Browser Profile Management
Google Chrome supports multiple user profiles. If you share a computer with a family member, you can each have a separate Chrome profile with distinct bookmarks, history, and saved passwords. By default, Chrome makes it incredibly easy to add a new profile—anyone using the browser can simply click the profile icon in the top right corner and select “Add” to create a fresh, empty browser environment.
While great for families, this is problematic in specific environments like school computer labs, retail kiosks, or strictly managed office workstations. If you are an IT administrator or a parent who wants to lock down a computer so that users cannot create burner profiles to bypass web filters or hide their browsing history, you must disable the ability to add new people to Chrome.
How to Disable the “Add Person” Feature
You can turn off profile creation in the Chrome Settings menu.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner and select Settings.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on You and Google.
- In the main pane, click on Manage your profile (or simply look under the “Other people” section if you have an older version).
- Navigate to the section specifically dealing with profile management and look for the toggle switch labelled Let anyone add a person to Chrome.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position.
Once disabled, the “Add” button will completely disappear from the profile switching menu in the top right corner of the browser. Users will be strictly limited to browsing within the profiles that already exist on the machine.