The Google Chrome web browser, after a recent update, is now showing a cupcake in the upper left corner of the screen. To be precise, that cupcake is shown on the tab bar, and there on the left side of it. The tabs are then listed to the right of it.
This cupcake links to the new multi-profile feature of the Chrome web browser. When you left-click on the icon you get the profile selection menu with options to create a new profile, change the default profile’s icon or to delete a profile.
So what’s the problem with the cupcake icon in the browser? Easy, it cannot be removed. That’s right. Even if you only use one profile you see the profile selector in the upper left corner of the screen.
Google in the past minimized the browser interface up to a point where there is little left to be optimized in this regard. There is no status bar, no title bar. All the UI elements have been basically moved into the tab bar and address bar.
The cupcake icon breaks that pattern big time. So why is it displayed on single profile systems? Why not hidden in the Tools section somewhere for those users.
I looked into the Tools > Options to see if there is a way to disable the cupcake in the tabbar, but there is none. There is one setting under Personal Stuff > Profile that allows you to create a new profile, but that one is blanked out (nice).
I remembered a multi-profile option under about:flags, but that is gone now as well.
As of now, it is not possible to remove the cupcake icon from Google Chrome. Lets hope that Google sees this as a work of progress and that the company will add options to remove the cupcake icon from the browser.
Let me know please if you know of a way to get rid of the cupcake icon in the browser.
Update: Do not try to delete the default profile. If you do you will delete all of your bookmarks and other user related settings. Even worse, a new default profile is generated right afterwards.
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Seriously? Its a little picture of a Cup Cake, does it matter?
It may not matter to you, but it matters to me. Now move on.
“It may not matter to you, but it matters to me. Now move on.” last time I am visiting this rude site…
I apologize if this came over as rude. I’m just tired of people who cannot accept other people’s opinions. It is fine if you like the cupcake, but you should not judge other people because they do not like it. I see this behavior everywhere on the Internet, gaming sites, Apple-Microsoft-Google-Facebook fans and so on.
These icons are Godawful to look at on a minimalist sleek browser frame.
Thankfully,according to Chromium issues it’s temporary:
(Quote)It’s visible right now for two reasons:
– to get more exposure / testing for this feature
– to provide a UI to control profiles until the Options page is implemented
Once the options page is implemented we’ll switch it to hide by default for people with only one profile.
Great news, thanks for finding out about it.
How about using Iron instead of Chrome?
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_chrome_vs_iron.php
Its basically a stripped version of Chrome.
Yeah Graeme – this has ruined my life for the foreseeable future. Have some compassion!
I totally agree. let me know if you manage to get rid of it.
I don’t see the cupcake yet. Is it in Canary or Beta? I hope it won’t show up in Chromium or else I might start looking for another webkit browser.
It is showing up in Canary and Dev for me, did not check the other versions. I believe that it does not appear in Chromium at all.
Yep,it sure is there loud & clear in Chromium 14.0.827.0 (93001)
Yes I’m sure I saw this Cupcake icon in Chromium latest builds.
Maybe find out where in the chrome’s resources the cupcake is stored, and replace it with a blank .png or a better image ?
I’ve managed to replace/remove the icon with resourcehacker. You need to open chrome.dll (in C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\ ) with resourcehacker, collapse bindata, and scroll down for 6165, collapse it and click on the green thing. now you need to click Action->Replace other resource. Click on “Open file with new resource” and pick the image you want. ( i think the cupcake icon was 220×220 PNG ) Now enter these values to the fields below:
Resource Type : BINDATA
Resource Name : 6165
Resource Language : 0
Then click File -> Save, and you are done.
Apparently you can’t use “” on comments :(
here’s the location of the file:
C:\Users\*Your username*\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\*Build*
This was in Chromium since last week. Deal with it or switch to a superior browser like Firefox 8.0.
I feel comfortable with the icons. I thought they look rather cute and brings up a livelier Google Chrome iconically, instead of just depending on Chrome themes for appearance ^^,
Don’t fret about it, guys. I’m sure Google will give us the option to remove it soon, the feature just came out..relax a little. =)
I wonder why they made the avatar so big (220px*220px). It looks nasty when scaled down. I replaced the “avatar” with a smaller (24*24px) image, and it look way better.
According to http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=88878 , this is work in progress and in the release version the icon will be hidden if there’s only one profile.
I’d like to know why in the hell the ‘delete profile’ command doesn’t prompt you. It has “…” after it like the Windows convention for menu items that open a prompt or dialogue box, but I clicked it by accident and Chrome restarted and all my bookmarks were annihilated. FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU….
I leave if the cupcake stays.
The briefcase is a lot easier to ignore.
I don’t mind there being user profile pictures for us to use (not that it matters for me since I’m the only user) but it would be nice if they didn’t look so horrid, if there were more choices and if we could select our own. I know it’s a test though and those features will probably be in the final version, but still. Either way, I don’t particularly want a picture anyway.
It’s called a dev build for a reason…
this site might matter to you, but it doesn’t matter to me. moving on
and good riddance to your new ads masquerading as articles
For those (like me) who deleted their default profile and found all bookmarks deleted and replaced by an empty bookmarks file:
1. Open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Users\[your_user_name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
2. Find the file called Bookmarks
3. Right click on the file and choose properties
4. Go to the previous versions tab
5. Choose an older version and restore.
6. Delete file “Bookmarks”
7. Rename Bookmarks.bak to Boomarks
8. restart Chrome
Hans, thanks for posting!
Latest Chromium 14.0.836.0 (94142) has ditched the cupcake & in fact all the profile icons from tab bar.Great to see it’s back to how it should be,clean & minimalist.
Thank goodness for that!
That’s strange, I am using Chromium 94905 and there is an icon on my tab bar. How to get rid of it?
Yeah,just downloaded 94914 & it’s reappeared.Doesn’t seem to be an option to disable it in Options or about:flags.
Profile icons now not appearing in tab bar in Chromium 15.0.844.0 (95391).
I got excited when I saw your comment, installed 95396 and it seems to be back!
Well, shouldn’t be too long before it goes permanently, hopefully.