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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...

1
  • Google Chrome (and several from other google apps) are quite unconventionally dictator sometimes : Desktop, Mobile (Android) version or whatever. Not only such basic things are hidden from user-options, but even inaccessible from advanced-options. They attitude to all people as noobs, as they knowingly ignore that there are "advanced" users, who just need to customize basic things, and they don't expose those settings. That's why I switched to Opera.
    – T.Todua
    Jan 31, 2021 at 19:38

14 Answers 14

28

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!

5
  • 1
    I installed it and it works fine.
    – jhamu
    Jul 5, 2013 at 12:16
  • If you are launching chromium for automation the '--disable-instant-extended-api' flag seems to work as add_argument to chrome options
    – Cynic
    Jun 9, 2017 at 0:25
  • 1
    Is it Open source? Can we trust it?
    – Porcupine
    Aug 8, 2018 at 13:00
  • @l--marcl Blank New Tab Page URL has changed to: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blank-new-tab-page/…
    – icc97
    Jan 31, 2023 at 4:08
  • For those of us who prefer and/or by policy to never install extensions, except possibly those written ourselves, please see @dess answer below.
    – storsoc
    Jan 30 at 17:33
39

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.

4
  • 1
    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. Sep 26, 2016 at 15:14
  • Still valid solution in 2023/10. The only change, in manifest.json it's better to use "manifest_version": 3 or else you get a warning message regarding deprecation.
    – Krackout
    Oct 25, 2023 at 6:37
  • Working very fine. It seems to affect Edge, Chromium and Chrome at once.
    – cskwg
    Nov 30, 2023 at 4:09
  • Fantastic and still valid as of 2024 (January.) Possibly extensions on the Chrome store are doing exactly (and hopefully, ONLY) this, but as a developer, my personal policy is to never install extensions. Also, because I will surely forget that I've done this, I've added the path to the extension/page to the markup as well (and to make it easier on the eyes, <body style="background-color: #444;"> )
    – storsoc
    Jan 30 at 17:55
10

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

3
  • Thanks... It seems there is no complete solution till now...
    – jhamu
    Nov 2, 2010 at 12:47
  • 2
    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.
    – ale
    Oct 6, 2012 at 5:25
  • 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.
    – Mei
    Sep 30, 2014 at 17:25
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.

2
  • Thanks for answering... Mehper's link is what I was looking for.
    – jhamu
    Nov 2, 2010 at 12:48
  • 1
    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.
    – Mladen B.
    Nov 6, 2013 at 10:55
3

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.

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.

1
  • it works great.
    – Vineet
    Nov 21, 2013 at 4:48
2

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
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  • 1
    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!
    – Nemo
    May 3, 2015 at 11:56
1

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).

  1. Using Resource Hacker, open chrome.dll.
  2. 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.
  3. Push Ctrl+A and Delete to delete the entire contents of the page where NewTabScriptStart was found.
  4. Push "Compile Script" button at top.
  5. File->Save

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

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.

1
  • I am strictly looking for a blank page to come up. Nothing more nothing less.
    – jhamu
    Jun 7, 2011 at 8:09
0

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

0

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.)

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.

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)

-2
chrome://newtab/

Set this as your home page. Easy as that.

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    This does not bring up a blank page. But the default page with most visited sites.
    – jhamu
    Aug 26, 2013 at 18:54

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