How to Enable or Disable Tracking Prevention in Microsoft Edge

To enable or disable tracking prevention in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11, go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services and use the Tracking prevention toggle. To enforce a level across managed devices, use Group Policy, Intune, the registry, or PowerShell.

Tracking prevention is a built-in feature designed to enhance user privacy by blocking known trackers across websites. If you manage an IT environment or work for an MSP, you may want to manage tracking prevention to minimize behavioral profiling and reduce the likelihood of personalized advertisements tracking users across the internet.

Other reasons why you may want to prevent browser tracking include:

• Enforce consistent privacy standards across the organization by locking down configurable tracking levels.
• Block cross-site tracking and restrict third-party behavioral analytics, which can pose privacy and IT compliance risks.
• Improve compatibility with trusted internal applications by loosening restrictions or adding site exceptions where necessary.
• Prevent end-user overrides, ensuring that security and privacy policies stay in effect on shared or managed systems.

Are you a visual learner? Watch our video: How to Enable or Disable Tracking Prevention in Microsoft Edge.

Recommended deployment strategies

Managing Microsoft Edge tracking prevention

Method 1: Using Microsoft Edge Settings

Use Cases: Ideal for individual users who want to customize their own browser privacy

Prerequisites:

• You do not need administrator rights for this.
• Requires Microsoft Edge version 79 or later

Steps:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Navigate to Settings > Privacy, search, and services.
3. Find the Tracking prevention section.
4. Toggle the main switch:
   • On: Tracking prevention is enabled.
   • Off: Tracking prevention is disabled.
5. If enabled, choose a protection level:
   • Basic: Blocks harmful trackers, but content and ads stay personalized.
   • Balanced: This is the default. It blocks harmful trackers and trackers from sites you have not visited, so content and ads are less personalized.
   • Strict: Blocks harmful trackers and the majority of trackers from all sites, with minimal personalization. Some parts of these sites might not work.
6. (Optional) Select Exceptions, then Add a site, to allow trackers on a specific site.

Method 2: Using Group Policy

Use Cases: Recommended for IT administrations managing corporate desktops and VDI environments who require uniform tracking protection across all devices

Prerequisites:

• You need administrative rights.
• Make sure you download the latest Microsoft Edge ADMX templates.
• To apply the policy to every device in a domain, add the templates to your Group Policy central store and use the Group Policy Management Console.
• You must have Group Policy access.

Steps:

1. Install Microsoft Edge ADMX templates if not already present.
2. Open the relevant Microsoft management tool:
   • To configure a single device:
     1. Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and click Enter.
   • To configure domain devices:
     1. Press Win + R, type gpmc.msc, and click Enter.
     2. Edit a Group Policy Object (Local Group Policy Editor is not available in Windows Home)
3. Open the policy Block tracking of users’ web-browsing activity and set it to Enabled.
4. Under Options, choose Off, Basic, Balanced, or Strict. The descriptions of each can be found in Method 1.
5. Click OK.
6. Open an elevated Command Prompt and execute gpudate /force to apply the changes immediately. Alternatively, you can restart your computer.

Tip: If you set the policy to Disabled or leave it Not configured, users choose their own level. To force tracking prevention off, set the policy to Enabled and choose Off.

Method 3: Using Registry Editor

Use cases: Useful for script-based deployments on machines not joined to a domain or for one-off configurations

Prerequisites:

• You must have administrative privileges.
• It is highly recommended that you back up your Registry before attempting any changes. Incorrect configurations can lead to system instability.

Steps:

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and click Enter.
2. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
   (Create the Edge key if it does not exist.)
3. Create or edit the following values: TrackingPrevention (REG_DWORD)
   

   Value	Tracking prevention level
   0	Off
   1	Basic
   2	Balanced
   3	Strict

Tip: To understand what each level does, please refer to the steps mentioned in Method 1.

4. Exit Registry Editor.
5. Restart Microsoft Edge to apply the new settings.

Method 4: Using PowerShell

Use cases: Excellent for IT teams looking to push configurations through scripts or endpoint management systems like NinjaOne

Prerequisites:

• Requires an elevated PowerShell session
• It is preferable to have knowledge of script signing policies and local admin rights.
• It is recommended that you sign up for the free crash course, PowerShell for IT Ninjas.

Steps: 

1. Open an elevated PowerShell session.
2. Execute the commands as needed:

Enable tracking prevention (balanced level): 

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" -Force

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" -Name "TrackingPrevention" -Value 1

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" -Name "TrackingPreventionLevel" -Value "Balanced"

Disable tracking prevention:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" -Name "TrackingPrevention" -Value 0

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" -Name "TrackingPreventionLevel" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Method 5: .reg file example

Use Cases: Useful for small-scale deployment or when administrators don’t want to maintain full scripting frameworks.

Prerequisites:

• You must have admin privileges and file access.
• Ensure the source of the .reg file is trusted to avoid malicious registry entries.

Steps:

1. Open Notepad.
2. Place the desired command:

(A) Enable tracking prevention (strict)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]

"TrackingPrevention"=dword:00000001

"TrackingPreventionLevel"="Strict"

(B) Disable tracking prevention

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]

"TrackingPrevention"=dword:00000000

3. Save as a .reg file.
   1. Double-click the saved file, approve the prompt to import it, and restart Microsoft Edge.

   Method 6: Use Microsoft Intune

   Use cases: Recommended for organizations that manage Windows devices with Microsoft Intune and need to apply the setting to cloud-managed devices.

   Prerequisites:

   • You need an Intune role that can create and assign configuration policies.
   • Target devices must be enrolled in Intune.

   Steps:

   1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center and go to Devices > Configuration.
   2. Select Create > New policy.
   3. For Platform, select Windows 10 and later. For Profile type, select Settings catalog, then select Create.
   4. Name the policy and select Add settings.
   5. Search for “tracking prevention,” and under Microsoft Edge, select Block tracking of users’ web-browsing activity.
   6. Choose Off, Basic, Balanced, or Strict.
   7. Assign the policy to your device groups, then review and create it.

   Allow trackers on specific sites

   If a trusted internal application stops working under a stricter level, add its address to the exceptions list instead of lowering the level for everyone.

   • Individual users: In Edge, go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Tracking prevention, select Exceptions, then select Add a site.
   • Managed devices: Enable the policy Configure tracking prevention exceptions for specific sites under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge in Group Policy, or add it to an Intune settings catalog policy. Enter one URL pattern per entry, such as [*.]contoso.com.

   Verify that the policy applied

   1. Open Microsoft Edge and go to edge://policy.
   2. Search for “tracking.”
   3. Confirm that TrackingPrevention shows the value you set and that its status is OK.
   4. Go to edge://settings/privacy and confirm that the Tracking prevention level is greyed out and shows that your organization manages it.

   ⚠️ Things to look out for

   Risks	Potential Consequences	Reversals
   Enabling strict mode globally	Some websites may not load properly or show broken login UIs.	Switch to balanced level via GPO or Registry.
   Registry errors	It can cause Edge to crash or behave unpredictably.	Use System Restore or manually correct the key.
   Incomplete ADMX installation	Group Policy won’t show up.	Download the official ADMX from Microsoft and import it.
   PowerShell script fails silently	No change occurs on the target device	Add logging and run as an administrator.
   Conflicting local/user settings	Users may still try to override settings.	Lock down settings via enforced policies.
   Wrong registry value (for example, 1 instead of 2)	Edge applies Basic instead of the level you intended.	Correct the TrackingPrevention value and confirm it in edge://policy.
   Group Policy set to Disabled	Users keep their own level instead of tracking prevention turning off.	Set the policy to Enabled and choose Off.

Manage Edge tracking prevention across your organization

Tracking prevention in Microsoft Edge gives IT teams and MSPs a practical way to enforce privacy standards across managed devices. Choose the method that matches how you manage devices: Edge settings for a single user, Group Policy for domain-joined devices, Intune for cloud-managed devices, and the registry, PowerShell, or a .reg file for scripted or non-domain deployments.

Related topics:

• How to Enable or Disable Send Do Not Track Requests in Microsoft Edge in Windows 10
• What Is Geo-Tracking?
• What Is Geofencing?