How to set up Google Chrome to make it easier and better for you to use. There are many settings within Chrome that you can change and in this guide, we’re going to be focusing on the Start Page, Home Page, Search Engine and Bookmarks.
The Start Page is the very first web page that you see when you first start Chrome (go onto the Internet). The Home Page is the web page that displays when you click the Home button. In Google Chrome you can change these pages to be just about any webpage that you’d like them to be. Also, you can set them to be the exact same page or have them be different pages.
How To Access Google Chrome Settings.
All of Google Chrome’s settings are available under the Settings icon which is the three vertically stacked dots in the top right of the screen.
Left-click on the three dots and then click SETTINGS on the menu that appears.
How To Set The Google Chrome Start Page.
When you open Chrome, the first web page that loads is called the Start Page (well what else would it be called?). You can have pretty much any accessible web page as your Start Page.
The easiest way to set up the start page in Chrome is to begin by navigating to the web page that you want to use. Get onto that page.
In the example below, I’ll set the BBC as the start page, but that’s only an example. You would set what page you want to use.
Setting The Start Page In Chrome.
Navigate to the web page that you want to use as your Start Page.
Then open Chrome’s settings by clicking the 3 vertical dots in the top right-hand corner and then clicking SETTINGS on the menu.
When Chrome’s Settings page opens, you could see either of the two pages below depending on your screen size.
On smaller screens, the Settings menu will be closed. To open the Settings menu, click the 3 horizontally stacked lines.
On Start Up.
To set the Start Page, you need to click the ON START UP link.
When the “On start -up” page opens, you’ll see that you’ve got 3 options.
- Open the new page tab. This is the default setting and will simply open Chrome on the Google homepage.
- Continue where you left off. This setting will open Chrome on the last web page you were looking at when you closed Chrome. Generally, I don’t think this is a great option to choose, but it’s up to you.
- Open a specific page or set of pages. This option allows you to set virtually any web page as your start page. You can even have multiple web pages.
To set a new Start-Up Page for Google Chrome, click the “Open a specific page or set of pages” option.
Then click the “Use current pages” option.
After clicking the “Use current page” option, you’ll see the page’s URL appear.
From now on, every time you open Google Chrome, it will start on this page.
You don’t have to click Save or OK, you can just close the Settings tab or close Chrome completely and then re-open it.
If There Is Already A Start Page Entered.
When you’re trying to set up a start-up page, you may find that there is already one there.
You can have more than one web page open when Google Chrome starts up and if that’s what you want then it’s OK. Just add your new Start Page as well.
But before you do I should warn you that having two or more start pages set will slow Chrome down. That’s because it’s trying to open multiple web pages at the same time.
Personally, unless you’ve got a good reason for having multiple start pages, then I’d always advise that you stick to just the one.
To remove a previously entered start-up page, click the 3 vertically stacked dots beside the entry you wish to remove.
A small menu will open. Click REMOVE.
How To Enable And Set The Home Page In Google Chrome.
The Home Page is the webpage that is loaded when you click the Home button. You can set the Home Page to be the same web page as the Start-Up page or to be a completely different web page.
The Home button is very useful when surfing the ‘net. Generally, you’d use it to begin a new search.
As with most browsers, the Home button in Google Chrome appears as a small house icon on the toolbar.
Clicking on it takes you to whichever web page you have set as the Home Page.
Enabling And Setting The Home Button In Chrome.
By default, Google Chrome doesn’t show the Home button. So if you’re looking at your browser right now and wondering where it is, then it probably isn’t enabled (turned on).
You can enable and set the home page in Chrome by going to the Settings page.
Click the 3 dots in the top right corner and then click SETTINGS on the menu.
Once on the Settings page, click the APPEARANCE tab.
Note, if you can’t see the Appearance tab, click the 3 horizontal lines beside Settings to open the menu.
On the Appearance page, click the toggle switch beside Show Home Button to enable the home button.
Then type in the web address (URL) of the webpage that you want to use as your Home page.
Generally speaking, I would always have your Home page set to Google. The Google page loads up very quickly and allows you to begin searching the Internet.
How To Set The Search Engine In Google Chrome.
At its most basic a search engine is simply a computer that maintains a database of websites and pages.
When you’re on the Internet looking for something, whichever search engine you’re using will try to match your query to the websites and web pages in its database.
As with most browsers, you can set the search engine that Google Chrome uses.
To Set A Search Engine In Chrome.
To set or change the search engine that Chrome uses, click the 3 dots in the top right corner and then click SETTINGS on the menu.
In the Settings panel, click the Search Engine option.
On the search engines page, click the drop-down arrowhead to see a list of available search engines.
By default, Google Chrome will be set to use Google’s search engine (obviously).
But you’re free to choose anyone that you prefer.
You’ll Get Different Search Results From Different Search Engines.
Changing the search engine will affect your search results. Different engines will offer different websites and web pages for any given search query. As an example, below I searched for Golf Clubs using 3 different search engines.
The results will be different because of the different ways in which each search engine works. Whilst the results that you get on page one are often similar, albeit in a different order, as you move down the pages, to page two, page three etc, the websites offered will begin to differ considerably.
If The Start Page, Home Page, Search Engine Resets After The Change.
If you find that after changing your Startup page, Home page, Search engine, or any combination of the three, they simply revert back to the original setting, then something is controlling these settings outside of Chrome.
It could be that you’ve got some malware on your system. How To Scan Your Computer With Malwarebytes.
Bookmarks In Google Chrome.
You can save websites and webpages that you use frequently as Bookmarks. Using a bookmark saves you from having to constantly search for the same website over and over again. Simply clicking on the page’s bookmark will take you straight there.
To set up a bookmark in Chrome, the first thing to do is to visit the web page.
Then click the Bookmark icon on the far right-hand side of the address bar.
The bookmark icon is the star icon.
After clicking the bookmark icon, a small menu will open.
- The Name Box. This is the name of your new bookmark. You can change the name of the bookmark to be anything you’d like it to be.
- The Folder Box. This is the folder in which your new bookmark will be stored. By default, it will be set to the Bookmarks bar. However, you can change that by clicking the drop-down arrowhead to open the list of folders.
If Your Bookmarks Bar Isn’t Showing In Google Chrome.
If you can’t see your bookmarks bar in Google Chrome, then it’s turned off (or disabled) in Chrome’s settings.
To enable the bookmarks bar, click the 3 vertically stacked dots on the right-hand side of the screen.
On the menu that opens, move your pointer onto BOOKMARKS.
On the second menu, click SHOW BOOKMARKS BAR.
Alternatively, you can simply press CTRL – SHIFT – B on your keyboard.
Either way, your bookmarks bar will appear.
Managing Your Bookmarks.
As you build up the number of bookmarks, there will come a time when you’ll need to organise them out into some order. I’ve already written a complete guide here How To Manage Your Bookmarks In Google Chrome .
The guide is a standalone guide, i.e., not a part of the course, so don’t forget to come back here to continue where you left off.
You could always bookmark this page, just saying.
At Home Computer Step By Step Guides.
These simple to follow guides aren’t a part of the course, instead they are standalone guides.
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