What Is about:blank, and How Do You Remove It?
If you see “about:blank” in your web browser’s address bar, you’re viewing an empty page built into your web browser. It’s a part of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, and other browsers.
There’s nothing wrong with about:blank. Many people choose to use about:blank as their home page, ensuring their web browser always opens with an empty white screen. If your web browser always opens with about:blank and you don’t like it, we’ll show you how to stop that from happening.
What Is about:blank?
About blank, about:blank or about_blank, what are we talking about? Well you might have spotted this empty page popping up in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and many other browsers. There are some that suggest about blank is potentially harmful to your PC or Mac, but actually it isn’t really anything to worry about, most of the time anyway.
Don’t believe me? Well to give you peace of mind, I’ve broken down some of the main concerns regarding ‘about blank’ so you can sleep a little easier knowing that your computer is safe. Of course plenty of more worrying malware and viruses out there like ‘WannaCry’.
This is a blank page built into your web browser. The “about:” part of the address tells the browser to show internal, built-in web pages. For example, in Chrome, you can type about:settings into the address bar to open the Settings page or about:downloads to view Chrome’s file downloads list.
When you type about:blank into the address bar and press Enter, your web browser will load an empty page with nothing on it. This page isn’t from the internet—it’s built into your web browser.
Why Is about:blank Useful?
Many people use about:blank as their home page. This gives you an empty page each time you open your browser.
To achieve this, all you have to do is go into your browser’s settings and tell it to open with “about:blank” instead of another web page.
Web browsers may also open the blank about:blank page if they launch and don’t know what else to display. A browser always has to display something, after all, and loading about:blank is a way of displaying a blank page.
Is It a Virus or Malware?
The about:blank page isn’t malware or anything dangerous. However, if you’re concerned your computer might have malware on it, we recommend performing a scan with your antimalware program of choice.
We like Malwarebytes, and we recommend giving your computer a scan with it. The free version can perform manual scans and remove malware. The paid Premium version just adds automatic background scanning. Malwarebytes supports both Windows PCs and Macs.
How Can You Get Rid of about:blank?
You can’t actually get rid of or remove about:blank. It’s part of your web browser, and it’ll always be there under the hood. However, you never have to see it again if you don’t want to.
If you always see about:blank whenever you open your web browser, and you’d rather see your browser’s New Tab page or any other web page, all you have to do is change your web browser’s home page.
In Google Chrome, head to menu > Settings. Scroll down to the “On startup” section and select either “Open the New Tab page” or delete about:blank from the web pages that open on startup and choose your favorite web page.
In Mozilla Firefox, click menu > Options > Home. Select your desired home page for new windows and new tabs. Ensure “about:blank” or “Blank Page” isn’t selected here.
In Apple Safari on a Mac, click Safari > Preferences > General. Under Homepage, remove “about:blank” and enter your desired home page.
In Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser, click menu > Settings > On startup. Select “Open a new tab” or remove about:blank from the list of pages Edge opens when you launch it.
In Internet Explorer, you can change this from the Internet Options window. (You shouldn’t be using Internet Explorer anymore, of course. Even Microsoft recommends you leave IE behind. But it may still be necessary for some old business applications and other legacy software.)
Click the gear-shaped menu button and select “Internet Options.” Remove “about:blank” from the home page box at the top of the General pane. Enter the address of your desired home page.
