How to make a blank page in Google Chrome at start-up?

Question

Does Google Chrome has anything similar to about:blank page in IE and Firefox? I did not find any suitable page mentioning this? PS: I tried about:blank but it looked like Chrome is trying to load something before showing blank page...

dess · Answer 1 · 2016-02-29T11:57:13.393

Summarizing all I've found for the subject, including this thread, the simple, safe and resource-effective way is to create minimal extension (as recommended by author of "New Tab Redirect" here: https://github.com/jimschubert/newtab-redirect/wiki#user-content-save-locally ):

Minimal extension

Create two text files:

manifest.json with contents:

{
  "name": "Empty new tab page",
  "description": "Override the new tab page with an empty page, for users who don't like the original or custom new tab pages",
  "version": "1.0",
  "incognito": "split",
  "chrome_url_overrides": { "newtab": "newtab.html" },
  "manifest_version": 2
}

newtab.html with contents:
```
<html>
<body></body>
</html>
```

Save the files in empty directory, which should not be deleted while this extension in use (eg. directory "Empty new tab page" in Documents ) and:

Go to Chrome Extensions page (chrome://extensions/)
Check "Developer mode" (upper right)
Click "Load unpacked extension..." and point to the directory where two files was saved

Developer mode now could be turned off.

Now we've got absolutely blank new tab with absolutely blank URL field.

Note: newtab.html could be customized in a suitable way.

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited May 03 '15 at 12:38

27

Not possible without an extension. Get this one:

Empty New Tab Page https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/empty-new-tab-page/dpjamkmjmigaoobjbekmfgabipmfilij

This extension will load a totally blank new tab and remove the about:blank from the location bar. Works great!

edited May 03 '15 at 12:38

Nemo

1,151

answered May 27 '13 at 01:03

user227012

294

Mehper C. Palavuzlar · Answer 3 · 2012-10-06T06:23:17.540

Did you check Google Chrome's help forum?: Start chrome with blank page.

It's true that if you go to 'Options' > 'Basic' > 'On Startup' > 'Open the following pages' and then add 'about:blank', that chrome starts with an empty page, but still, it doesn't achieve the previous behaviour, because with these settings, on the address bar it will appear 'about:blank', and you have to delete it..Before, (or if you configure the 'Homepage' section to 'Use the new Tab page'), chrome would start with a blank page, and with nothing on the address bar, so you could start typing immediately the link of the page you wanted to go..I know that is a small detail, but to me it makes a big difference..

Try to use this extension. It can solve some of your concerns in my opinion: Speed Dial

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 02 '10 at 12:45

8

On the first Options tab, add about:blank to the set of pages to open when you open chrome. Change setting to On startup: Open the following pages.... Done.

answered Nov 02 '10 at 12:45

mfg

637

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 05 '18 at 08:57

3

The thing with about:blank is that Chrome puts your cursor in front of the "about", so you have to delete it before you can begin typing.

I noticed that if you set your homepage to javascript:void(), it still goes to about:blank, but the cursor is no longer in the address bar. So when you click the address bar, "about:blank" is highlighted and you can immediately start typing over it.

edited Apr 05 '18 at 08:57

Waldir Leoncio

5,558

answered Jun 21 '12 at 13:38

adam0101

402

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 09 '13 at 22:31

My solution was to create the simplest of html files, a completely blank file called index.html in my root.

With "file:///C:/index.html" in Open a specific page or set of pages in Settings, it comes up quickly, and one click in the address bar prepares for a search.

I suppose it could be named anything.

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered May 20 '13 at 09:56

This "solution" is not giving you a blank page but at least you don't have to delete those ugly 'about:blank' or so in the URL bar:

'Settings' > 'On Startup' > 'Open a specific page or set of pages' > 'set pages'

then Add a new page: 'chrome://newtab/'

I found this to be the best solution because:

the URL bar is already empty, no need to select and delete its content every single time
depending on your settings you have also access to your extensions, apps, Google Drive, Youtube and so on

Robert Collier · Answer 8 · 2013-08-01T04:23:38.427

If you open up chrome.dll - you will see that the "New Tab" page is actually loaded via Javascript from an HTML page embedded inside of chrome.dll as a resource. You can remove it (replace it with nothing).

Using Resource Hacker, open chrome.dll.
Use Find Text (Ctrl+F) to search for "NewTabScriptStart". The location will be something like BINDATA\771 or BINDATA\768 or similar depending on your version of Chrome or Chromium variant.
Push Ctrl+A and Delete to delete the entire contents of the page where NewTabScriptStart was found.
Push "Compile Script" button at top.
File->Save

Now your "New Tab Page" is a blank page. In Settings, select On Startup --> "Open the New Tab Page".

score 0 · Answer 9 · 2017-12-26T03:35:04.707

I had this issue with (64-bit) Chrome v.63.0.3239.84 running on my Windows 7 Pro.

In my case even though I had added about:blank as the page to open under On startup > Open a specific page or set of pages, Chrome still opened to the Bing search home page every time I launched it.

Admittedly Bing search was my default search engine, but still in my opinion it should not have overridden the On startup setting.

Anyway, because Bing was my default search engine, and I did not want to set Google or any of the other ones as default, I installed the DuckDuckGo extension (from DuckDuckGo.com) and then removed Bing search from the browser.

Not sure if it is necessary to remove any of the other search engines, but installing the DuckDuckGo extension and setting it as default were in any case part of this resolution.

After these changes my Chrome browser now starts with the about:blank page.

(It could also be that the first opened page can also be controlled through the search engine "Modify" settings.)

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 24 '19 at 11:13

0

I just set it to chrome://blob-internals/, almost a blank page. Or open chrome://about/ and see a list of available pages you can choose from.

answered Jul 24 '19 at 11:13

Max S.

148

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 13 '22 at 03:38

0

Try putting this in the address bar

data:text/html, <html contenteditable>

You can save this "URL" as a bookmark so it's always a click away. (Warning: the stuff you type on that page is not saved when you close the tab)

answered Apr 13 '22 at 03:38

CodyBugstein

1,625

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered May 26 '11 at 10:08

0

As an alternative, go to Wrench->Options and set Home Page to "Use the New Tab page" and On startup to "Open the home page". Instead of getting a blank page, you'll get clickable icons for your most often visited websites.

answered May 26 '11 at 10:08

Roger F. Gay

261

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 16 '14 at 14:03

0

Set "Open a specific page or set of pages" to "http:\". Works for me.

answered Jul 16 '14 at 14:03

user272846

31

score -2 · Answer 14 · edited Aug 24 '13 at 21:52

-2

chrome://newtab/

Set this as your home page. Easy as that.

edited Aug 24 '13 at 21:52

Mokubai

95,412

answered Aug 24 '13 at 21:28

Tom

1

How to make a blank page in Google Chrome at start-up?

14 Answers14

Minimal extension

Linked

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