If you are going to go on a trip and take your laptop with you, you may want to secure all the data and laptop that you have stored inside the computer. It is clear that Windows usually already has an access password to log in or unlock the system, but many times that is not enough.
What happens if someone steals our laptop (or we leave it forgotten in some corner) with the session started? A large part of all our bank accounts, Amazon accounts, streaming services accounts, etc. they are stored in the web browser, along with a bunch of passwords. A less delicate subject, to say the least.
How to lock Chrome with an access password
No need to be dramatic either. If we have a desktop PC and we don’t want other people to pry into our search history, it can also be a good reason to protect the browser with an access password.
In any case, the first thing to say is that Google Chrome does not have any native function that allows us to block the application with a PIN, password or similar. Luckily, there ‘s a Chrome extension called LockPW for that .
- Install the LockPW extension from the Chrome Web Store.
- In the upper right part of the browser, click on the extensions icon, click on the 3-dot icon next to LockPW and select “Options”.
- A new tab will open. Go to the settings options (gear icon).
- In the section on the right, enter the password you want to use to unlock the browser. Confirm the password and enter a hint to remember the password in case you forget it. Click “Save.”
- If everything went well, you will see a message on the screen indicating that password protection is enabled.
From this moment on, whenever we try to open the browser we will see a lock screen where we will have to enter the previously selected password.
The truth is that the LockPW application is quite complete, and among its configuration settings it also allows you to do other interesting things. For example, automatically lock the browser after X seconds, keep a record of access attempts, or delete the browsing history if the limit of unlock attempts is exceeded (which by default is usually 3 attempts).
We have been testing with the latest version of Google Chrome and at least for now it works great. In any case, there are also other similar extensions for Chrome that do more or less the same thing.
- Browser Lock
- Set password for your browser (Chrome Lock)
How to lock Chrome with password on Android
One of the shortcomings of the version of Chrome for Android is that it does not allow you to install extensions by default . Therefore, if we want to protect the browser with a password, we will have to find another solution.
The simplest thing in this case is to use an app blocker, such as AppLock.
DescargarQR-Code
AppLock
Developer: DoMobile Lab
Price: Free
- Once the app is installed, open it and enter an unlock pattern.
- On the main “Privacy” screen, locate the Chrome app and tap to activate the lock icon.
- The first time you will have to assign the permissions requested by AppLock so that it can start working.
- Once we see the green Chrome padlock icon, the application will be protected.
From now on, whenever we want to open the Chrome browser we will see a lock screen where we will have to enter the pattern previously established from AppLock.
If you prefer to use a PIN or numerical password, you can also do so from the “Protect” section, by clicking on “Unlock configuration -> Password”.
One of the most obvious advantages of AppLock is that it not only helps us to block Chrome, but also any other browser or application that we have installed on our mobile phone.
