How-To Geek
Customize, Change, or Remove the New Tab Page in IE 9
The new Internet Explorer 9 Beta includes many new features, including a Popular Sites page that presents a nice looking list of your most frequently visited sites when you open a new tab. Here’s how you can customize or remove the Popular Sites page from IE 9.
By default in Internet Explorer 9, you’ll see a list of your most popular sites when you open a new tab. These sites will be listed by how frequently you visit them, and let you quickly access the sites you already access most.
The new tab is an easy way to access and interact with your favorite sites. Simply click one of the links to open that site. Or, if you want to pin one of the sites to your Windows 7 taskbar or your Vista Quick Launch bar, simply click and drag one of the links to add it without even visiting the site.
If you’d like to remove one site from your popular sites list, click the red x button that appears in the top right of the site box when you hover over it. Another site you visit regularly will replace the site you removed
Or, if you’d rather not see your most frequently visited sites at all, click the Hide sites link on the top right of the New Tab page.
Now you’ll see blank squares instead of your most popular sites whenever you open a new tab. You can always show the sites again by clicking the Show sites button in the top right corner of the page.
Change the New Tab Page
If you’d rather change the New Tab page entirely, click the gear button on the far right of the window and select Internet Options.
Click the Settings button under the Tabs section of the front tab on the Options dialog.
Click the drop-down menu under When a new tab is opened, and select what you want to open when you create a new tab. You can choose for IE 9 to show a blank tab, your home page, or the new tab page as before. Click Ok to save your changes, and you’ll see your new settings in action the next time you open a new tab in IE 9.
Then if you decide you’d like to quickly access your popular sites again, just enter about:tabs in the address bar to open it even if you changed the New Tab page.
Want more info about Internet Explorer 9? Here’s some recent How-to Geek article you might find interesting:
Internet Explorer 9 Screenshot Tour
Download IE 9 in Your Own Language
Add Google As Your Search Provider in IE 9
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Comments (16)
Matthew digs up tasty bytes about Windows, Virtualization, and the cloud, and serves them up for all to enjoy!
- Published 09/27/10
Nice info. Somehow I overlooked most of this stuff when I was playing around with IE9
why IE9 no have more options like Opera ?
Hi
I was wondering is there a way to bring the “New Tab page” from IE8 to IE9 ??
Thank you
Rest in peace xp like it OR NOT ? !!!!
NO IE9 for XP RIP……..XP ………Mandatory.Die NOW! ALL ! .40983796598435 USERS
I did not notice that the X out for the popular site tab meant NEVER SHOW THIS AGAIN… If I deleted one of the site by mistakes but wish to have it back into my list, is there any way to go about this? Thx
I was hoping to a way to add sites like Opera’s Quick Launch – do you know if there’s a way? Perhaps a registry key somewhere?
I accidentally clicked on the red x. Is there any way you know of to add a favourite page back in?
Is there a way to bring the favorite tab star from the ight back to the left like the other version of windows I had. I don’t like it being on the left all of a sudden.
is there a manual way to add sites to this tabs page
it seems once you erase one you can never bring it back even if you reopen the same website over and over again…
thanks for info on how to remove my most popular sites on opening a new tab it was doing my head in
I would also like to know if there is a way to add a site back in after clicking the “x”.
OMG thank you so much! I downloaded this program & it changed my whole internet options. Thanks for helping me get everything back to normal, truly appreciate it! (:
thanks for giving me suggestion
I was looking for how to add a page to you new tab page. I opened the site I wanted to add, clicked to ‘wheel’ button in top right corner – safetly – tracking protection – and changed it from disabled to enabled. Now the site is back again on my ‘new-tab’ page
Thanks! I hate that ‘most popular sites’ page.