How to customize the Chrome new tab page

Change the background, shortcuts and colour

The fastest route is the new tab itself — there is a button in the bottom right corner that opens the full customization panel.

1. Open a new tab (Ctrl + T, or Cmd + T on a Mac).
2. Click "Customize Chrome" in the bottom right corner.
3. Under "Background", pick an image from the collections or use "Upload from device" for your own.
4. Under "Shortcuts", switch between "My shortcuts" and "Most visited sites" — or hide the shortcuts entirely.
5. Under "Colour and theme", set the colour scheme. It applies to the whole browser, not just the new tab.

The choice belongs to the Chrome profile. If you use several profiles, set each one up separately — and if you are signed in, it travels to your other devices.

Set the homepage and the home button

"Homepage" and "new tab" are two different things in Chrome, and mixing them up is the most common reason a setting does not do what was expected. The homepage is where the house icon in the toolbar leads.

1. Open the three-dot menu in the top right and choose "Settings".
2. Switch to "Appearance" in the left-hand list.
3. Turn on "Show home button".
4. Underneath, choose between "New Tab page" and a custom address, and enter the address.

This changes only where the house icon leads. The page that opens on Ctrl + T is untouched by it.

Choose which pages open when Chrome starts

The third setting covers the program start — what you see when you open Chrome fresh.

1. Go to "Settings" in the three-dot menu.
2. Switch to "On startup" in the left-hand list.
3. Select "Open a specific page or set of pages".
4. Use "Add a new page" to enter an address — or "Use current pages" to adopt the tabs you have open right now.

Where Chrome stops on its own

With the three menus above, the built-in room to manoeuvre is used up. What comes next does not work without an extension:

• No content of its own. Chrome shows an image and shortcuts, but no news, no live data, no topic search.
• A single view only. All shortcuts sit in the same pile — work, games and shopping cannot be separated.
• No real folders. Shortcuts stand flat next to each other and cannot be grouped.
• Little room. The number of shortcuts is capped and cannot be extended.
• No switching between contexts. A second, differently arranged start page is not provided for.

If none of these bother you, you are done here — you do not need an extension.

Replace the new tab with an extension

Extensions are allowed to take over the New Tab page. Chrome treats that as a deliberate change and asks once before it takes effect.

1. Open the extension in the Chrome Web Store and read its permission list.
2. Click "Add to Chrome" and confirm the installation.
3. Open a new tab. Chrome reports that an extension has changed this page.
4. Confirm the change — if you do not confirm, Chrome restores its own page.

Chrome only ever lets one extension take over the new tab. If one is already installed, the last one you confirm wins; the other stays installed but no longer sees the new tab.

Eight new tab extensions compared

Back to the Chrome default

The way back is as short as the way in, and it is worth knowing before you install your first extension.

1. Open the three-dot menu and go to "Extensions" (or type chrome://extensions into the address bar).
2. Turn off the toggle on the extension in question — or choose "Remove".
3. Open a new tab: Chrome immediately shows its own page again.

Turning it off is enough for a quick test; you do not have to uninstall anything. Your own Chrome customizations from the first section are kept.

The new tab does not change — why

Four causes cover nearly every case where the setting does not take:

• Another extension already owns the new tab. Switch off the other candidates in the extensions overview and check again.
• The prompt was not confirmed. Chrome resets the page if the "An extension changed this page" notice was dismissed instead of accepted.
• The browser is managed by an organization. On school and company devices the start page can be set by policy; a notice appears at the top of the settings in that case.
• A different profile is open. Customizations and extensions apply per profile — in a guest or second profile the tab looks different again.

Try it without installing anything

If you want to see what a content-rich new tab feels like before installing an extension: NX1 runs the same interface as a web app in the browser — no account, no installation. If you like it, you can put it on the new tab as an extension afterwards.