How to Disable Guest Mode Browsing in Chrome

Google Chrome’s Guest mode provides excellent tools for allowing others to surf the web on your computer. However, it still has the same pitfalls associated with Incognito mode. You won’t know what your ‘guests’ are up to as the browser erases all traces of browsing activity after leaving Guest mode. This is a cause for concern, especially if you have children around.

So, simply disabling Incognito mode in Chrome won’t cut it, especially if you always want to keep browsing activity on your computer in one tab. Fortunately, turning off Guest mode in Chrome is also relatively easy. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how you can do this on both Windows and macOS.

Disable Chrome Guest Mode Browsing on Windows – Command Prompt

If you’re using Chrome on Windows, you’ll need to create a registry entry from scratch to disable Guest mode. However, instead of diving into the Registry Editor and doing this manually, there is a much faster way that involves instructing the operating system itself to create the key using the Command Prompt console.

Note:

Start by pressing Windows-S to bring up Windows Search. In summer command prompt in the search box and then click Run as Administrator to launch the Command Prompt console with administrative privileges.

Type (or copy and paste) the following command in the Command Prompt console (scroll to the far right), and then press Enter:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome /v BrowserGuestModeEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0

Quit Chrome and then restart your computer. Restart Chrome and click your profile; you will no longer find the option to open the Guest mode window listed. Other methods of opening Chrome in Guest mode will not work either.

Note:

If you want to re-enable Guest mode browsing in Chrome later, you must delete the registry entry you created earlier. To do this, type (or copy and paste) the following command into a Command Prompt console with administrative privileges (scroll all the way to the right) and then press Enter:

REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome /v BrowserGuestModeEnabled /f 

Don’t forget to restart your computer afterward. Otherwise, you won’t be able to see the change reflected in the browser.

Disable Chrome Guest Mode Browsing on Windows — Registry Editor

If you want to use Registry Editor to disable Guest Mode in Chrome, the following steps will help you do that.

Stage 1: Press the Windows Key + R shortcut to open the Run box. Next, type regedit Click on the search box and then OK to launch the Registry Editor.

Step 2: Add the following path to the Registry Editor address bar and then press Enter:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome

Stage 3: In the left-hand navigation of the Registry Editor window, select the folder labeled Chrome. Next, right-click an empty area on the right side of the window, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step 4: Name the newly created registry entry — BrowserGuestModeEnabled.

Step 5: Double-click the BrowserGuestModeEnabled registry entry. Enter the value 0 in the field under Value Data, and then click OK. Then exit Registry Editor.

Restart your computer and then launch Chrome. Guest mode must be disabled.

If you want to re-enable guest mode, navigate to the same location in Registry Editor as before and then delete the BrowserGuestModeEnabled registry key. Restart your computer to apply the changes.

Disable Chrome Guest Mode Browsing on Mac

Disabling Guest mode in Chrome on Mac is pretty simple. A simple macOS Terminal command will help you get the job done in record time.

Start by pressing Shift+Cmd+U to bring up the Utilities folder on your Mac. Next, double-click Terminal.

Type the following command in macOS Terminal and then press Enter:

defaults write com.google.Chrome BrowserGuestModeEnabled -bool false 

Force quit Chrome and then restart it. Click on your profile and you will see that Guest mode is disabled.

If you want to re-enable Guest mode later, type the following command in a Terminal window and then press Enter:

defaults write com.google.Chrome BrowserGuestModeEnabled -bool true

Make sure to exit and restart Chrome to apply the changes.

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If you want to know what your browser is used for, it wouldn’t bode well to allow others to browse in Guest mode. While it is always possible for users to manually delete their browsing data, it is much better to create multiple user profiles that you can easily monitor later. Regardless, disabling Guest mode (along with Incognito mode) goes a long way in getting rid of the convenience factor of unlimited private web browsing.

Next: Tired of using Chrome in dark mode? Here’s how to disable it on Windows and macOS.