Set a new home page in Chrome in three steps
Your Chrome home page is the page that loads when you click the home button or open a new window. To change it, open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top right corner, then select Settings. On the left side, click On startup. Choose Open a specific page or set of pages, then click Add a new page and type the web address you want as your home page. Click Add and you're done.
The home page you set here will appear whenever you click the home button (if you have it turned on) or when you open a new window. It won't affect new tabs — those have their own settings. If you want to change what appears on new tabs instead, that's a different setting in the same menu.
If you don't see a home button in your Chrome toolbar, you can turn it on in the same Settings menu. Look for Appearance on the left side and toggle Show home button to the on position.
Key Takeaways
- Your home page loads when you click the home button or open a new window, and you set it in Chrome Settings under On startup.
- You can set multiple home pages by clicking Add a new page more than once, and Chrome will open all of them together.
- The home button may not be visible by default — turn it on in the Appearance section of Settings if you need it.
- New tabs and your home page are separate settings, so changing one does not affect the other.
Turn on the home button if you don't see it
Chrome doesn't show the home button by default, so you may need to enable it first. Click the three dots in the top right, select Settings, then click Appearance on the left side. Look for the toggle next to Show home button and click it to turn it on. The home button will now appear to the left of your address bar.
Once the home button is visible, clicking it will take you to whatever home page you've set. If you haven't set one yet, it will take you to your default search engine. The button looks like a small house icon and stays in the same spot in your toolbar every time you open Chrome.
Set multiple pages to open at once
If you want more than one page to load when you click the home button, you can add them all. In Chrome Settings, go to On startup and make sure Open a specific page or set of pages is selected. Click Add a new page, type the web address, and click Add. Repeat this for each page you want to open.
When you click the home button, Chrome will open all the pages you added in separate tabs. This is useful if you always start by checking the same few websites. You can remove a page later by clicking the three dots next to it in the list and selecting Remove.
Change what happens when you open a new window
The On startup setting controls what Chrome does when you open a new window, not when you open a new tab. You have three choices: Continue where you left off (reopens the pages you had open), Open the New Tab page (shows the blank tab with shortcuts), or Open a specific page or set of pages (loads your home page).
If you want your home page to load automatically every time you start Chrome, choose the third option and set your pages. If you prefer Chrome to remember what you were doing before you closed it, choose the first option instead. These settings don't affect what happens when you click the home button — that always goes to your home page.
Change your home page back to Google or another search engine
If you want to return to Google as your home page, go to Chrome Settings, click On startup, select Open a specific page or set of pages, and type google.com in the page field. You can use any search engine — try bing.com, duckduckgo.com, or yahoo.com. Just type the web address the same way you would in your address bar.
Some websites have special home page addresses that work better than their main page. For example, if you use Gmail, you might set your home page to mail.google.com instead of google.com so it opens directly to your inbox. Check the website's help section if you're not sure what address to use.
Remove or edit a home page you've already set
To change a home page you've already added, go to Chrome Settings and click On startup. Find the page you want to change in the list. Click the three dots next to it and select Edit to change the web address, or Remove to delete it entirely. If you remove all your pages, Chrome will go back to opening the New Tab page by default.
You can also reorder your pages by dragging them up or down in the list. The first page in the list will open first when you click the home button, though Chrome opens all of them at once in separate tabs anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between my home page and my new tab page?
Your home page loads when you click the home button or open a new window (depending on your startup settings). Your new tab page loads when you press Ctrl+T or click the plus sign to open a new tab. They're controlled by different settings in Chrome, so you can have a different page for each one.
Can I set a local file as my home page instead of a website?
Yes. In the On startup settings, click Add a new page and type the file path starting with file:// — for example, file:///C:/Users/YourName/Documents/mypage.html. This works for HTML files stored on your computer, though most people find it easier to use a website instead.
Why does my home page not load when I click the home button?
First, check that the home button is turned on in Appearance settings. Then go to On startup and confirm that Open a specific page or set of pages is selected. If the page address is wrong or the website is down, Chrome won't be able to load it — try typing the address into your address bar to test it.
Does changing my home page affect other people who use this computer?
No. Chrome home page settings are tied to your user account. If someone else uses Chrome on the same computer with a different account, they'll have their own home page setting. Each person's Chrome settings stay separate.
Can I set my home page to open in a private window?
No. The home page setting applies to regular Chrome windows only. If you open a private window, it will follow the same startup rules as a regular window, but your browsing in that window won't be saved to your history.