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

google-chrome chromium

147,659

Solution 1

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!

Solution 2

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.

Solution 3

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

Solution 4

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.

Solution 5

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.

View more solutions

147,659

jhamu

Web Enthusiastic...

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

jhamu almost 2 years

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...
jhamu over 13 years

Thanks... It seems there is no complete solution till now...
jhamu over 13 years

Thanks for answering... Mehper's link is what I was looking for.
jhamu about 13 years

I am strictly looking for a blank page to come up. Nothing more nothing less.
ale over 11 years

Answers with no useful information except for a link aren't really considered good answers. Please at least summarize what's on the other end of that link.
jhamu almost 11 years

I installed it and it works fine.
jhamu almost 11 years

This does not bring up a blank page. But the default page with most visited sites.
Mladen B. over 10 years

Just to add... When Google Chrome opens, the text 'about:blank' will not be selected, so that you can just start typing your search query in the address bar. You can easily overcome this by simply pressing Esc key, which will select that text and you can start typing your query.
Vineet over 10 years

it works great.
Mei almost 10 years

I still don't know how using a start page like Speed Dial is going to help make a blank new tab, but... for me everything takes too long - a blank page is instant.
Nemo about 9 years

Yes, chrome://newtab/ is full of bookmark icons and screenshots of frequently visited sites (as of Chromium 40). That's the opposite of a blank tab: loading an actual website takes less time!
l --marc l over 8 years

Alternately, Blank New Tab Page extension.
Radon Rosborough almost 8 years

This works great. The only (minor) problem is that the new tab is called "Untitled" for about half a second before changing to whatever is specified in the <title> tag of the .html file (or blank if there is no <title>), which is annoying. As a workaround, I've just specified the <title> as "Untitled", but I would prefer having it be "New Tab", as it is by default.
Cynic about 7 years

If you are launching chromium for automation the '--disable-instant-extended-api' flag seems to work as add_argument to chrome options
Porcupine almost 6 years

Is it Open source? Can we trust it?