You can easily customize the shortcuts displayed on Chrome's New Tab page by accessing the "Customize Chrome" option, allowing you to choose between your own preferred links or your most visited websites.
Chrome's New Tab page provides convenient access to websites through its shortcut tiles. Personalizing these shortcuts helps you navigate more efficiently and makes your browsing experience truly yours.
Steps to Change Shortcut Display Options
Chrome offers two main ways to display shortcuts on your New Tab page: "My shortcuts" for links you manually choose, or "Most visited sites" which are automatically generated. Here's how to switch between them:
- Open Chrome and a New Tab: Launch your Google Chrome browser. Ensure you are on a blank New Tab page.
- Access Customization: Look for the Customize Chrome button at the bottom right of the New Tab page. This is often represented by a pencil icon. Click it.
- Select Shortcut Preference: In the customization panel that appears, navigate to the "Shortcuts" section.
- Choose My shortcuts to display a set of links you personally add and manage.
- Choose Most visited sites to automatically show websites you visit most frequently.
Managing Individual "My Shortcuts"
If you've selected "My shortcuts," you have full control over the specific links that appear:
- Adding a New Shortcut:
- Ensure "My shortcuts" is selected in the "Customize Chrome" panel.
- On your New Tab page, click the + Add shortcut button that appears.
- Enter a name for the shortcut and its full URL (e.g.,
https://www.example.com). - Click Done.
- Editing or Removing an Existing Shortcut:
- Hover your mouse over the shortcut you wish to modify on the New Tab page.
- A three-dot menu icon or an "X" will appear. Click it.
- From the options, you can choose to Edit shortcut (to change its name or URL) or Remove it from the New Tab page.
Key Shortcut Types on Chrome's New Tab Page
Understanding the difference between the two main types of shortcuts helps you make the most of your New Tab page:
| Shortcut Type | Description |
|---|---|
| My shortcuts | Manually added links that you specifically want to keep for quick access. Ideal for favorite sites, work tools, or personal dashboards. |
| Most visited sites | Automatically populated links based on your browsing history. Chrome intelligently selects the sites you frequent the most. |
For more details on customizing your Chrome experience, you can refer to the Google Chrome Help Center.
Important Note on Chrome Shortcuts
It's important to distinguish between shortcuts on the New Tab page and Chrome's built-in keyboard shortcuts. The steps outlined above are specifically for managing the website links displayed on your New Tab page. They do not apply to changing browser-wide keyboard commands (like Ctrl+T for a new tab or Ctrl+Shift+N for an Incognito window).
