Can the Open as window checkbox be turned back on?

No. It was removed in Chrome 128 together with the choice it represented. Create shortcut now always makes a bookmark that opens in a tab, and Install page as app always makes a windowed app. Using the second command gives the same result the checkbox used to.

Where is Install page as app in the Chrome menu?

Select the three dot More icon at the top right, then Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app. Some sites also show an Install icon at the right end of the address bar. Older posts call the submenu Save and share, which is the same place under an earlier name.

Why does a shortcut created in Chrome open in a normal tab?

Because Create shortcut now creates a bookmark rather than an app. Chrome's developer blog describes the change as matching how shortcuts already worked on Android. To have the site open in its own window instead, remove the shortcut and use Install page as app.

Can a site be installed if it does not support web apps?

Usually yes. Chrome allows any page to be installed manually, even when its manifest is incomplete, according to the Chrome team's blog. If the command is still missing, check the Chrome version, whether the site is already installed, and whether the browser is managed by an organisation.

How is an installed Chrome app removed on a Mac?

Open the app, select More at the top right, then Uninstall followed by the app name, then Remove. Ticking Also delete data from Chrome clears the site's stored data as well. Apps can also be managed at chrome://apps, which is cleaner than deleting the file by hand.

Open as window is missing from Chrome: what to do

The Open as window checkbox is missing from Chrome's Create shortcut dialog because Chrome removed it on purpose. Since Chrome 128, Create shortcut makes a plain bookmark that opens the page in a normal tab, and the old windowed behaviour moved to a separate menu item called Install page as app. To get a site in its own window again, open the site, click the three dot menu at the top right, choose Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app. Nothing on the computer is broken, and there is no setting to bring the checkbox back. The rest of this page explains how to tell the two results apart, what to check when the install option is also missing, and what an installed app still shares with the browser on a Mac. Every menu name below was checked against Google's own help pages on October 18, 2026.

What changed in Chrome 128

The change was announced on the Chrome for Developers blog in July 2024 and took effect from Chrome 128.

From Chrome 128, More > Save and Share > Create Shortcut creates a bookmark on the user's desktop or homescreen. This launches a specific page in a new tab, matching Android's behavior Source: developer.chrome.com

The same post states that the previous desktop behaviour of the menu item moved to the Install Page as App option. In other words, one dialog that used to do two jobs became two menu items that each do one. The checkbox existed to choose between a tab and a window. Once the window became its own command, there was nothing left for the checkbox to decide, so it was removed rather than moved.

That is why searching Chrome's settings for the option finds nothing. It was not relocated to a settings page or hidden behind a flag in the normal release. The menu label on current versions also changed slightly. The blog post from 2024 says Save and share, while Chrome's current help pages say Cast, save, and share. Both refer to the same submenu.

The same post makes a second point that matters for anyone who used to be told a site "cannot be installed". Chrome allows any page to be installed manually, even when its web app manifest is incomplete. The example given is a well known word game whose manifest lacked an icon and a start address, which can still be installed as a "manual" app. Sites that once refused to become windowed apps should now accept the command.

How to make a windowed app now

The current steps, as given on Chrome's Use web apps help page, are short:

Open Chrome and go to the site.
At the top right, select More (the three dot icon).
Select Cast, save, and share.
Select Install page as app.
Follow the on screen prompt, where the name can be changed.

Some sites also show an Install button at the right hand end of the address bar. It does the same thing in one click.

The result opens in its own window with no tab strip, gets its own icon in the Dock and in Command Tab, and is listed at chrome://apps. The chrome://apps page is the quickest way to see what has already been installed.

For comparison, Chrome's Create shortcuts for websites page now describes Create shortcut with only two choices in the dialog: the name, and the Create button. There is no window option in it at all, which confirms that the missing checkbox is the intended design rather than a fault on one machine.

Telling a shortcut from an installed app

Both commands leave something that looks like an icon, which is why the change is easy to miss. The difference shows on the first launch.

	Create shortcut	Install page as app
Opens in	A new tab in a browser window	Its own window, no tab strip
Dock and Command Tab	Switches to Chrome	Its own icon and entry
Listed at chrome://apps	No	Yes
Can be uninstalled from its own menu	No	Yes
Name and icon	Set when created	Supplied by the site, updates with notice

The quickest check on an existing icon is to launch it. If it brings Chrome forward and opens a tab, it is a shortcut. If it opens a window with no tabs and its own Dock icon, it is an installed app.

Removing an installed app is done from inside it. Chrome's help describes opening the app, selecting More at the top right, then Uninstall followed by the app name, then Remove. There is an option at that step called Also delete data from Chrome, which clears the stored data for that site as well. Installed apps can also be managed from chrome://apps. Using either route is cleaner than dragging the bundle to the Trash.

The help page adds one detail that surprises people later. When a site changes the name or icon of its web app, Chrome notifies the user and offers three choices: accept the update, ignore it, or uninstall the app. Google advises uninstalling if the change looks suspicious, for example an icon that suddenly resembles a different app.

When Install page as app is missing or greyed out

Sometimes the replacement command is also absent. There are four common reasons, and each can be checked in under a minute.

An older Chrome

Before Chrome 128, the old Create shortcut dialog with the Open as window checkbox is still present and still works. On a newer build, only the new menu exists. To see the version, select More, then Help, then About Google Chrome. Chrome's update help page notes that the version number is shown under the Google Chrome heading, and that if no Relaunch option appears, the browser is already on the latest version.

The site is already installed

If the site already has an installed app in the current profile, there is nothing new to install, and the menu tends to point to the existing app instead. Checking chrome://apps shows whether that is the case.

The page is not a normal website

Internal browser pages, local files and some special addresses behave differently from an ordinary site served over HTTPS. If one address refuses while every other site works, the address itself is the likely cause.

The browser is managed

On a Mac issued by an employer or a school, an administrator can restrict features. Chrome's help page on managed browsers explains how to tell: if the bottom of the More menu says "Managed by your organization", the browser is managed. Entering chrome://policy in the address bar lists the policies the organisation has set. If app installation is restricted there, only the administrator can change it.

What an installed app still shares with Chrome

An installed web app is not a separate program. It is the same browser drawing the same page in a window without the tab strip, and that has consequences.

It belongs to the Chrome profile that created it. It uses that profile's cookies, saved passwords and signed in account. Two installed apps for the same service in one profile cannot hold two different accounts, because both open with the same session. The standard workaround is a second Chrome profile, which installs its own copy of the app and then needs profile switching to manage.

Extensions come with it. An ad blocker or password manager in the profile keeps working inside the app window. So does any extension that injects itself into every page, which is less welcome in what looks like a single purpose app.

It follows Chrome's updates. Security fixes arrive automatically, with nothing to rebuild. This is the strongest reason to use the built in route when it is enough.

Shortcuts inside the app depend on the site. The Chrome help page notes that some apps offer shortcuts to features in a menu on the app's icon. Where a site provides them, a mail app might offer a compose action and a task tool a new task action. Many sites provide none.

For most people with one account per service, none of this is a problem, and Install page as app is the right answer. The profile boundary is the point where some readers start looking at other options.

When the built in route is not enough

Three situations push past what Chrome's own command does well.

The first is two accounts on the same service, such as a personal and a work Google account each needing its own Gmail window. Inside one Chrome profile this cannot work, and juggling profiles is the cost of the workaround.

The second is wanting different extensions per app. Chrome apps share the extensions of their profile, so a translation extension wanted only in one app is present in all of them.

The third is preferring a different engine, such as Brave or Edge, for a particular site while keeping Chrome as the everyday browser.

A tool that turns a website into a standalone Mac app can cover these. Some build each app on an installed Chromium browser and give each one an isolated profile with its own cookies, logins and extension set. The Features page of one such tool describes this setup, including per app extension switches and a choice of seven Chromium based engines. Its Pricing page lists a free tier of three apps and a one time paid licence for more. Safari is another free option on macOS Sonoma 14 or later: File, then Add to Dock, creates a web app that shares no cookies or history with Safari, as Apple's support article explains, though it runs on WebKit and cannot use Chrome Web Store extensions.

Choosing which sites get a window

The reason people miss the checkbox is rarely the checkbox. It is that a handful of sites are open every working day and keep getting lost among dozens of tabs. Installing everything at once recreates that problem in the Dock, so it pays to be selective.

A site earns its own window when three things are true. It is opened at fixed times, such as first thing in the morning, rather than reached through a link. It needs to be found again quickly with Command Tab while other work is in progress. And leaving it in a tab means losing it, or closing it by accident along with a batch of other tabs. A calendar, a helpdesk queue, a team chat and an internal dashboard usually pass. Documentation, news and reference sites usually do not, because they are entered from a search result and closed again a few minutes later.

Sites that pass all three tests typically number between three and six. That is a short enough list to install one at a time, living with each for a few days before adding the next.

What to change first

Use Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app, for the one site that gets lost among tabs most often, and check that it appears at chrome://apps. If that site later needs a second account or its own extensions, compare the options on the Supported services page before setting up extra Chrome profiles, or read the step by step Kagemusha guide.