8 Best Ways to Customize Google Chrome on Windows and Mac

If Google Chrome is your default browser on your computer, you might be bored by its appearance and behavior over time. To change this, you can customize your Chrome. You can apply themes to change the tab color, change the new tab page, or change the cursor. Let’s see in detail how to customize Chrome on PC.

Customizing Chrome helps you customize it to your liking. Not everyone likes Chrome’s default white look – not a fan of dark mode either. What if you want to use red or blue colors in the Chrome interface? Or do you want to open the Google Sheets page at startup? All of this is possible – thanks to Google for allowing us to customize Chrome.

Let’s see different ways to customize Chrome on Windows and Mac.

1. Use themes

Earlier, we used Chrome extensions to change the theme. But, Google launched 14 themes for Chrome in February 2019. Now just go to Chrome settings and apply a theme of your choice.

Here are the steps in detail:

Step 1: Launch Chrome on your PC. Click the three-dot icon at the top and select Settings.

Note: Use this step to open Chrome settings anywhere mentioned in this article.

2nd step: Scroll down and click Themes under Appearance. You will be redirected to the Chrome Web Store.

Step 3: Select any theme you like. Then, on the next screen, click Add to Chrome.

Here’s what my Chrome looks like after applying a theme.

If you want to return to the original theme, repeat steps 1 and 2. Click Reset to default next to Themes in Chrome settings.

Point: Learn how to create a custom Google Chrome theme.

2. Change the home page

Is there a web page that you would like to visit often with a single click? You can do this using the Chrome home button. You must first activate the button, then add a web page that should open by clicking the home button. The button is available in the upper left corner just next to the URL box.

Here are the steps to activate the home button.

Step 1: Access Chrome settings from the three dots icon at the top.

2nd step: Scroll down and just below the themes, you’ll find the View Home button. Activate the toggle next to it. You have two options for this. You can configure it to open the New Tab page (you can also customize it, as shown below) or add a custom web page. Select the option you want to use.

Step 3: Click the home button on any tab each time you want to open this page.

Note: The website will open in the same tab as the one where you click this home button.

3. Change the start page

Each time you launch Chrome, you can configure it to open multiple websites of your choice. For example, you can launch your work-related websites on Chrome every time you start your day.

To change the start page, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Chrome settings on your PC.

2nd step: Scroll down and you will find the On startup section. You have several options, such as opening a new tab page, opening specific pages, or the last pages opened. Select the option of your choice.

Point: Check out our compilation of Chrome extensions to replace your start page.

4. Customize the New Tab page

Each time you open a new tab on Chrome, you’ll see Google search with a few shortcuts to websites. You can customize the shortcuts on this page, change the background to an image of your choice, or set it to a solid color. Let’s see how to do it.

Add your own image as a Chrome background

To add your image as the background for the new tab page, open a new tab. Click on the Personalize icon present at the bottom.

A new window will open allowing you to choose one from the available backgrounds or to download a new one. To add your image, click Download from device. Then choose the image of your choice and click Done.

Change or disable shortcuts

To change the shortcuts available on the new tab page, click the Customize button at the bottom of the new tab page. Then click on Shortcuts. You will have two options – My Shortcuts and the most visited sites. In the first, you need to define the shortcuts manually, and Chrome will automatically generate shortcuts in the second, depending on how often you use them. If you don’t want to see the shortcuts, activate the toggle next to Hide shortcuts.

Change the color of Chrome

To set the background of the new tab page to a solid color, click Color and Theme in the customization options for the new tab. The color you choose will apply as the background color, and you will also see that it changes the color of the title bar as well as the tabs.

Point: Refer to our guide on 4 ways to change the default background color in Chrome.

5. Edit the New Tab page

Google has limited options for customizing the new tab page. But, thanks to Chrome extensions, you can change it in many ways.

New tab page extensions can allow you to change the behavior of what happens when you open a new tab. For example, I configured it to open the Start.me extension which offers news, to-do lists, widgets, shortcuts to links and much more. Refer to our compilation of the best new tab extensions you can use.

6. Change the font style

Many people like to change the default fonts on their Android phones. If you want to do the same on Chrome, you won’t be disappointed. Chrome offers a native setting to customize Chrome by changing the style and size of the font type.

Point: Take a look at the five Chrome extensions to identify fonts.

To change the font on Chrome, go to Chrome settings. Then go to the Appearance section. Here you will find the font size and customization of the fonts. Click on it to change it.

7. Change the cursor in Chrome

Want to use a cartoon or movie character as a custom cursor in Chrome? This is possible using a custom cursor extension for Chrome.

Download custom cursor for Chrome

Install the extension from the link above. Then select the cursor of your choice in the extension.

8. Use different profiles

Finally, if your Chrome is used by several people, you can create different profiles so that nobody spoils your personalizations. You can either create a different profile or use Chrome’s guest mode.

Personalize to personalize

At any time, if you are not satisfied with the customizations you have made, you can delete them by repeating the same steps. However, if you want to delete all customizations at once, you need to reset Chrome settings. Find out what’s going on by resetting Chrome and how to do it.