How to Completely Disable ‘Guest Mode’ in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge includes a “Guest Mode” feature designed to let temporary users browse the web on your computer without accessing your personal bookmarks, history, passwords, or saved sessions. While Guest Mode is a fantastic privacy feature for shared family PCs, it can be problematic in managed environments. In a corporate or educational setting, allowing users to spawn a completely unmonitored Guest window can allow them to bypass extension-based content filters, enterprise telemetry, or strict browsing policies. If you need to ensure that every single Edge window opened is tied to a specific, managed profile, you must remove the Guest Mode option entirely.

This guide explains how to completely disable the Guest Mode feature in Microsoft Edge using the Windows Registry, preventing the “Browse as guest” option from ever appearing.

Disable Guest Mode via Registry Editor

The most permanent way to enforce this restriction is by creating a specific policy key within the Windows Registry. This method requires administrator privileges and is fully supported on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

1. Ensure Microsoft Edge is completely closed.
2. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run dialogue box.
3. Type regedit and press Enter to launch the Registry Editor. Click Yes if prompted by User Account Control.
4. Navigate down the left-hand directory tree to the following path:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

5. Check if a folder (Key) named Edge exists under Microsoft. If it does not, right-click on the Microsoft folder, select New > Key, and name it Edge.
6. Select the Edge key. Right-click anywhere in the empty space on the right side of the window and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
7. Name this new DWORD exactly: BrowserGuestModeEnabled.
8. Double-click the newly created BrowserGuestModeEnabled value to open its properties.
9. Ensure the “Value data” field is set to 0. (A value of 0 strictly disables Guest Mode, while a value of 1 enables it).
10. Click OK and safely close the Registry Editor.

Verify the Policy is Active

To verify that the change was successful, open Microsoft Edge. Click on your profile picture (or the generic profile avatar) located in the top-right corner of the browser window, just to the left of the three-dot menu.

In the dropdown menu that appears, look at the bottom section under “Other profiles.” The button that usually says “Browse as guest” (often accompanied by an icon of a person with a hat) will be completely missing. Furthermore, attempting to launch Edge via the command line with the --guest flag will simply launch a standard, profile-bound browsing window instead. Your browser is now completely locked to managed user profiles.