Route only Chrome through Reach

Reach's tray has a switch for each browser it found on your machine — Chrome, Chrome Beta, Chromium, Brave, Edge, Opera, Firefox and Safari. Turn Chrome on and the others off and only Chrome exits through the gateway. Exactly how isolated that is depends on your platform, so here's what each switch actually does.

Linux — truly per-browser

On Linux each Chromium-family browser gets its own PAC file served by the tray (http://127.0.0.1:8091/chrome.pac, …/brave.pac, and so on) and its own local relay port. Reach installs a per-user copy of the browser's .desktop launcher that adds --proxy-pac-url= pointing at that file and writes the same URL into the profile's Preferences, so both fresh launches and already-running windows pick it up.

Switching a browser off makes its PAC answer DIRECT and closes its relay port, so the browser falls back to your normal connection immediately — no restart, and no effect on any other browser or app. Firefox is handled separately through its profile's user.js.

macOS — per-browser for Chromium, system-wide for Safari

Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera and Chromium each have a proxy entry written into their own Default/Preferences file (fixed_servers → 127.0.0.1:8082), so switching Chrome on routes Chrome only. Safari has no per-app proxy setting: its switch sets the macOS system HTTP/HTTPS proxy, which other Mac apps honour too. Leave Safari off if you want only Chrome routed.

Chrome, Edge, Brave and Opera on Windows all read the Windows system proxy (the WinINet setting under Settings → Network → Proxy), and that's what Reach's switch sets to 127.0.0.1:8082. Turning on Chrome therefore also routes Edge, Brave and any other app that follows the system proxy. Firefox stays separate (it has its own setting) and is only routed if you switch it on.

If you need Chrome — and only Chrome — routed on Windows, leave the tray's browser switches off and launch a second Chrome profile with its own proxy flag:

& "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" `
  --proxy-server="127.0.0.1:8082" `
  --user-data-dir="$env:LOCALAPPDATA\ReachChrome"

That profile uses Reach; your normal Chrome and every other app do not. Make a shortcut of the command so it's one click. The same flags work on Linux and macOS if you'd rather not use the tray switches at all.

Which browsers does the tray manage?

Browser	Linux	macOS	Windows
Chrome, Chrome Beta, Chromium, Brave, Edge, Opera	per-browser PAC	per-profile Preferences	system proxy (shared)
Firefox	`user.js` in each profile	`user.js` in each profile	`user.js` in each profile
Safari	—	system proxy	—

Only browsers detected at startup appear in the menu. Organisation admins can pre-set these switches for every member through group policy — see per-app routing.

Common questions

Chrome is routed but a site still loads from my real IP — why?

Check the site's domain isn't matched by a Direct rule (Microsoft sign-in endpoints are bypassed by default outside restricted regions), and that Chrome wasn't started with a proxy flag of its own. On Linux, restart Chrome once after the very first switch-on so it loads the updated launcher.

Can I route Chrome through Reach but keep one site direct?

Yes — add a domain rule with the Direct action; rules apply across every routed browser. See proxy modes.

Does switching Chrome on affect Chrome's own settings permanently?

Reach only writes the proxy entry, and rewrites it to direct (or removes the PAC) when you switch off or quit the tray. If Reach crashes with Chrome on, opening the tray again clears any stale setting.