Mac Manual How To Disable Private Browsing

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Recently I needed to disable 'private browsing' on one of my computers. Of course my first course of action was scouring Google. I found a variety of answers from 'it's not possible' to 'use a plug-in.'

Not feeling super hopeful, I did try searching plugins and add-ons, but found nothing that would work. Back to Google.

How to enable private browsing in Safari on OS X Yosemite 1. Launch Safari on your Mac running OS X Yosemite or higher. Click the File menu and select New Private Window - Alternately, you can hold down the command key and go and enter N. If you are a Mac user, you can follow the steps given below to disable the Incognito Mode in Chrome Browser using the following terminal command. Make sure you have already closed the Chrome Browser. Navigate to Finder Go Utilities. Open the Terminal app.

I finally stumbled across this Github repo about setting application policies which had a policy for 'DisablePrivateBrowsing'. It appeared it may be possible by editing the Firefox plist file.

Mac Manual How To Disable Private Browsing Browser

These Mac specific instructions got me going in the right direction. Here are the steps I ultimately took. I should note, I'm running Firefox 80.0.1.

First, I enabled [enterprise] policies. From terminal, I ran this command:

After policies were enabled, I just needed to run the specific command to set the 'DisablePrivateBrowsing' policy.

If Firefox is running, quit and restart. From 'File,' the option for a 'new private window' should no longer be available. 🎉


Bonus for Chrome

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In this guide, we will be listing the steps to disable the Incognito Mode in Chrome browser for Windows and macOS. For the privacy freaks out there, Chrome provides a handy way for browsing privately. Just open an Incognito tab and you’re good to go. During this session, nothing will be stored. These include caches, cookies, data, and more importantly your browsing history. As long as you are the rightful owner of that PC, it makes sense making full of use of this Incognito Mode for a safer and private browsing experience.

However, consider this scenario. Suppose you have given your PC to your friends, colleagues, or younger siblings. In those cases, you would never know what types of websites they have opened using your PC. And if you have your children sharing your PC as well, then it becomes even more important to keep a tab on the websites they visit every now and then. Therefore, the best way to deal with those cases is simply disabled the Incognito Mode in Chrome. If you want to learn how you can clear cache for individual websites, read our guide.

Mac Manual How To Disable Private Browsing Internet Explorer

In this guide, we will be listing just that. There are two methods to do so. The first one is much easier and only requires a copy-paste of command in the Command Prompt window. But those who are on a geeky side could try out the second method which is a tad longer and requires some changes in Window’s Registry Editor files. Furthermore, we will also be listing the instructions to re-enable the same using both these methods. With that said, here are the required instructions to disable the Incognito Mode in Chrome browser on Windows and Mac.

Disable Chrome Incognito Mode on Windows

Method 1: Using Command Prompt

  1. Launch the Start Menu and type cmd to open up the Command Prompt window. Make sure you have administrative rights over it. For that, right-click on it and select Run as Administrator.
  2. Next, execute the below command and hit Enter:
  3. The message ‘The operation completed successfully signifies that you have successfully disabled the Incognito Mode in Chrome.
  4. Head over to the Chrome browser, relaunch it and then click on the overflow icon.
  5. The Incognito Mode option will now be disabled. If you still find it, then head over to Task Manager and kill off all the processes related to Chrome. Reopen Chrome and check, Incognito Mode will have been disabled now.

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Browsing

Re-Enable It

You could also re-enable it anytime you wish. For that, just paste the below command in the command prompt (with administrative privileges):

So this was all from this section of the guide to disable Chrom’es Incognito Mode via Command Prompt. Let’s have a look at the steps to do so via Registry. On that note, also check out the steps to effectively manage website notifications in Chrome.

Using Registry Editor

  1. Click on the Windows icon and hit Windows+R to open the Run dialog box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
  2. Type in the below location in the address bar of the Registry Editor and then select the Chrome option from the left menu bar.
  3. Now right-click on IncognitoModeAvailability file and select Modify. However, if there isn’t any such file, you could manually create the same. To do so, right-click on an empty space, select New > DWORD (32-Bit) Value. Now name this file as IncognitoModeAvailability and proceed ahead to disable Incognito Mode in Chrome.
  4. Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value dialog box will now open. Enter 1 under the Value Data field and hit OK.
  5. Go ahead and restart the Chrome browser (make sure to kill all Chrome background processes from Task Manager). Incognito Mode will no longer be there.

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Mac Manual How To Disable Private Browsing

Bring Back Incognito Mode

To re-enable it, change the Value Data field’s entry from 1 to 0 in the IncognitoModeAvailability file. That’s it!

With that, we conclude this tutorial on how to disable Chrome’s Incognito Mode via Command Prompt and Registry method. Even the Ctrl+Shift+N shortcut will be disabled as well.

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Disable Chrome’s Incognito Mode on macOS

If you are a Mac user, you can follow the steps given below to disable the Incognito Mode in Chrome Browser using the following terminal command.

  1. Make sure you have already closed the Chrome Browser.
  2. Navigate to Finder > Go > Utilities.
  3. Open the Terminal app.
  4. Now type the following command to disable the Incognito Mode and press the Enter key.
  5. Restart your Mac.
  6. When your computer boots up, the Incognito Mode option in the Chrome Browser will be unavailable.

Enable Incognito Mode

In case you decide to revert the changes you made and bring back Chrome’s Incognito Mode on your Mac, you can execute the following command via the Terminal and restart your computer.

Private

Do let us know which method you end up using. Likewise, we would also love to hear your views on this tutorial. Do drop in your opinions in the comments section below.

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