How to Completely Disable ‘Incognito Mode’ (Private Browsing) in Google Chrome via Registry

Google Chrome’s “Incognito Mode” is a popular feature that prevents the browser from saving your browsing history, cookies, site data, or information entered in forms. While this is excellent for general privacy, it can be a massive problem for parents, educators, or corporate administrators who need to monitor the internet activity of the people using their computers. If a child or employee opens an Incognito window, local monitoring software and DNS filters often cannot track their activity, completely bypassing parental controls.

Because Incognito Mode is a core feature of Chrome, Google does not provide a simple toggle switch in the settings menu to turn it off. If you want to permanently remove the “New Incognito window” button and completely disable private browsing on a Windows PC, you must enforce a strict policy using the Windows Registry.

Disabling Incognito Mode via the Registry Editor

By creating a specific Google Chrome policy key in the Registry, you can legally lock the browser out of Incognito mode, forcing all users to browse normally where their history can be monitored.

1. Press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialogue box.
2. Type regedit and press Enter. (Click Yes if the User Account Control prompt asks for permission).
3. In the Registry Editor, use the left-hand sidebar to navigate to the following path:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies
4. Right-click on the Policies folder, select New, and click Key. Name this new key Google.
5. Right-click on your newly created Google key, select New, and click Key again. Name this one Chrome.
6. Click on the Chrome folder so it is highlighted. In the blank white space on the right side of the window, right-click, select New, and choose DWORD (32-bit) Value.
7. Name this new value exactly IncognitoModeAvailability.
8. Double-click on IncognitoModeAvailability and change the “Value data” box to 1.
9. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.

Verifying the Change

You must completely restart Google Chrome for the policy to take effect. Close all open Chrome windows and reopen the browser. When you click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner, you will see that the “New Incognito window” option is completely greyed out or missing entirely. Even if a user attempts to press the Ctrl + Shift + N keyboard shortcut, the browser will refuse to open a private window.