Don’t need incognito mode in Chrome? This article shows two easy ways to block or turn off Chrome’s incognito mode completely.
Incognito Mode in Chrome allows private browsing such that your browsing data, cookies, and other temporary internet-related files are not saved for that incognito session. To open incognito mode, all you have to do is click the three dots icon on the top-right corner and select the New Incognito Window option. As I said earlier, anything you browse in incognito mode will not be saved or added to your browsing history. Though useful in certain situations, the Chrome incognito mode may not be desirable or needed in others.
For example, if you are a parent, you might want to remove incognito mode so that your kids cannot browse privately. This lets you track, control, and protect them from malicious websites. The same is true if you are a network or system administrator controlling several PCs in an organization.
Whatever the reason, if you don’t need it, you can easily disable incognito mode in Chrome in just a few steps. In this quick and easy guide, I will show three easy ways. Follow any method to block the incognito mode.
Table of contents:
- Turn off or Block Incognito Mode using Registry
- Disable incognito mode with a command
- Enable incognito mode in Chrome
Turn Off Incognito Mode
To turn off incognito mode, you have to create and modify the IncognitoModeAvailability registry value. This is because Chrome has no built-in option.
You can either download and run the pre-made registry files or create and modify the registry manually. Both methods work the same. It’s just that the download reg files will automate the whole process, while the manual method requires you to create and modify the registry value.
Download disable incognito mode reg file (automatic method)
To make things easier for you, I create a reg file that automatically creates and sets the IncognitoModeAvailability value in the Registry Editor. To start off, download the automatic registry file using the link below, right-click on the zip file, and select the “Extract All” option. When prompted, click the Extract button.
The above action extracts the file to the same folder. Next, open the extracted folder and double-click on the “DisableIncongnitoMode.reg” file. Click “Yes” in the confirmation and message prompts.
A quick tip: You can open any .reg file with Notepad to see its contents.
Finally, restart the Chrome browser, and the incognito mode is disabled.
Disable incognito mode using Registry
1. Open the Windows Registry Editor.
First of all, press the Start icon on the taskbar or Windows key on your keyboard to open the Start menu. Next, search for Registry Editor and click on the appropriate search result to open the Registry Editor. You can also use the regedit command in the Run window (Windows key + R).
2. Go to the “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies” folder in Registry.
After opening the Registry Editor, paste “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies” in the address bar of the Registry Editor and press the Enter key on your keyboard. This will take you to the Policies folder in the Registry Editor application.
3. Create a new folder under Policies and name it Google.
Once you are in the Policies folder, we have to create a new sub-folder under it. So, right-click on the Policies folder and select New, and then Key. This creates a new folder under the Policies folder. Set the folders name as Google.
4. Create a new folder under Google and name it Chrome.
After creating the Google folder, we need to create another sub-folder under it. So, right-click on the Google folder and select “New > Key.” Use “Chrome” as the folder name.
5. Create IncognitoModeAvailability DWORD value in the Chrome folder.
Now, we can proceed to create the value that controls incognito mode in Chrome. Select the Chrome folder, right-click on it, and choose the “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value” option. Set the new value name as “IncognitoModeAvailability” (without quotes).
6. Change its Value Data from 0 to 1.
Once the value is created, double-click on it. Next, change the Value Data from 0 to 1 and click on the “Ok” button.
7. Close the Registry Editor and Relaunch the Chrome browser.
Finally, close the Registry Editor. Next, relaunch the Chrome browser if it is opened. After you reopen, the Open Incognito Window option is disabled in Chrome. Additionally, you will also see another message, “Managed by your organization.” It indicates that some or all the options are managed by the system administrator. i.e., you.
Disable Incognito Mode With a Command
If you don’t want to download reg files or modify the registry manually, you can use Command Prompt to turn off incognito mode. Basically, we will add and change the IncognitoModeAvailability registry value with a single-line command. As you can guess, this makes it really easy.
- Press the Windows key + X to open the Power User menu.
- Select the Terminal (Admin) option.
- (Optional) You can also open Command Prompt as admin.
- Click the down arrow icon on the Terminal title bar.
- Select the Command Prompt option from the menu.
- Paste this command and press Enter on your keyboard.
REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome /v IncognitoModeAvailability /t REG_DWORD /d 1 - If you see a confirmation prompt, type “Yes” and press Enter.
- Close the Terminal window.
- Relaunch the Chrome browser.
- With that, you’ve disabled incognito mode.
Enable incognito mode in Chrome
If you want to enable incognito mode after disabling it, follow any of the below methods.
Method 1:
Open the Command Prompt window as admin and run the below command. After that, close the command window and relaunch the Chrome browser.
REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome /v IncognitoModeAvailability /t REG_DWORD /d 0
Method 2:
Download the automatic registry file, open the zip file, and double-click on the “EnableIncongnitoMode.reg” file. If prompted, click “Yes” in the confirmation and message prompts. Relaunch the Chrome browser.
Method 3:
Press the start key, search for Registry Editor, and open it. Next, go to that “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policie\Google\Chrome” folder. Right-click on the “IncognitoModeAvailability” and select the Delete option. Click on the Yes/Delete button in the confirmation prompt. Relaunch the Chrome browser.
Once the incognito mode is enabled, you also create an incognito mode shortcut for quick and easy access if you use it frequently.
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That is all. It is that simple to turn off or block incognito mode.
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, check out the below useful Chrome guides.
