To enable the new feature, users need to use one of the latest Chrome Canary or Chromium builds. The feature is available under about:flags, a configuration page for experimental or new features.

You need to scroll down to the very bottom of the page to find the Multiple Profiles entry.

It reads:

Associates every browser window with a profile, and adds a profile switcher in the upper right corner. Every profile has its own bookmarks, extensions, apps, etc.

It basically means that you can now make use of multiple profiles in Chrome, each with its own set of custom settings and preferences.

A click on Enable activates the new feature, and you see a new profile selector and creator at the top right of the browser screen, next to the minimize, maximize and close buttons.

You can create new profiles with a click on the button and the selection of create a new profile. This launches a new Chrome browser window displaying a Google Account login prompt.

For now, each new Chrome profile appears to be linked to a Google account, which is inferior to Firefox’s solution which does not have that requirement. This means that you need to create a new Google account for every browser profile that you want to use in Chrome in case you only have a single account to begin with.

Each account needs to be configured for synchronization. One thing that appears to be missing right now is a profile switcher. The only option available in the menu currently is the option to create a new profile which opens a second window with a Google login.

The profile switcher does not appear to be supporting local profiles. That, plus the complicated way of switching profiles are currently the biggest complaints that I have with the service.

Profile Switcher will soon appear in Dev, Beta and Stable versions of the Chrome browser.

Each profile uses its own data directory meaning that users can configure the web browser the way they want it to look like. This includes themes and extensions but also configuration settings, bookmarks and the browser history.

It is unfortunately not that easy to create Google Chrome profiles. Users who want to create a profile need to open the Chrome User Data folder. There they find the Default profile. They then need to create a copy of that Default profile, rename it and place it in the same User Data directory.

That’s the new user profile. The new profile can then be run by creating a shortcut on the computer desktop that points to it:

chrome.exe –user-data-dir="..\User Data\newProfile"

This procedure is not very handy. A far better way of creating and using Google Chrome profiles is offered by the free software program Google Chrome Backup.

It has been mainly designed as a backup software but it comes with the functionality to create and manage user profiles in Chrome.

Google Chrome Backup lists all existing user profiles in its main interface upon startup. A right-click on a profile in the list opens a context menu with options to backup and restore it, run it and create a shortcut to launch it more comfortably from another location.

New profiles are created by clicking on Profile and selecting the New Profile link.

Entering a new profile name is sufficient to create a new profile. Advanced users can select a custom location on the hard drive for the profile folder and define Chrome startup parameters under advanced options.

Google Chrome Backup offers a manageable and easy way to create and manage Google Chrome profiles. The Windows only software program can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Google Chrome Backup is a tool that can backup, create, restore and delete Google Chrome profiles. A profile contains all the personal information of a user like bookmarks, the browsing history and the layout of the browser.

It is actually no problem to backup Google Chrome profiles manually by copying all files stored in the Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data folders to another location. Google Chrome Backup on the other hand provides an easier method of backing up the files with the click of a button in the program interface.

One interesting aspect of Google Chrome Backup is that it can also create profiles for the browser. Those profiles can be enhanced with startup parameters like starting the browser maximized, disabling the popup blocker or enabling file cookies.

Google Chrome Backup is a nice backup tool to create backups of Google Chrome profiles. For those wondering about the difference between Google Chrome and Chromium. That’s a bit confusing but it seems that Chromium is the Open Source version of Google Chrome.