How to change your start page in Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox

Start page, homepage and new tab: what's the difference?

Browsers use three different settings that people often call the “start page”. Knowing which one you want saves a lot of clicking around in settings.

• Startup page: the page (or pages) that open when you launch the browser.
• Homepage: the page that opens when you press the home button (the little house icon) in the toolbar.
• New tab page: what you see when you open a new tab. Most browsers only let you pick from a few built-in options here, and a custom address usually needs an extension.

You can set the first two to any web address. Menu names can differ slightly between browser versions, but the steps below follow the current layout.

Google Chrome

On Windows, Mac and Chromebook

1. Click the ⋮ menu at the top right and choose Settings.
2. Select On startup in the left menu.
3. Choose Open a specific page or set of pages, then click Add a new page.
4. Enter the address (for example https://webdeck.me) and click Add. Remove any pages you don't want with their ⋮ menu.

To set the home button as well, go to Settings → Appearance, turn on Show home button, select the custom address option and enter the same address.

On Android

Tap ⋮ → Settings → Homepage, turn it on and choose Enter custom web address. The page opens when you tap the home icon.

On iPhone and iPad

Chrome for iOS has no homepage setting; it reopens your last tabs. Add the page to your home screen or bookmarks instead, as described in the Safari section below.

Microsoft Edge

1. Click the ··· menu at the top right and choose Settings.
2. Open Start, home, and new tabs.
3. Under When Edge starts, choose Open these pages and click Add a new page.
4. Enter the address and save.

On the same screen, turn on Show home button on the toolbar and enter the address to make the home button open it too. Edge's new tab page can be customized (layout, content), but it can't be replaced with another site without an extension.

Safari on Mac and iPhone

On a Mac

1. Choose Safari → Settings from the menu bar and open the General tab.
2. Type the address in the Homepage field.
3. Set New windows open with and, if you like, New tabs open with to Homepage.

Safari on the Mac is one of the few browsers that lets new tabs open your own page without an extension.

On iPhone and iPad

Safari for iOS doesn't have a homepage setting, but there are two good alternatives:

• Add to Home Screen: open the page, tap the Share button and choose Add to Home Screen. It gets its own icon and opens like an app.
• Add to Favorites: from the Share button, choose Add to Favorites. Favorites appear every time you open a new tab.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Click the ≡ menu and choose Settings.
2. Select Home in the left menu.
3. Next to Homepage and new windows, choose Custom URLs… and paste the address.

To have Firefox open your homepage on launch, go to General and make sure Open previous windows and tabs is turned off. For New tabs, Firefox offers Firefox Home or a blank page; a custom address needs an extension.

Use WebDeck as a start page you can take anywhere

A browser's start page only remembers one address per browser and device. If you use a work PC, a home laptop and a phone, you end up setting it up again and again, and your favorite sites still live in separate bookmark lists.

WebDeck is a free start page that keeps your favorite sites as shortcuts and shows the same list on every device and browser you sign in on:

• Set https://webdeck.me as your startup page or homepage using the steps above, then sign in once.
• Sort shortcuts into groups, reorder them by dragging, and find them by name from the search box. Press / to jump to search, and press Enter with no match to search the web with Google, Naver, Bing or DuckDuckGo.
• On your phone, add WebDeck to the home screen or install it as an app so your start page is one tap away.

See Help for every feature, or learn how to move your bookmarks to another device.

If your start page keeps changing back

• An extension controls it: if Chrome or Edge shows a notice such as “controlled by an extension”, open the extensions page and remove or turn off extensions you don't recognize, then set the page again.
• Unwanted software: free programs sometimes change your search engine and start page. In Chrome, use Settings → Reset settings to restore the defaults, and uninstall programs you don't remember installing.
• Managed by your organization: on work or school devices, an administrator may lock these settings. Ask them, or use a home screen shortcut or bookmark instead.
• Sync puts it back: if you sign in to the same browser account on several computers, change the setting on one device and give sync a few minutes to update the others.