How to Disable InPrivate Browsing in Microsoft Edge Chromium

InPrivate browsing in Microsoft Edge is similar to Chrome’s Incognito mode. It allows you to browse in a secure and private window where none of the cache, cookies or history is stored. Although it’s good for you, it’s not so much if you have to lend your PC to someone. Or if your child uses your laptop for online browsing, he could easily use this InPrivate mode and browse whatever he or she wishes to. You will have no clue whatsoever. So in those cases, it is advisable to disable the InPrivate Browsing in Microsoft Edge Chromium. So here are the required instructions for the same. However, if you are using the Chrome browser, we have a separate guide on how to disable Incognito Mode in Chrome. Do check it out as well.

Steps to Turn Off InPrivate Window in Edge

In this tutorial, we will be discussing two different methods to disable InPrivate Browsing in Edge Chromium. The first one is pretty short plus easy and just involves executing a single line of command in the Command Prompt. However, for the tech geeks, we have another method lined up. This involves modifying the Registry Editor. If you don’t have much clue about this, it is recommended that you proceed with the first method itself. With that said, here are the steps to disable InPrivate browsing in Microsoft Edge.

Method 1: Disable InPrivate Browsing via Command Prompt

1. Open Command Prompt and run it as an administrator. To do so, click on Windows Icon > search for cmd > right-click and select Run as administrator.
   
2. Now paste the following command in the Command Prompt window and hit Enter:

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

   

3. As soon as you execute this command, “The Operation completed successfully” message will be displayed.
4. Now just restart the browser, click on the overflow icon and you’ll find that the InPrivate window will be disabled in Edge.

If you want to use a different search engine in your web browser, here is how you can change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge Chromium.

Revert the Changes

To bring back the InPrivate Window, launch Command Prompt as an admin and enter the below command:

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

So this was all from this section on how to disable InPrivate browsing in Edge Chromium via Command Prompt. Let’s see how the same could be carried out via the Registry Editor. Talking about private browsing, don’t miss our article on how to manage trackers via Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox.

Method 2: Disable InPrivate Browsing in Edge via Registry Editor

1. Click on the Windows icon, hit Windows+R to open the Run dialog box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
   
2. Copy-paste the below location to the address bar of the Registry Editor:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

3. From the left menu bar, right-click on Microsoft and select New > Key and rename it to Edge.
4. Click on Edge key, on the right side of the screen, right-click on empty space, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
   
5. Rename this new DWORD as InPrivateModeAvailability,
6. Double click on the InPrivateModeAvailability DWORD and change the Value data to 1.
   
7. That’s it. Now restart your PC and open the Edge browser. You’ll see the InPrivate Mode being greyed out.

You can’t just enable and turn off the InPrivate browsing but can also customize the start-up action on the Microsoft Edge browser.

Re-Enable InPrivate Mode

To do so, just change the AllowInPrivate value to 1 from 0 under MicrosftEdge > Main.

So with that, we conclude this guide on how to disable InPrivate Browsing in Microsoft Edge Chromium. Do share this tutorial with others and let them know about this handy trick.

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