A recent update to Google Chrome resulted in a completely revamped version of the new tab page, one that has not gone over well with many people. If you want to get the 'classic' apps-based new tab page back, then Vishal Gupta from the Tweaking with Vishal blog came up with a quick and simple way to do it.

All it takes is a quick bit of tweaking and a restart to get the 'classic' new tab page back. Paste chrome://flags into the address bar and hit Enter, then look for the Enable Instant Extended API entry and select Disable from the drop down menu for the entry. Restart Chrome and the apps-based new tab page will be back just like before.

Many thanks to Vishal for a quick and simple solution to the new tab page problem!

How to Restore Old Behavior of New Tab Page in Google Chrome, Disable Recently Visited Websites Thumbnails and Google Search [Tweaking with Vishal]