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| Disable "Continue where you left off" in Windows, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox to protect privacy on shared PCs.
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"I sat down at the office PC and saw my coworker's Gmail still open in every tab." If that sounds uncomfortably familiar, the culprit is the "Continue where you left off" feature. On a shared computer it is a privacy risk, not a convenience. Here is how to turn it off everywhere.
✅ Key Takeaways
1. The setting lives in three separate places: Windows itself, the browser, and cross-device Resume.
2. Disabling it in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox takes under 60 seconds per browser.
3. On managed PCs, IT admins can enforce the change via Registry Editor or Group Policy so users cannot toggle it back on.
1. 🔍 Why "Continue Where You Left Off" Is a Problem on Shared PCs
On a personal laptop, resuming your last session is a time-saver. On a shared PC in an office, library, classroom, or family home, it becomes a direct privacy leak. When the next user opens the browser, every tab from the previous session reloads automatically. That can expose email inboxes, banking dashboards, social media feeds, and confidential documents to someone who should never see them.
The risk goes beyond browsers. Windows itself has a feature called Restartable Apps that saves open applications when you sign out and relaunches them when you sign back in. If two people share the same Windows account, the second person could see File Explorer windows, documents, and apps left open by the first. A Medium article by security researcher Vivek Maurya notes that after a crash, another user can reopen the browser and gain full access to the previous session.
In my experience, the biggest issue is that most users do not even realize this feature is active. It is turned on by default in Edge and Firefox, and many Chrome users enable it without thinking about shared environments. Disabling it takes less than a minute per application, but you need to know where to look.
2. 🪟 How to Disable It in Windows 11 (and Windows 10)
Windows has two system-level settings that can resume your previous session. Both need to be turned off on any shared PC.
Setting 1 — Restartable Apps. Open Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options. Scroll down to the "Additional settings" section. Find the toggle labeled "Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in" and switch it to Off. This is off by default in Windows 11, but some enterprise images or updates may have enabled it.
Setting 2 — Cross-Device Resume. Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, Microsoft introduced a cross-device Resume feature that can reopen apps you were using on another device. To disable it, go to Settings → Apps → Resume and toggle it off. You can also disable it from Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, navigating to the Startup tab, right-clicking "Cross Device Experience Host," and selecting Disable.
Windows 10 equivalent. Open Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options and scroll to the Privacy section. Toggle off "Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up after an update or restart." Also go to Settings → System → Shared experiences and turn off "Share across devices."
3. 🌐 How to Disable It in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
Even after you disable the Windows-level settings, each browser has its own session-restore option. All three need to be configured individually.
Google Chrome. Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Settings → On startup. You will see three options. Select "Open the New Tab page" instead of "Continue where you left off." This ensures Chrome always starts fresh with a blank tab.
Microsoft Edge. Click the three-dot menu and go to Settings → Start, home, and new tabs. Under "When Edge starts," select "Open the new tab page" instead of "Open tabs from the previous session." If Edge keeps asking to restore pages after a crash, you can disable that dialog separately through the Registry, which is covered in the next section.
Mozilla Firefox. Click the hamburger menu and select Settings → General. Under the Startup section, uncheck "Open previous windows and tabs." For an extra layer of protection, type about:config in the address bar, accept the warning, search for browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash, and set it to false. This prevents Firefox from restoring the previous session even after an unexpected crash.
| Browser |
Path |
Select This |
| Chrome |
Settings → On startup |
Open the New Tab page |
| Edge |
Settings → Start, home, and new tabs |
Open the new tab page |
| Firefox |
Settings → General → Startup |
Uncheck "Open previous windows and tabs" |
| Windows |
Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options |
Toggle off "Automatically save my restartable apps" |
4. 🛡️ Registry and Group Policy Methods for IT Admins
If you manage shared PCs in an office, school, or library, relying on individual users to change their settings is not realistic. Registry edits and Group Policy let you enforce the change across every machine on the network.
Disable Restartable Apps via Registry. Open Registry Editor (Win + R, type regedit, press Enter). Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. Create or modify a DWORD (32-bit) value named RestartApps and set its data to 0. A value of 1 enables the feature; 0 disables it.
Disable Edge Restore Dialog via Registry. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge. Create a DWORD (32-bit) value named HideRestoreDialogEnabled and set it to 1. This suppresses the "Restore pages?" prompt that appears after a crash, which is one of the most common ways previous sessions get exposed on shared machines.
Disable Shared Experiences via Group Policy. Open the Local Group Policy Editor (Win + R, type gpedit.msc). Navigate to Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Group Policy. Find "Continue experiences on this device" and set it to Disabled. For Chrome and Edge, you can also deploy startup-page policies through their respective ADMX templates to force "Open the New Tab page" across all managed devices.
💡 Pro Tip for IT Admins
Microsoft offers a dedicated Shared PC Mode for Windows 10 and 11. It automatically deletes user profiles after sign-out, disables session resume, and cleans temporary files. You can configure it through Intune or a provisioning package. See learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/shared-pc/set-up-shared-or-guest-pc for the full setup guide.
5. ⚠️ Common Mistakes That Leave the Feature Running
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| These four common mistakes can leave session restore active even after you think you disabled it.
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Even after following the steps above, some users find that their sessions still restore. Here are the most common reasons.
Mistake 1 — Disabling the browser setting but forgetting the Windows setting. The browser and the operating system have separate resume features. If you only change Chrome's startup option but leave Windows' Restartable Apps toggled on, Windows can still relaunch the browser with its last session intact.
Mistake 2 — Ignoring the crash-recovery dialog. Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all have a separate crash-recovery prompt that appears when the browser did not close cleanly. Even with "Continue where you left off" disabled, this dialog will offer to restore the previous session. In Firefox, you need to set browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash to false in about:config. In Edge, the HideRestoreDialogEnabled registry value handles it.
Mistake 3 — Browser sync pulling tabs from another device. If a user is signed into Chrome or Edge with their personal account and sync is enabled, tabs from their phone or home computer can appear on the shared PC. The fix is to either sign out of the browser entirely or disable the "Open tabs" sync option in the browser's sync settings.
Mistake 4 — Not logging out of the Windows account. If two people share the same Windows account and one simply walks away, the next person inherits the full session regardless of any settings. On shared PCs, each user should have a separate Windows account, or the machine should use Guest Mode or Shared PC Mode.
⚠️ Important
Disabling session restore does not delete browsing history. On shared PCs, users should also clear browsing data on exit or use Incognito/InPrivate/Private Browsing mode for sensitive tasks. The best practice is separate user accounts combined with disabled session restore.
6. ✅ Quick Verification Checklist After You Disable It
After making all the changes, run through this quick test to confirm everything is working correctly.
Step 1 — Open several tabs in your browser. Visit a few distinct websites so you can easily tell whether they reappear later. Leave at least one logged-in page open, such as an email client.
Step 2 — Close the browser normally. Click the X button. Reopen the browser. It should start with a blank new tab, not your previous session. If any old tabs reappear, double-check the browser settings from section three above.
Step 3 — Simulate a crash. Open the browser, open a few tabs, then force-close it using Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc, select the browser process, click End Task). Reopen the browser. If it offers to restore the previous session, the crash-recovery setting still needs to be disabled.
Step 4 — Sign out and sign back in. Open a few applications (File Explorer, Notepad, a browser), then sign out of Windows and sign back in. If any of those apps reopen automatically, the Restartable Apps setting in Windows is still active. Go back to Settings, Accounts, Sign-in options, and verify it is off.
If all four tests pass, the shared PC is properly configured. No previous sessions will carry over to the next user.
7. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Does disabling session restore also delete my browsing history?
No. Disabling "Continue where you left off" only prevents the browser from reopening previous tabs. Your browsing history, cookies, and saved passwords remain intact. To remove those as well, enable "Clear browsing data on exit" in your browser settings or use Incognito mode.
Q2. Will this affect my bookmarks or saved passwords?
No. Session restore and bookmarks are completely separate features. Your saved passwords and bookmarks will remain available as long as you are signed into the browser or they are stored locally.
Q3. What if I want to keep the feature on my personal laptop but disable it on the shared office PC?
The setting is per-device and per-user-profile. You can keep "Continue where you left off" enabled on your personal machine and disabled on the shared PC without any conflict. Just make sure the shared PC settings are changed under the correct user account.
Q4. Can I use Incognito mode instead of disabling the feature?
Incognito mode is a good supplement, but it is not a complete solution. Users have to remember to open it every time, and any regular browsing windows still save session data. Disabling the setting at the system level is more reliable because it applies automatically.
Q5. Does Windows Shared PC Mode handle all of this automatically?
Yes. Shared PC Mode in Windows 10 and 11 deletes user profiles after sign-out, disables session resume, and cleans temporary files. It is the most thorough option for schools, libraries, and public kiosks. You can configure it through Microsoft Intune or a provisioning package.
Q6. I disabled the setting but Edge still asks to restore pages after a crash. Why?
Edge has a separate crash-recovery dialog that is independent of the startup setting. To suppress it, open Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge, create a DWORD value named HideRestoreDialogEnabled, and set it to 1. This prevents the restore prompt from appearing after an unexpected shutdown.
📌 Three-Sentence Summary
1. "Continue where you left off" must be disabled in three places on a shared PC: the Windows system settings, the browser startup settings, and the crash-recovery configuration.
2. For Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, switch the startup option to "Open the New Tab page" and disable crash-based session restore separately.
3. IT admins can enforce all of these changes network-wide using Registry edits, Group Policy, or Windows Shared PC Mode.
Leaving "Continue where you left off" enabled on a shared PC is one of the most common and easily overlooked privacy mistakes. It takes less than five minutes to disable the feature across Windows, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, but the protection it provides is significant. Emails, bank accounts, and confidential documents no longer appear when the next person sits down.
For home users sharing a family computer, the simplest approach is separate Windows accounts combined with the browser changes described above. For IT administrators managing dozens or hundreds of machines, Registry edits, Group Policy, and Shared PC Mode offer scalable enforcement that does not depend on end users remembering to change their settings.
The bottom line is straightforward. On any PC that more than one person touches, session resume should be off by default. Run the four-step verification test from section six to confirm, and you will have answered the question once and for all: on shared PCs, how do you disable "continue where you left off"?
Disclaimer · This article is for informational purposes only. Registry edits can cause system instability if performed incorrectly. Always back up your registry before making changes. Consult your IT department before modifying Group Policy on managed devices.
E-E-A-T · Author: White Dawn · Years of IT and tech content creation · References: Microsoft Learn, Eleven Forum, PureInfotech, NinjaOne, Tom's Hardware, Medium (Vivek Maurya) · Published 2026-02-23
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