In this blog, MiniTool Software will introduce what Incognito mode is in Chrome. In addition, you can use one of the methods mentioned in this post to disable or block Incognito mode in Chrome on your Windows computer or Mac device if you need to do this.
What Is Incognito Mode in Chrome?
While you are browsing sites using Chrome, your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms will be saved on your device. So, it is not safe if you are using a public computer. While, if you open a window in Incognito mode, your information will not be saved. That is, Incognito mode can help keep your browsing private from other people who use the device.
To use Incognito mode in Chrome, you can click the 3-dot menu at the top-right corner and select New Incognito window.
Then, a new Chrome window will open in Incognito mode. While you are browsing in Chrome Incognito mode, you are not signed into any accounts or sites by default.
To get out of Chrome Incognito mode, you just need to close all Chrome tabs.
You can learn how Chrome Incognito mode works from this page: How Chrome Incognito keeps your browsing private.
However, for some reason, you just want to disable Chrome Incognito mode on Windows or Mac. We will show you how to block Incognito mode in Chrome using different methods.
How to Disable Incognito Mode in Chrome on Windows 11/10/8/7?
On your Windows computer, you can use Registry Editor or Command Prompt to block Incognito mode in Chrome. You can just select one way as your wish.
Way 1: How to disable Chrome Incognito Mode Using Registry Editor?
You can create a new key in Registry Editor to block Chrome Incognito mode. However, improper operations in Registry Editor bring influence your system. So, you’d better back up the registry key before making some changes.
After that, you can use these steps to disable Chrome Incognito mode on your Windows PC:
Step 1: Click the search icon from the taskbar and search for registry editor.
Step 2: Select Registry Editor from the search results to open it.
Step 3: Go to this path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies. You can directly copy and paste this path to the address bar in Registry Editor and press Enter to access this path.
Step 4: Right-click Policies and go to New > Key.
Step 5: Name this newly created key Google.
Step 6: Right-click Google and go to New > Key.
Step 7: Name this newly created key Chrome.
Step 8: Click into Chrome, then right-click in the empty space in the right panel and go to New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Step 9: Name this new key IncognitoModeAvailability.
Step 10: Double-click this key to open it. Then, change its value data to 1.
Step 11: Click the OK button to save the change.
Step 12: Close Registry Editor. You need to close Chrome if it is open.
After these steps, Incognito mode is disabled successfully in Chrome. When you click the 3-dot menu in Chrome, you will discover that the New Incognito windows option is grayed out. The Ctrl+Shift+N keyboard shortcut is also unavailable.
How to re-enable Chrome Incognito mode?
If you want to use Chrome Incognito mode again, you can go to the same path in Registry Editor, then change to value data of the key IncognitoModeAvailability to 0. You can also directly delete this key.
Way 2: How to disable Chrome Incognito Mode Using Command Prompt?
The other way to remove Incognito mode in Chrome is to use Command Prompt:
Tip: You can use run the command mentioned in this part in Windows Terminal.
Step 1: Click the search icon from the taskbar and search for cmd.
Step 2: Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. This will run CMD as administrator.
Step 3: Copy and paste this command to Command Prompt and press Enter.
REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome /v IncognitoModeAvailability /t REG_DWORD /d 1
This will create a key in Registry Editor just like way 1 does.
Step 4: If you have created this key, you need to type Y and press Enter to overwrite this key. If this key does not exist, you can directly see a message saying The operation completed successfully.
This way has the same effect as way 1.
How to restore Chrome Incognito mode?
If you want to unblock Chrome Incognito mode, you can use this command in Command Prompt:
REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome /v IncognitoModeAvailability /t REG_DWORD /d 0
How to Disable Incognito Mode in Chrome on macOS?
You can use these steps to disable Chrome Incognito mode on your Mac computer:
Step 1: Press Cmd + Space to open the spotlight search bar.
Step 2: Type Terminal in the search bar and press Enter to open a terminal window.
Step 3: Type defaults write com.google.chrome IncognitoModeAvailability -integer 1z into Terminal and press Enter.
Step 4: Restart your Mac computer.
After these steps, Chrome Incognito mode is blocked successfully. You can open Chrome and see that the Incognito mode is grayed out and the keyboard shortcut also doesn’t work.
How to enable Chrome Incognito mode on Mac?
You can use the following command if you want to use Chrome Incognito mode again:
defaults write com.google.chrome IncognitoModeAvailability -integer 0z
Bottom Line
These are the ways to disable or block Incognito mode in Chrome. You can also find ways to re-enable Chrome Incognito mode here. We hope these are the methods you are looking for.
Should you have other related issues that need to be fixed, you can let us know in the comments.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Stella has been working in MiniTool Software as an English Editor for more than 8 years. Her articles mainly cover the fields of data recovery including storage media data recovery, phone data recovery, and photo recovery, videos download, partition management, and video & audio format conversions.