If you want to prevent the use of Incognito Mode in the Google Chrome web browser, you can disable the feature using these steps. Hold down the Windows Key and press “R” to bring up the Run box. Type “regedit“, then press “Enter“. Navigate to “HKEYLOCALMACHINE” “SOFTWARE” “Policies” “Google” “Chrome“.
This simple how-to will show you how to modify the registry to disable Incognito Mode in Google Chrome Web Browser.
4 Steps total
Step 1: Open the Registry Editor
Go to Start -> Run/Search and type 'regedit'
*As always it is recommended to perform a backup of your registry before making any changes.
Step 2: Browse to registry location
Browse to the following registry location
HKEY_Local_MachineSOFTWAREPoliciesGoogleChrome
NOTE: You may have to add new Keys for Google and Chrome.
Step 3: Add new dword 'IncognitoModeAvailability'
Add a new dword 'IncognitoModeAvailability' with a value of '00000001' to 'HKEY_Local_MachineSOFTWAREPoliciesGoogleChrome'
Step 4: Restart Google Chrome
If you currently have Google Chrome open you will need to restart it in order for the changes to take effect. At this point, the Incognito mode option should be disabled.
6 Comments
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mikedavis2 Nov 24, 2014 at 04:04pm
I tried it and it didn't work in Windows Vista. Does it still work in the newer versions of Chrome?
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sandrahollerman Feb 19, 2015 at 10:20pm
It didn't work for me either. What else can I try?
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arivuorela Feb 22, 2015 at 10:34am
If you are an administrator, you can do this, but you have to use group policy editor “gpedit.msc” instead of “regedit”. The end result in Window’s registry will be the same, but you have to use group policy editor to do it.
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=259236 : “Chrome 28 has a change that queries Windows for GPO directly instead of going through the registry, hence registry settings that get created out of band will be ignored.”
Instructions: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/187202?hl=en (look at every ‘+’s under ‘Windows’)
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kevinmote Sep 25, 2015 at 09:44pm
I confirmed that this does not work. I tried doing it using the group policy editor as well. Nothing worked. This is ridiculous, Google.
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levimill Jan 6, 2016 at 10:28pm
Here's a new How-To that works on Windows Vista7: https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/125579-disable-chrome-incognito-mode
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angelafrisk Nov 8, 2017 at 12:29am
WikiHow has a method that worked well for me. It doesn't use the registry, which did not work for me. https://www.wikihow.com/Turn-Off-Private-or-Incognito-Browsing