4 Ways on How to Disable Microsoft Edge InPrivate Browsing

Edge InPrivate browsing feature is quite similar to Incognito mode in Chrome which lets you browse without leaving behind any history, cookies, or anything else. It’s designed for people that are in love with privacy and data protection. This article shows you how to disable it on Microsoft Edge Chromium 2021.

How to use InPrivate browsing in Microsoft Edge (If you want)

This is a feature that stops Microsoft Edge from saving information regarding the browsing session. It allows blocking or allowing websites that collect information automatically regarding browsing habits. This is not active by default when you open a window.

To use this:

• In the first step, you need to open the browser and select the more actions button.
• For the menu that appears, you need to click the new InPrivate window. The new browser that appears displays it in the upper left corner. The tab which appears is InPrivate and it displays a description of it.
• Now you can surf the web by typing in a search phrase or web address there in the search or you can enter in the web address box and hit enter, or by clicking in the address bar, typing in the web address, and clicking enter.
• To turn it off, hit the close button there in the upper right corner of it.

Follow along!

4 Working Methods on How to Disable InPrivate Browsing in Microsoft Edge Chromium – Windows 10 and macOS

Use Registry Editor

Local group policy editor is not accessible if you are using Windows 10 home, but you can still disable via this:

• In the first step you need to open the registry editor, locate the following locations:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

• Click-right on the Microsoft key there in the left pane, click on new > key, and name it to Microsoft Edge. Click on the new one that is created and select new > key, and name it as Main.
• Chose the main key on the left, click right on the empty space in the right pane. Click new > DWORD (32-bit Value), name it as AllowInPrivate, and set value to zero.

• Reboot system for the changes to take place. Open it. The new option shall be greyed out.

Now if you wish to turn on this again, follow the same instructions mentioned above but you need to change the value from 0 to 1.

Disabling InPrivate browsing using Group policy

For this:

• In the first step, you need to click the windows key + R together, type in gpedit.msc there in the run box and hit enter.

• Local group policy editor shall open, you need to browse to the following location:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Edge

Now, on the right side, you need to double-click Allow InPrivate browsing policy.

• To turn this off, you need to select disable, press apply, and then ok.

• After this, you need to open your Browser. Click on the More actions button which is three buttons. The drop-down menu appears; the option New InPrivate window shall be greyed out.

Use Command Prompt

For this:

• In the first step, you need to open the command prompt, run it as an administrator. For this you need to click on windows > search for the cmd > click right and choose to run as administrator.
• After this you need to paste the following command and press enter:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge /v InPrivateModeAvailability /t REG_DWORD /d 1

• Once done, you shall get the message “The operation completed successfully”.
• Restart browser, select overflow icon and you shall see it has been disabled on the edge.

If things to do not go as planned and you would like to revert the changes follow the below:

Want to bring it back? Then for this:

• Open the command prompt as an admin, type the following command:

REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge /v InPrivateModeAvailability /f

Turn it off in an Apple Mac

This one requires running certain commands through the macOS terminal.

For this:

• In the first step, you need to open the finder, select Go on the macOS menu bar, click on utilities.
• After this, you need to double-click the icon which is labeled as terminal in order to launch a macOS terminal.
• Then copy and paste the following command into the terminal:

defaults write com.microsoft.edge InPrivateModeAvailability -integer 1

To execute it, hit enter and then exit the terminal.

• Now you need to save your work, restart it and open Microsoft Edge Chromium.

Bring up the menu; the option to launch its windows shall appear grey. Moreover, shift + cmd + N keyboard shortcut that is tied to functional also will not work.

If you wish to re-enable it at some later time, then for this you simply need to type in the following command into terminal windows and hit enter.

defaults write com.microsoft.edge InPrivateModeAvailability -integer 0

Note: Make sure to restart Mac for the changes to take place.

Your Turn

I hope the 4 different methods of disabling InPrivate browsing in Microsoft Edge have helped you fix this issue in your Windows 10 PC. If it still does not help you, please leave feedback in the comments below and I will find an alternative solution.