Who doesn’t know that Chrome is the most popular Internet browser, and I am also an addict of this fastest browser when it comes to desktop PC. On upgrading to Windows 10, I tried to be familiar with brand new browser Microsoft Edge that comes packed within Windows 10, but my tilt to Chrome made me stick with Chrome and there are several valid reasons while Chrome is my all-time favorite browser;
- Fastest execution
- quickest page loading
- Far more stable than Firefox (Chrome is barely crashed)
- Plenty of useful extensions
However, Chrome lacks some basic customizations that it should have been had. Yes, it is absolutely true when it comes to bookmarks bar and thumbshots of recently opened pages to be appeared on fresh tab. There is no option to hide both these things by default on new tab. It doesn’t matter for most of the users, but in some cases explicit bookmarks and recent pages thumbs may disturb privacy of some users. For instance, you have browsed a mature content page few hours ago, and later you have to dip into the Internet with your child or with your parents or anyone else, before him/her, you may feel embarrassed if mature content appears – you open a new tab, and it shows the thumbnail of adult content page. How would you feel in that situation?
Same thing applies to bookmarks publicly shown below the address bar. If you bookmark a page that you don’t let others see, how will you hide that bookmark? By default, bookmarks go to Bookmarks bar folder that shows bookmarks explicitly below address bar when you open a new tab. To conceal your secret bookmarks, you need to withdraw all your private bookmarks from default bookmarks folder “Bookmarks Bar” to a separate folder. You can utilize a folder that gets created automatically (other bookmarks), or you can set up your own. If you want to categorize your bookmarks, then create sub-folders in this folder.
Step by step guide to hide bookmarks in Bookmarks bar
Click on a small toggle icon on top right (that is for browser settings). On clicking this button Chrome shows the drop-down settings panel
In this dropdown setting panel click on Bookmarks Manager
In Bookmarks Manager, you will see two folders;
- Bookmarks Bar
- Other Bookmarks
Go to Bookmarks Bar and cut (CTRL+X) all bookmarks
Then paste cut bookmarks into another folder (Other Bookmarks). Here you can rename the folder Other Bookmarks to anything else. Alternatively, you can create a custom folder and put all your bookmarks there.
Step by Step guide to disable recently browsed pages’ thumbnail preview on a new blank tab
- Go to settings > Extensions
- Here, on Extensions page, you can manage all your installed extensions. Scroll down to the bottom of this page and click on “Get more extensions” (alternatively, you can directly open Chrome Extension website in your Chrome browser
- Search for “New Blank Tab Page” and install the exact named extension as shown in video
P.S – This extension disables bookmarks completely in a new tab.
You just nailed it. 🙂 when you open a fresh tab, you will find that tab blanked without traces of your browsed pages’ thumbnails
