in private browsing has disappeared

I used to have the option of in private browsing when opening a new tab in ie8, but since yesterday (I think) it's gone. It's also not available in the safety menu and ctrl-shift-P doesn't do anything either.
In Firefox ctrl-shift-P does work though.

Maybe related: the internet explorer (no add-ons) option in system tools also does nothing.

Any idea what's going on and how I can enable in private browsing again in ie8?
As far as I know there is no parental control in place either, although I don't know how to verify that.
thanks

edit: I think there has been a mcAfee update, cause I now see a McAfee icon in ie that wasn't there until now.
Could that have something to do with it?

It wouldn't surprise me if McAfee had something to do with it.
Check ***here***

This may be a "feature" they added to their other McAfee versions.

If it turns out that McAfee isn't the culprit, check out the thread below. Some users seem to think it's related to the Family Safety settings.

my in private browsing has gone from the safety link? where is it?

Yep, it's McAfee SiteAdvisor that I never asked for.
But now the problem is that it's impossible to get rid of. Sites claim it should be in the installed programs list but it isn't.
It is also suggested to start removing McAfee and then it should give you the option to only remove siteadvisor, but it doesn't.
And I also can't remove it within IE (tools-addons etc).

Unfortunately my employer arranges/pays for the virusscanner so I can't just uninstall everything. Is there a way to remove that !@#$ McAfee SiteAdvisor?

BTW I am tempted to just throw away the SiteAdvisor folder in C:\programs etc. Would that work?

Peruse to the link below -
How to uninstall SiteAdvisor

Read solution 2

Of course, if possible, you could go to another anti-virus program that doesn't give you these type headaches. Or try and run your computer for you.

Site Advisor is not really an antivirus program - it is just supposed to give you information about potential "bad" websites in search results. While it used to be a fairly innocuous tool, it's gotten very invasive and hard to get rid of. Use Inland's link to get rid of it. It came with some download you did which included the Site Advisor as an optional download. Be vigilant as a hawk for these "extras" when you're download something like Adobe Flash updates etc.

Goes to show what I know about McAfee.

Sounds like Site Advisor does the same thing as Malwarebyte, which I've yet to see do anything other than sit in the background watching for malicious sites.

Yeah, Adobe Reader has slipped in Chrome a couple of times when I let it update. At the time I didn't know how to stop the Chrome install, which I didn't want, but have figured out how since then.

Whenever you install software, you have to carefully watch for checkboxes that prompt for whether to install that "something extra" you don't want. They usually pop up during the install of the thing that you do want, but they may also be on the site where you download the software, so you have to uncheck them before you download.

The instructions in the link don't work for me. It says to delete McAfee Security Suite, but my list only has 'security scan enterprise' and when I delete it there's no option to only delete SiteAdvisor. So I'm still stuck with it (I disabled it though).
But the strange thing is that somehow the in private browsing is available again. No idea how that happened.

BTW, I didn't intentionally download anything and there never was an option to check/uncheck SiteAdvisor. I assume it was secretly installed with the latest McAfee update.

That lets you know who was responsible, doesn't it. As long as disabling the Site Advisor works, that's good enough.

During installation, some software allow you to choose what you want to install and where it's to be installed. When this type of installation is encountered it's then very easy to install only what you want.

It's the installation where you don't have a choice where troubles can begin, or unwanted software is installed.

In my two cases with Adobe Reader, the installation went directly to the TOS window, and if you agreed with the TOS, directly to the install window. This window was nothing more than a bar representation of how far along the installation had progressed. The two times I updated Adobe Reader, Chrome was installed automatically. It wasn't until the third update when I aborted the update because Chrome was once again going to be installed.

This time I went to the Adobe site, looked for updates, saw the check box for Chrome checked, unchecked that box and allowed the update to install. Strange that on the fourth update only Adobe Reader was installed. Perhaps the site remembered I had unchecked the box for Chrome on the previous update.

I loathe this unwanted "offers." All my Adobe updates have at least had a screen that asked if I wanted Chrome before I started the download. Bill Pytlovany - the guy who developed Win Patrol - had a blog that said although he could make a LOT of money by having these "offers" on his downloads, he refused because it is just marginally unethical in his opinion.