Incognito Debugging With Any Browser in Visual Studio

Clearing the Cruft

When I develop web applications in Visual Studio, I often need to resolve issues that are dependent on the state of the cache or cookies. By default, debugging in a browser from Visual Studio opens a new browser window but does not purge any preexisting cache or cookies.

Private/Incognito Browsing: Always Fresh

I like to configure Visual Studio to launch browser debug sessions in incognito/private browsing mode. Every debugging session is then fresh as if a user was visiting my application for the first time.

To configure browsers to debug in this mode:

1. Click the Debug Target control’s right-side chevron to view the list of installed browsers.
2. Click “Browse With…”.
3. Click “Add…”.
4. Configure the new target browser using the private/incognito command line argument. See the examples below.

Sample Browser Configurations

Chrome

Program:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

Arguments:

--incognito

Friendly Name:

Google Chrome - Incognito

Internet Explorer

Program:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

Arguments:

-private

Friendly Name:

Internet Explorer - InPrivate

Firefox

Program:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

Arguments:

-private

Friendly Name:

Firefox - Private

Firefox Developer Edition

Program:

"C:\Program Files\Firefox Developer Edition\firefox.exe"

Arguments:

-private

Friendly Name:

FirefoxDeveloperEdition - Private

Edge

Not yet supported.

Opera

Program:

"C:\Program Files\Opera\launcher.exe"

Arguments:

--private

Friendly Name:

Opera Internet Browser - Private

via Scott Hanselman