So Google is my default search engine, and when I log onto my computer a screen comes up with the Google logo and my six most commonly visited sites underneath.
Or I should say, that’s what USED to happen.
This last week, the commonly visited sites are gone. Instead I get little colorful bouncing balls which when I mouseover, I am told that I can click there to see the Google Doodle.
I do not want to see the Google Doodle. I want to see my six commonly visited sites, so I don’t have to click click click and find them in my Favorites list.
What happened, and is it Google or is it me? Either way, how can I get it back?
I swear, every time this thing updates, it takes away something I found very useful. (And get off my lawn.)
Check your Chrome settings. On upper right, you’ll see three dots one on top of another. Click on that and select “Settings”. In the “On Startup” section, select “Open the New Tab page”. You’re done!
I don’t want to see my six or eight commonly visited sites. I don’t want to see anything but the doodle and the search box. How do I get rid of them? I used to be able to, but I don’t see a way to do it any more.
That would only prevent the most visited sites from appearing in the initial window after launching Chrome. They would still appear in new tabs that are opened once the browser is running.
I don’t know of any direct way to turn off the most visited websites thumbnails. There are extensions that will prevent them from displaying like New Tab Redirect.
As far as I know the only other way is to prevent Chrome from keeping any browser history at all, which there is also no direct way to do within Chrome. You can set Chrome’s history file to read only at the OS level and prevent it from updating it that way. If you clear all browsing history in Chrome then set that file to read only and restart Chrome no websites should ever appear in the new tab window. This video shows how to do that on Windows.
To the OP, the reverse also holds true. There should be no direct way to prevent them from appearing so my first suggestion would be to disable all extensions in Chrome and see if they appear. Failing that it may be necessary to reset Chrome, or create a new user profile, or reinstall completely.
Check size of your browser window. I get 8 at maximum window size. If I shrink the size of my window, at a certain point it will go down to 6, then 4. If I shrink it even further the most visited sites disappear altogether, leaving only the Google Doodle and search box. Maybe the latter is the solution to Colibri’s problem?