1708434 - Launching private browsing via taskbar causes new tabs to show non private homepage

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect, P3)

Description

[vaishnavpandecs]

Attachment: New Bitmap Image.bmp

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:88.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/88.0

Steps to reproduce:

In windows 10, Pin Firefox to taskbar.
Right click on the icon, then right click on Firefox, click on properties.
Under the shortcut tab, add " -private" at the end of target
click on apply, OK.
Now left click on the taskbar icon.
Click on new tab.

Actual results:

Firefox successfully launches in private mode, but when new tab is opened, the tab shows quick links, highlights like it would in non private browsing session.

Expected results:

When clicked on new tab, new private browsing tab should have been opened with the usual "You’re in a Private Window" text. Instead, the new tab shows the content of new non-private tab (Firefox homepage, with highlights tab)

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::Private Browsing' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please revert this change in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Case 1:

1. Install Firefox Release v88.0.1.
2. Open the browser (new profile).
3. Right-click on the taskbar icon and select "Pin to taskbar".
4. Close browser.
5. RIght-click the icon again and then right-click the browser name and icon (3rd option from the bottom up) and then click "Properties".
6. Add " -private" to the end of the URL in the "Target" input box.
7. Click "OK" to close the Properties window (and confirm the change if needed).
8. Right-click the taskbar icon again and click "Open new tab".
   Result: A non-private browsing session is opened, but an about:blank page is displayed.
   The issue here is that the -private argument from the taskbar shortcut target is not taking effect.
9. Open a new tab.
   Result: A about:newtab page is being opened (with top sites and highlights).

Case 2:

1. Install Firefox Release v88.0.1.
2. Open the browser (new profile).
3. Right-click on the taskbar icon and select "Pin to taskbar".
4. Close browser.
5. RIght-click the icon again and then right-click the browser name and icon (3rd option from the bottom up) and then click "Properties".
6. Add " -private" to the end of the URL in the "Target" input box.
7. Click "OK" to close the Properties window (and confirm the change if needed).
8. Click the taskbar icon to open a new session (new profile).
   Result: An about:privatebrowsing tab is opened, and the "You’re in a Private Window" message is shown.
9. Open a new tab.
   Result: A about:newtab page is displayed (with top sites and highlights).
   The same issue here is that the -private argument from the taskbar shortcut target is not taking effect correctly.

I will confirm this issue based on the above behaviors, even though the behavior is somewhat different from the originally reported.
The same behavior is seen in all of the latest versions of the 4 channels.