Probably every time you turn on your laptop or press your PC’s power button, the first thing you open is a web browser. Your homepage is the first thing you see when you open your preferred web browser, so it’s very important. Microsoft bundles a new browser with Windows 10. If you’re just getting started with the operating system, it can be difficult to figure out how to set up a home page in Microsoft Edge.
You probably know how to set the home page in Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s previous browser. For a brief time in the 1990s, the company’s Internet Explorer web browser was the best you’d find anywhere. In the late 2000s, Microsoft squandered all the goodwill Internet Explorer had earned. The browser was problematic and not as user friendly as others have offered. The company hoped to reverse the trend of users abandoning its offering with Microsoft Edge. For the most part, setting a homepage in this new browser works almost exactly as it does in Internet Explorer.
Here’s how to set a homepage in Microsoft Edge.
How to Set Home Page in Microsoft Edge: Before You Begin
Before you start changing the settings on your PC, there are a few things to consider. First, if you don’t have Windows 10 installed on your computer, you cannot follow these instructions to change your homepage. Instead you will need to refer to a tutorial in Internet Explorer.
If you’re changing the home page on a work computer, you’ll want to make sure you have permission to do so or that your company’s IT department doesn’t welcome it.
Third, before you start this tutorial, you’ll want to browse through the website you want to set as the homepage in Microsoft Edge. This is key because Microsoft Edge asks for the address of the page you want to set as your home page. You will need exactly this web address. If you don’t have the correct address, you will get a blank page or error page every time you open your web browser.
How to Set Home Page in Microsoft Edge
Click the Start button in the lower left corner of your screen on the Taskbar to bring up the startup experience. If your PC has touchscreen, you can tap on it with your finger.
Once in Start, look for the blue Live Tile with an E in the middle. You can also select Microsoft Edge from the list of installed apps on the right side of the startup experience.
Unlike other Windows 10 apps, Microsoft Edge doesn’t have a settings wheel for changing preferences. Look for three dots to the right of the address bar. When you find them, tap or click these three dots to open a menu.
With the menu open, look for the Settings option. Everything is at the bottom. Tap or click on it to be taken to the Settings pane.
Microsoft does not call home page in Microsoft Edge settings. Look for the “Open Microsoft Edge with” entry in settings. Click the X to remove previous entries and you can use the plus sign to add new entries. Right-click the address of the page you want to add, then cut and paste it into the box.
You don’t need to have just one home page in Microsoft Edge. You can have as many as you want, but you’ll definitely want to keep it simple as your browser will try to load these pages every time you want to start a new browsing session. Use the drop-down menu to juxtapose what you want to see when you open Edge.
It doesn’t have to be a home page if you don’t want it to be.
While you’re here, you may want to make other changes, such as hiding the news feed that appears when opening new tabs.
Good luck trying to create a homepage in Microsoft Edge and Windows 10 in general. The new operating system takes some getting used to, but it’s a huge improvement over what Microsoft has introduced with Windows 8.