Automatically open Chrome developer tools when new tab/new window is opened

Question

I have HTML5 application which opens in a new window by clicking a link. I'm a bit tired of pressing Shift + I each time I want to logging network communication to launch Developer tools because I need it always. I was not able to find an option to keep Developer Tools always enabled on startup.

Is there any way to open Developer tools automatically when new window is opened in Chrome?

Answer 1

On opening the developer tools, with the developer tools window in focus, press F1. This will open a settings page. Check the "Auto-open DevTools for popups".

This worked for me.

Answer 2

UPDATE 2:

See this answer . - 2019-11-05

You can also now have it auto-open Developer Tools in Pop-ups if they were open where you opened them from. For example, if you do not have Dev Tools open and you get a popup, it won't open with Dev Tools. But if you Have Dev Tools Open and then you click something, the popup will have Dev-Tools Automatically opened.

UPDATE:

Time has changed, you can now use --auto-open-devtools-for-tabs as in this answer – Wouter Huysentruit May 18 at 11:08

OP:

I played around with the startup string for Chrome on execute, but couldn't get it to persist to new tabs.
I also thought about a defined PATH method that you could invoke from prompt. This is possible with the SendKeys command, but again, only on a new instance. And DevTools doesn't persist to new tabs.

Browsing the Google Product Forums, there doesn't seem to be a built-in way to do this in Chrome. You'll have to use a keystroke solution or F12 as mentioned above.

I recommended it as a feature. I know I'm not the first either.