How To Set The Home Page To Your Favorite Website

Most web browsers let you change the home page to any website you choose. The home page can act as a default website that opens with your browser, but it can also function as a secondary bookmark.

How to Make a Home Page in Chrome

Changing the home page in Chrome is done through the settings. You can set a custom page to open when you open Chrome, or you can turn on the home button and then tie a specific web page to it so that it opens when you select it.

• Open Settings.
• Scroll down to the On startup section and select Open a specific page or set of pages.
• Select Add a new page.
• Enter the URL you want to appear when you open Chrome and select Add. You can also add additional pages if you desire.

How to Make a Home Page in Safari

Whether you’re on Windows or Mac, you can change the Safari home page from the General preferences screen. Once you’ve changed it, you can access its link from the History menu.

Open Settings.

Scroll down to the On startup section and select Open a specific page or set of pages.

Select Add a new page.

Enter the URL you want to appear when you open Chrome and select Add. You can also add additional pages if you desire.

• Go to Edit > Preferences in Windows, or Safari > Preferences if you’re on a Mac.
• Select the General tab.
• Type a URL into the Homepage text box, or select Set to Current Page to do that.
• For example, to make Google your home page, you’d type https://www.google.com.
• To have the home page open when you launch new windows or tabs, change New windows open with and/or New tabs open with to be Homepage.

How to Make a Home Page in Edge

Like some browsers, Edge lets you pick two ways to use the home page: as the page (or pages) that opens when Edge opens, and as a link that can be accessed when you select Home.

Go to Edit > Preferences in Windows, or Safari > Preferences if you’re on a Mac.

Select the General tab.

Type a URL into the Homepage text box, or select Set to Current Page to do that.

For example, to make Google your home page, you’d type https://www.google.com.

To have the home page open when you launch new windows or tabs, change New windows open with and/or New tabs open with to be Homepage.

To change the website(s) that opens when you launch Edge, open Settings:

• In the upper-right corner of Edge, select the menu (three dots), and choose Settings.
• Select On startup from the left pane.
• Choose Open a specific page or pages.
• Select Add a new page.
• You could instead select Use all open tabs to convert all your open web pages to home pages.
• Enter the URL of the page you want as your startup home page, and then select Add.

You can repeat those last two steps to make more Home pages.

These directions are for the Chromium-based Edge browser.

In the upper-right corner of Edge, select the menu (three dots), and choose Settings.

Select On startup from the left pane.

Choose Open a specific page or pages.

You could instead select Use all open tabs to convert all your open web pages to home pages.

Enter the URL of the page you want as your startup home page, and then select Add.

Something else you can do is set the URL that’s tied to the home button. The home button is located to the left of the navigation bar.

• Open Settings as described above, but this time open the Appearance tab from the left pane.
• Make sure Show home button is toggled on, and then enter a URL in the space provided.

How to Make a Home Page in Firefox

Follow these instructions to set or change your Firefox homepage on a desktop or laptop computer.

Open Settings as described above, but this time open the Appearance tab from the left pane.

Make sure Show home button is toggled on, and then enter a URL in the space provided.

• With Firefox open, in the upper-right corner, select menu (three lines).
• Select Preferences/Options.
• Alternatively, press Command+Comma (macOS) or Ctrl+Comma (Windows) to bring up preferences.
• From the left menu bar, select Home.
• In the Homepage and new windows drop down menu, select Firefox Home (Default), Custom URLs, or Blank Page.

How to Make a Home Page in Internet Explorer

The IE home page is accessible through the home icon at the top right of the browser window. However, there are two types of home pages in this browser, so you can also choose which pages should open when the browser launches.

With Firefox open, in the upper-right corner, select menu (three lines).

Select Preferences/Options.

Alternatively, press Command+Comma (macOS) or Ctrl+Comma (Windows) to bring up preferences.

From the left menu bar, select Home.

In the Homepage and new windows drop down menu, select Firefox Home (Default), Custom URLs, or Blank Page.

There are two ways to change Internet Explorer’s home page to a website of your choosing. The first is much quicker:

• Right-click the home button and select Add or change home page.
• Choose an option from the list:
• Use this webpage as your only home page: This is a quick way to make this your home page — the current page you’re on.Add this webpage to your home page tabs: If you already have a home page set and you don’t want to remove it, use this to add the current page to the set of home pages.Use the current tab set as your home page: This will overwrite any previously set home pages, replacing them with all the tabs that are currently open.
• The third option is only available if there’s more than one tab open.
• Select Yes when finished.

Go to General Tab

The second way to set a website as the home page in Internet Explorer is to open the General tab of Internet Options:

Microsoft no longer supports Internet Explorer and recommends that you update to the newer Edge browser. Head to their site to download the newest version.

Right-click the home button and select Add or change home page.

Choose an option from the list:

• Use this webpage as your only home page: This is a quick way to make this your home page — the current page you’re on.Add this webpage to your home page tabs: If you already have a home page set and you don’t want to remove it, use this to add the current page to the set of home pages.Use the current tab set as your home page: This will overwrite any previously set home pages, replacing them with all the tabs that are currently open.

The third option is only available if there’s more than one tab open.

Select Yes when finished.

• In the upper-right corner, select Settings (gear) > Internet Options.
• Confirm that you’re in the General tab.
• In the Home page section, enter into the text box the URL you want to have as the IE home page. For example, to make it Google or Bing, you’d type either google.com or bing.com.
• Or select Use current to set a home page in Internet Explorer. This will automatically add the currently opened pages as the home pages.
• This window is also how you can set which pages should open with Internet Explorer. They can be separate from the home page (choose Start with tabs from the last session) or identical to what you chose as the home page (pick Start with home page).
• Select OK to set the new home page.

How to Make a Home Page in Opera

The home page in Opera opens when the browser starts (i.e., there isn’t a “home” option like there is in some browsers). To make your favorite website the home page, access the On startup option to set the URL.

In the upper-right corner, select Settings (gear) > Internet Options.

Confirm that you’re in the General tab.

In the Home page section, enter into the text box the URL you want to have as the IE home page. For example, to make it Google or Bing, you’d type either google.com or bing.com.

Or select Use current to set a home page in Internet Explorer. This will automatically add the currently opened pages as the home pages.

This window is also how you can set which pages should open with Internet Explorer. They can be separate from the home page (choose Start with tabs from the last session) or identical to what you chose as the home page (pick Start with home page).

Select OK to set the new home page.

• In the O menu, select Settings.
• Scroll down to the On startup section and choose Open a specific page or set of pages. Then, select Add a new page.
• Enter the URL you want to use as the Opera home page.
• Select Add to change the home page.
• You can repeat these last two steps to add other pages as the home page so that all of them open each time Opera starts.

Why Set a Custom Home Page?

A home page isn’t required, but you can set one if you find yourself revisiting the same site each time you open your browser. A home page can be anything, like a search engine, email client, social media page, free online game, etc.

In the O menu, select Settings.

Scroll down to the On startup section and choose Open a specific page or set of pages. Then, select Add a new page.

Enter the URL you want to use as the Opera home page.

Select Add to change the home page.

You can repeat these last two steps to add other pages as the home page so that all of them open each time Opera starts.

While you can set the home page as your favorite search engine, changing the default search engine to Google or another website can make web searching even quicker.

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