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Say that your company is changing its default web browser to Google Chrome (or perhaps you don’t like the default browser and want to use Chrome instead). You can easily import your bookmarks and settings into Chrome so you don’t have to reinvent the browsing experience. This article tells you how.

Once upon a time, you would actually have to go into the browser you’re leaving to export bookmarks, and then import them. Not so anymore. Google Chrome handles the heavy lifting for you. Just follow these steps:

  1. In the upper-right corner, click the Chrome button.

  2. Hover over Bookmarks, and then click Import Bookmarks and Settings. The Import Bookmarks and Settings dialogue box appears (see Figure 1).

  3. In the drop-down menu, choose the browser you’re importing from. Chrome knows which browsers you have installed, so it will list only those that are on your computer.

  4. Check what you want to import:

    • Browsing history: This option imports the other browser’s record of all the sites you visited in that browser.

    • Favorites/bookmarks: This option imports those favorite websites that you’ve flagged as important to you.

    • Saved passwords: This imports any user names and passwords that you had the other browser save to enable you to log in quickly to certain websites.

    • Search engines: This imports your search engine preference, such as Google, Yahoo!, and so on.

  5. Click Import. You see a dialogue box saying that the import was successful.

  6. If you want to always show the Bookmarks Bar in Chrome, make sure that box is checked.

  7. Click Done.

    Figure 1: Import your bookmarks into Google Chrome.

    Figure 1: Import your bookmarks into Google Chrome.
Source: Google

Now your bookmarks and settings are part of Chrome. To view your imported bookmarks, click the Chrome button and hover over Bookmarks again. You see a folder called Imported from Browser Name, which houses your imported bookmarks. From there, you can use the Bookmark Manager to organize them.

Do you notice in Figure 1 how some options are grayed out and have little building icons next to them? You may not have permission to import certain things. If you click the building icon, you may see a message like “This setting is enforced by your administrator.” If you see that, you can try calling your IT department, but likely it’s a company policy that won’t change so you may be out of luck. Hopefully, at least, you can import your bookmarks!

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