode. The locations is where I have chrome installed so it might be abit different for you depending on your install.
Open your text editor of choice or just notepad and past the below code in, make sure its in the same format/order as below. Save it to your desktop as what ever you like so for this example chrome_startup_script.txt next right click it and rename, remove the txt from the end and put in bat instead. double click this to launch the script to see if its working correctly.
A command line box should appear and run through the script, chrome will start and then close down the reason to do this is to remove any error reports such as if the pc crashed, when chrome starts again without this it would show the yellow error bar at the top saying chrome did not shut down properly would you like to restore it. After a few seconds chrome should start again and in kiosk mode and will point to what ever homepage you have set.
@echo off
echo Step 1 of 5: Waiting a few seconds before starting the Kiosk...
"C:\windows\system32\ping" -n 31 -w 1000 127.0.0.1 >NUL
echo Step 2 of 5: Starting browser as a pre-start to delete error messages...
"C:\google_homepage.url"
echo Step 3 of 5: Waiting a few seconds before killing the browser task...
"C:\windows\system32\ping" -n 11 -w 1000 127.0.0.1 >NUL
echo Step 4 of 5: Killing the browser task gracefully to avoid session restore...
Taskkill /IM chrome.exe
echo Step 5 of 5: Waiting a few seconds before restarting the browser...
"C:\windows\system32\ping" -n 11 -w 1000 127.0.0.1 >NUL
echo Final 'invisible' step: Starting the browser, Finally...
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --kiosk --overscroll-history-navigation=0"
exit
Note: The number after the -n of the ping is the amount of seconds (minus one second) to wait before starting the link (or application in the next line)
Finally if this is all working then you can drag and drop the .bat file into the startup folder in windows and this script will launch each time windows starts.
Update:
With recent versions of chrome they have really got into enabling touch gestures, this means that swiping left or right on a touchscreen will cause the browser to go forward or backward in history. To prevent this we need to disable the history navigation on the back and forward buttons to do that add the following --overscroll-history-navigation=0 to the end of the script.