How do I put a website on my desktop as an app?
In Chrome, open the site, click the three-dot menu, choose Cast, save and share, then Create Shortcut. Tick "Open as window" and it gets its own icon and its own window — no address bar, no other tabs. It behaves like an installed application.
Key takeaways
- Traders use a handful of sites all day — news, charts, a membership site — and reloading them through a browser every session adds up.
- Chrome turns any page into a desktop app with a shortcut you can pin to the taskbar alongside your platforms.
- "Open as window" is the setting that matters. Without it you get a bookmark; with it you get a separate window with no address bar and no other tabs.
- That separation is the real benefit for a trader. A stray click cannot navigate your order screen somewhere else, because there is nowhere else to go.
- It also keeps research tabs from competing with the window you actually trade in.
- Pin the ones you open daily to the taskbar and they launch like any other program.
- Not sure where your machine stands? The free benchmark test takes about two minutes.
Although there are millions of websites on the Internet, as a trader you probably only use a dozen (maybe even less) per day. These websites are your go-to sites. If you’re anything like me, there are three to five sites you use all day long. You might have one for news, one for deep analysis of charts, and maybe a membership site you belong to.
How could you access these sites more easily? I got so fed up with loading the same sites over and over, I decided to find out if there was an easier way. It turns out there is.
In today’s video I want to show you how to use Google Chrome to transform any webpage that you frequent into an app.
Why would you do this as a trader?
In the video below you can see in my Taskbar that I have many applications. Some of these are websites I refer to often. As my software brokerage platform, I open TradeStation every day. I go to EZBreakouts.com a bunch of times each day. I also use Investor Business Daily to check the market direction, analyze charts, and come up with my Top 10 Daily Stocks list for EZBreakouts. These are just a few of the websites I use constantly.
There is a hidden feature in Google Chrome to transform any webpage into an application.
Using this feature you can switch apps super fast. If your web page is transformed into an app you’ll be able to use your keyboard to switch between open apps. To do this use the “ALT” and “TAB” keys together. If you press the alt key and the tab key you can cycle through open windows.
Without leaving your keyboard, without touching your mouse, you could switch to investors.com and then right back to TradeStation. Without this tip you’d wind up using your mouse to click around way more than you have to.
How Create An App Out of Your Trading Websites With Google Chrome:
If you follow the steps outlined here, you can use this trick with any website or webpage: news research sites, stock charting sites, software brokerage platforms.
Here are the steps:
- In Google Chrome, go to the three dashed lines in the upper right corner below the red X, right of the address bar.
- Click on the bars. Mouse down to “more tools”.
- Once the next submenu comes up, mouse down to the menu item “Add to Taskbar”.
- Next, you’ll get a little icon that represents the website you were on.
- Rename it to whatever you’d like.
- Check the box that reads “open as new window” (you might not already have it checked).
Two things will have happened as a result of the above steps. You now have the website as an application in your Taskbar and as a Google App in your Chrome browser.
Close Google Chrome. Click your new icon in the Taskbar to see if it works.
One final tip…You can create three types of short cuts with your webpage app.
- Desktop
- Start Menu
- Taskbar
To create these short cuts do the following:
- Open Google Chrome.
- Mouse over to the left area of Google Chrome.
- Click on the icon that says “Apps”.
- Navigate to the web app icon that you created.
- Right click on the icon for the web app you created.
- Choose “Create shortcut”.
- A dialog box appears.
- In the dialog box choose whether you want a Desktop, Start Menu, or Taskbar shortcut. You can also choose all of the above. (Any shortcuts you’ve already created will be preselected in this dialog box).
The next time that you go to your Desktop, Start Menu, or Taskbar the icon you create for your website app will appear. Pretty cool, huh!
To remove your “apps”, do the following:
- Open Google Chrome.
- Mouse over to the left area of Google Chrome.
- Click on the icon that says “Apps”.
- Navigate to the web app icon you want to remove.
- Right click on the icon for the web apps want to remove.
- Choose “Remove”.
Google will automatically remove your Desktop, Start Menu, and Taskbar short cuts all at once.
There are more trading computer tips like this in our buyers guide. Check out our “How To Buy a Trading Computer” e-book.
We hope today’s Quick Tip helped you. You can always call us if you have questions: 800-387-5250
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add a website to my desktop?
In Chrome, open the site, click the three-dot menu at the top right, choose Cast, save and share, then Create Shortcut. Name it, tick "Open as window", and click Create. A shortcut appears on your desktop and you can pin it to the taskbar. Opening it launches the site in its own window with no address bar and no other tabs.
How do I put a website on my taskbar?
Create the shortcut as above, then right-click the icon while it is running and choose Pin to taskbar. It then sits alongside your trading platforms and launches the same way. For sites you open every single session, this removes the browser from the process entirely.
What is the difference between a bookmark and a desktop app shortcut?
A bookmark opens the page as another tab in your existing browser window, among everything else. A shortcut created with "Open as window" opens it in a dedicated window with no address bar and no tab strip. For a trading platform that matters — there is nothing to accidentally click, and nothing else competing for the window.
Can I do this in Microsoft Edge?
Yes, and the wording differs slightly. In Edge, open the three-dot menu, choose Apps, then Install this site as an app. The result is the same: its own window, its own icon, and the ability to pin it to the taskbar. Edge is built on the same underlying engine as Chrome, so the behavior matches.
Does this work for web-based trading platforms?
Yes, and it is one of the better reasons to do it. A browser-based platform running in its own window cannot be navigated away from by a stray click, does not share a window with your research tabs, and behaves much more like installed software. It does not make the platform faster, but it removes a genuine way to lose your order screen at the wrong moment.
