However, the thumbnails or favicons will start appearing when you start browsing websites and accumulating the history. After you delete a shortcut, Chrome will offer two options – undo and restore default shortcuts. Undo will only restore the last deleted shortcut while restoring will put back all the annoying favicons. The reason why there are thumbnails installing themselves on your homepage, showing websites that you have visited in the past, is because Google tracks your internet habits. It does so by keeping the visited websites inside its “History” tab, but it also uses this information to create thumbnails of the ones you have visited the most, recently. This exists to make your life easier, by providing you with a direct link, through a simple click.
Or you can also remove them entirely from the browser. And the best part is that changing this doesn’t need any coding knowledge. It’s done so you don’t have to type the go daddy get found entire URL of the website you want to open. So for example, if you’re a frequent visitor of Instagram, you won’t have to go to the address bar and type the address there.
This is under the “Search Companion” section in the left pane. To do this you need to specify the correct URL of each image in the “removal tool.” You’ll notice that the images won’t disappear from “Google Search” instantly. So, normally, it will take till about a month before your images will disappear. You can let go of the Chrome shortcuts option and get your own new tab page. There are many extensions that can be downloaded and installed easily.
Tap this and you’ll get the same pop-up as above. Tap ‘Move to bin’ and the first stage of deletion is complete. Removing shortcuts from Chrome isn’t rocket science. It would hardly take 5-10 minutes if you remove each of them individually. But the thing is – they shouldn’t be there in the first place. But indexing it and updating the results with every website you open is downright creepy.
But it will be annoying in many situations like screen sharing or showing your desktop to others. Anyone can clearly see those thumbnails which is a direct intrusion in your privacy. Here, we will explain how to remove shortcuts from Chrome new tab page. You can also select specific photos from within the bin to permanently erase, rather than clearing the entire bin immediately. To select an image on the web, click the checkmark in the top left of the thumbnail. On a smartphone, simply long-press on the relevant images.
Don’t worry about deleting the thumbnail cache. Click the radio button next to “Show hidden files and folders”. Show all hidden files and folders.Open Windows Explorer. Click the start button at the bottom-left and then click “My Computer”.
It even repopulates while I’m typing in a search term, and will not go away even after shutdown of Chrome & rebooting. Instead of completely disabling the shortcuts, you can delete also them from your new tab page. Launch Google Chrome and hover your mouse over one of the shortcut favicon image. Click on the three dots button called “Edit Shortcut”. You will see two options – shortcuts from your history and shortcuts from the most visited site.
One of them involves using Chrome’s stock photos, and another one lets you upload a picture from your computer. Both are straightforward and include similar steps. Just follow the instructions, and your extension will be ready to use in no time. One of the most widely used Chrome New Tab extensions lets you personalize your dashboard by adding a to-do list, daily focus, and other useful productivity features. This extension has a 4.5 rating and is used by over three million users worldwide. If you want to customize your New Tab Page in Chrome, your best option is to dive into the Web Store’s extension offer.
