Recently over on our sister site Destiny Raids, Charles Stoot asked the following question;
So I decided to put together this mini guide on how to "jazz up" Google Chrome. I've already posted this guide over there but thought I'd tweak it slightly and post it here also.
Firstly forget themes, completely. Only install a basic theme that changes the bar at the top of your screen to a colour of your choice as other than that, they are completely redundant.
Instead we're going to utilise some brief settings tweaking and 2 chrome extensions.
Firstly, go to the version of google that you use and copy the webpage address for it, for me this address is;
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl
Next you want to click on that equals sign '=' with an extra line on it in the top right hand corner of your current chrome window and select "Settings" (is towards the bottom).
As shown by the image above under the section "On start-up" select the option "Open a specific page or set of pages" and click on "Set pages". Here you want to paste in your Google link from earlier then click on "OK".
Bonus tip: Enable "Show Home button", select "Change" and paste in that link again for a functioning home button as part of this setup.
Next we need to move on to the first of two extensions "New Tab Redirect".
Start off by adding the extension to chrome which can be found here. Upon initial installation you'll be greeted with a welcome screen, look towards the bottom of the section of text click on the link in the final sentence that reads, "Or, you can click here to access the options page".
Above is the options screen that you will be presented with, simply paste in your Google link from earlier and click on the "save" button. Once you've done this simply close the tab.
At this stage what you've achieved is setting your browser to open up "Google" whenever you start Chrome, click on the home button or open a new tab. Effectively this gets rid of the utterly ghastly "new tab" page.
Now onto extension two, "Custom Google™ Background". This is where the magic really happens.
Start by downloading the extension, which can be found here.
A new tab will open to setup the extension. Scroll down the page until you find 3 steps. We'll go through each one individually.
For step 1 you'll want to add an image, either upload one from your computer or paste a link to an image you found online.
Here's one I used as an example - https://forums.oneplus.net/attachme...3-672e2c3706ac4e74b7d404a68fb5339b-jpg.69552/
When you've found your image click on either upload or save depending on whether the image you selected is stored locally or online.
For step 2 scroll down a little and see you image shown as a preview and click on it. A little green outline will appear around it if done correctly. They'll also be 2 stock images included, go ahead and click the X button on the top right of those as it's unlikely that you'll ever use them.
Bonus tip: If you select the "Randomise images" option, you can go back to step 1 and add more images of either Halo, other video game art, a favourite car or perhaps even photos of a loved one etc. This means that every time you go to open up a new tab you get a different image, allowing your "theme" to be dynamic.
For step 3 simply mimic the settings above by ticking the boxes for "Hide Footer" and "Hide Options Link".
Once you've done this, simply close the tab.
Bonus tip: to change your background settings in future go on the browser settings, then select the option "extensions", scroll down to "Custom Google™ Background", then select the "options" link attached to it (next to the allow in incognito option).
At this point open a tab to see the fruits of your labour. If you followed this guide word for word you'll have ended up with something that looks like this;
Feel free to go back and tweak with your setup until you're truly happy with it.
I hope you found this guide informative,
Addy out.
So I decided to put together this mini guide on how to "jazz up" Google Chrome. I've already posted this guide over there but thought I'd tweak it slightly and post it here also.
Firstly forget themes, completely. Only install a basic theme that changes the bar at the top of your screen to a colour of your choice as other than that, they are completely redundant.
Instead we're going to utilise some brief settings tweaking and 2 chrome extensions.
Firstly, go to the version of google that you use and copy the webpage address for it, for me this address is;
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl
Next you want to click on that equals sign '=' with an extra line on it in the top right hand corner of your current chrome window and select "Settings" (is towards the bottom).
As shown by the image above under the section "On start-up" select the option "Open a specific page or set of pages" and click on "Set pages". Here you want to paste in your Google link from earlier then click on "OK".
Bonus tip: Enable "Show Home button", select "Change" and paste in that link again for a functioning home button as part of this setup.
Next we need to move on to the first of two extensions "New Tab Redirect".
Start off by adding the extension to chrome which can be found here. Upon initial installation you'll be greeted with a welcome screen, look towards the bottom of the section of text click on the link in the final sentence that reads, "Or, you can click here to access the options page".
Above is the options screen that you will be presented with, simply paste in your Google link from earlier and click on the "save" button. Once you've done this simply close the tab.
At this stage what you've achieved is setting your browser to open up "Google" whenever you start Chrome, click on the home button or open a new tab. Effectively this gets rid of the utterly ghastly "new tab" page.
Now onto extension two, "Custom Google™ Background". This is where the magic really happens.
Start by downloading the extension, which can be found here.
A new tab will open to setup the extension. Scroll down the page until you find 3 steps. We'll go through each one individually.
For step 1 you'll want to add an image, either upload one from your computer or paste a link to an image you found online.
Here's one I used as an example - https://forums.oneplus.net/attachme...3-672e2c3706ac4e74b7d404a68fb5339b-jpg.69552/
When you've found your image click on either upload or save depending on whether the image you selected is stored locally or online.
For step 2 scroll down a little and see you image shown as a preview and click on it. A little green outline will appear around it if done correctly. They'll also be 2 stock images included, go ahead and click the X button on the top right of those as it's unlikely that you'll ever use them.
Bonus tip: If you select the "Randomise images" option, you can go back to step 1 and add more images of either Halo, other video game art, a favourite car or perhaps even photos of a loved one etc. This means that every time you go to open up a new tab you get a different image, allowing your "theme" to be dynamic.
For step 3 simply mimic the settings above by ticking the boxes for "Hide Footer" and "Hide Options Link".
Once you've done this, simply close the tab.
Bonus tip: to change your background settings in future go on the browser settings, then select the option "extensions", scroll down to "Custom Google™ Background", then select the "options" link attached to it (next to the allow in incognito option).
At this point open a tab to see the fruits of your labour. If you followed this guide word for word you'll have ended up with something that looks like this;
Feel free to go back and tweak with your setup until you're truly happy with it.
I hope you found this guide informative,
Addy out.
