How to Disable Incognito Mode of Chrome in Windows 10

Want to disable Incognito mode of Chrome in Windows 10? In this post, you will read step by step guide on how to do that.

 

Whenever you visit any website in Google Chrome it keeps the important data on the page on your hard drive. These files are used for various purposes varying from storing the history of the website which you have visited the website particular favorites in a text file called as cookies.

Although this data is used just to improve the browsing experience. On the other hand, if you’re really concerned about your privacy, then somewhere this process is really against your privacy. To help users with this, all the modern browser offer Incognito mode including Google Chrome.

Google Chrome Incognito mode protect your overall privacy by not keeping local data that could be regained later. This mode disables web cache and browsing history in the Chrome browser. Incognito mode is also known with various names like Private Browsing, Private Window, InPrivate Browsing, Porn mode, and Private mode.

Incognito Mode is a really useful feature of the Chrome browser. To open Incognito mode in Chrome:

1. Simply click on three dot menu icon available at the top right side of the screen.
2. From the menu click on New Incognito Windows.

Alternatively, you can press CTRL + SHIFT + N keyboard combination to open it quickly.

But there are users who want to disable Incognito Mode of Chrome in Windows 10. There might be a variety of reason why users want to disable Incognito mode. May be their smart kids taking advantage of incognito mode to visit websites which are not good for them. Or there might be other strong reasons about which I’m not aware of.

Disable Incognito Mode of Chrome in Windows 10

Whatever is the reason behind disabling Google Chrome incognito mode. I decided to write this step by step tutorial to help them. Officially there is no setting available in the browser to disable it. So you need to follow the work around steps written in upcoming lines:

1. Download Google Chrome Enterprise bundle package. For that visit this page and scroll down to reach Download Chrome bundle section.

Here you need to download the bundle package depending on your system architecture. Click on the Chrome Bundle 32-bit and Chrome Bundle 64-bit.

2. After that extract Google Chrome Enterprise Bundle Zip file to obtain folder with the same name.

In Windows 10, simply right click on the zip file and select Extract all from the context menu. In the next window select location where you want to save and click on Extract button.

3. After that open Local Security Policy. For that, type the same in the Start menu search bar. When the same app appears in the search result. Click to open it.

4. In Window under Security Settings navigate to Local Policies -> Security Options. On the right side scroll down until you find the security option shown in the following screenshot:

And make double click on it.

5. In the next window use the drop-down and change Local Security Settings from “Prompt from consent for non-windows binaries” to “Prompt for credentials“.

After that click on Apply and then OK button.

6. Launch Group Policy Editor. For that, type gpedit.msc in the Start menu search bar. When the search appears in the search result click to open it. Refer to the following screenshot for a clear idea:

This time system will ask you enter your system login details to open the Group Policy Editor. You need to enter PIN or Password to login to run the program.

7. In the Group Policy Editor under Computer Configuration make a right click on Administrative Templates and from the context menu select “Add/Remove Templates…“.

Now this will open a new Add/Remove Templates windows.

8. Here you need to click on the Add button and navigate to Google Chrome Enterprise Bundle folder (Extracted in Step 2) -> Configuration -> adm -> en-us -> chrome.adm. Select this file and click on the Open button.

9. This will add Current Policy Template for Chrome. Just like shown in the following screenshot:

Simply click on the Close button.

10. In the Group Policy Editor navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Classic Administrative Templates -> Google. On the right pane, look for Google Chrome settings which read “Incognito Mode Availability”

11. Double click to open Incognito mode availability settings window. Here you need to change settings from Not configured to Enabled.

Under options use the Incognito mode availability drop-down and set Incognito mode disabled. After that click on the Apply button and then OK button.

12. Close all the windows which you have opened while following above steps.

13. Open Google Chrome browser, click on three dot menu icon. Now you will notice that New Incognito Window option is not available in the context menu.

That’s it 🙂

This is the only workaround which is working fine Disable Incognito Mode of Chrome in Windows 10 in 2017. I have personally tested it on my machine and its working flawlessly. Why don’t you give a try to this work around and let me know your thoughts in the comments?

Also, I would like to listen from you why you want to disable Incognito mode of Chrome in Windows 10?