Microsoft Edge shows me a newspaper-like webpage every time I open a new tab.
My problem is that I find it divertive and frustrating and that there is no comfortable way to just turn it off.
Microsoft only allow to “customize” that content.
I don’t want to install another browser because I believe in “one web browser for one computer machine” philosophy.
Anyway, this newspaper-like webpage contains a search form and I try to select this search form to just hide the page based on it.
I have tried the following JavaScript codes in the browser’s console, but none of these codes work and there is no error in the console.
if ( document.querySelector('#srchfrm')) {
alert("Hi");
}
if ( document.body.contains(document.querySelector('#srchfrm') ) ) {
alert("Hi");
}
First of all, if you believe one browser one machine, just use a better browser (Chrome and Firefox are both better than edge in almost all ways… except maybe interacting with certain Microsoft web properties).
Secondly, I am not sure why you are trying to use JavaScript to solve this issue. This is a browser setting issue. Go to the top right three dots and go to settings. In the menu on the left you see “Start, home, and new tabs” option. In there you can choose what Edge shows you when you open new tabs, hit the home button or when Edge starts. You should be able to configure it to point to any website you like.
Uhhh I am pretty sure you can uninstall chrome in windows 11. Click the search icon and type “Add and remove programs” and that should take you into control panel. Right click chrome and select “Uninstall”. I run windows 11.
But I am also not sure why you are talking about uninstalling Chrome, you said you were working with Edge.
As for the tabs, did I mention about:blank? No, I said the three dots in the upper right corner of your Edge browser.
Sorry, I confused and wrote “Chrome” instead “Edge”. I fixed it above.
Anyway, I think we mean the same thing. I already clicked on the three dots and went to Start, home, and new tabs section but it doesn’t allow to totally cancel the news-webpage, only to customize it.
Hmmmm… I guess you are right. Just another reason I would not use Edge. From initial research, there is no way to change this without using something like a browser extension.
Either way I don’t think Javascript is going to solve the issue either. However, if there is a way then it would have to be BEFORE the tab loads a page so that you can change it before it loads. I would experiment with something like the DOMContentLoaded event.
I would have tried to change the browser if was a mere source code program like JavaScript scripts or small PHP programs, but MS Edge is probably written in C++ which I don’t know anything about and I have also never worked with a native application compiler.
But you can change the default browser.
I’ve not tried uninstalling Edge yet, so can’t confirm weather it’s possible or not.
But I think I have noticed Win 11 reinstalling unwanted apps during updates.
I understand that this issue is not related to JavaScript at all but to hardcoded, styled, structures of data in Edge itself as a native application, unchangeable by JavaScript user scripts but not unchangeable by the browser console as something trivial such as alert('Hi') will work anyway.
Where does edge drains the dynamic data of these styled structures? I don’t know. Maybe from https://ntp.msn.com (by locale).
Anyway
It appears that there is an Edge extension to disable the newspaper-webpage:
I didn’t find any XML/HTML file that causes this.
Some of the folders there are named in a way I didn’t understand. I might have missed something.
Anybody here is welcome to search for such a file and to tell us how to edit it.
I don’t want to customize it. I only want to totally remove it.
I will say the following only for myself; I find it mentally easier for me to work with a default browser in generally any operating system (excluding Edge). I say “generally” because there could be exceptions, for example:
I did have to replace Xiaomi Redmi 9C in One Plus Nord CE2 (which I find much faster by the way) because Xiaomi didn’t let me choose my preferred browser (DuckDuckGo) but One Plus did ! I mean, I Xiaomi I couldn’t uninstall or disable Google Chrome but in One PLus I could and that’s one reason why I choose One Plus.
Anyway, I think that manufacturers shouldn’t obligate us to use any browser and there should be some kind of a meta-program universally-standard named “Choose Your Web Browser” (CYWB) and let the user to pick any web browser, any time. But, because they do obligate us in telephone devices and personal computers than I try to stick to the native app that is “shipped” with that operating system unless I find a reason to make an exception.
The browser has to load “something” when you open a tab. Even if that something is a blank page (which is a customization of the page.)
If you’d opened that link that James gave you and read it, you’d have seen that’s what they’re showing you how to do.
You can ramble on about Microsoft choosing to ship their browser with their operating system that you bought, but you chose Windows, so you get Edge installed. Microsoft aren’t forcing you to use it, you can install Chrome, or Firefox, or Safari if that’s really… really your jam for some reason.
If you’re doing web development you should really have several browsers installed so you can check that your websites work on more than just your preferred browser.
@m_hutley fair enough, but even in minimal customization, there are things that I can’t remove by the customization (see attached image).
It’s certainly not a problem for me to have these particular things there, especially not the Bing search box (I love Bing, I find it nice and efficient much of the time), but I just say this so you would know that it still isn’t fully customizable, even more so, in my opinion, the customization panel is not intuitive or at least is not intuitively “reachable” or “accessible” (to pick the best term).
Beyond that, I would agree with your statement that it’s “their operating system that you bought”.
As long as there is the freedom to choose an OS for the particular computing machine; as long as there isn’t such freedom, I don’t
I agree, testing from at least three major browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) is important when launching a website, even a small simple website of no more than 100 webpages.
Some extensions or settings might have modified your new tab page. To reset it to the default settings, look for an options within your browser settings which allow you to change the new tab page. set it to the default or blank page.
Have you tried going into your browser settings to see if you can change the homepage or default page? If that doesn’t work, you might need to consider getting an ad blocker. That should solve the issue.
That’s certainly what I would do. As an example, Safari on Macs defaults to the Apple website. But you can just change it to default to a different site (or none at all), such as DuckDuckGo, for example.
To hide the newspaper-like webpage in Microsoft Edge when opening a new tab, you can try the following steps:
Open Microsoft Edge and navigate to the new tab page.
Look for an option or button on the page that allows you to customize the content. It might be indicated by an icon or a gear/settings symbol.
Click on the customization option and see if there is an option to disable or turn off the newspaper-like content. If available, select that option to hide the page.
If there is no direct option to disable the content, you may try using browser extensions specifically designed to modify the new tab page. Check the Microsoft Edge extension store for any available extensions that allow customization of the new tab page.
If none of the above options work, you may consider reaching out to Microsoft Edge support or community forums for further assistance. They might have specific insights or solutions for disabling the newspaper-like page.
