How to Restore Default “New Tab” Page in Internet Explorer 8?

If you like this article, please share it with your friends and contacts on Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter using following buttons so that they can also enjoy the article:

If you are using Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), you might have noticed the "New Tab" page which shows a few handy links to open recently closed tabs, open InPrivate browsing window, etc:

Sometimes the "New Tab" page is replaced by a Blank page. It might be due to some tweaking software or change in Internet Options.

If you are facing the same problem and want to get the "New Tab" page back in IE8, please follow these simple instructions:

1. Open Internet Explorer and go to "Tools -> Internet Options". If you can't see Menubar, you can access it by pressing "ALT" key.

2. Now click on "Settings" button in "Tabs" section.

3. Now select "The new tab page" option from the drop-down box given in "When a new tab is opened, open:" section.

4. That's it. Click on OK button and now you'll get the default "New Tab" page back in IE8.

Other similar articles that may interest you:

This article was posted by VG in following section: Internet Explorer, Troubleshooting.

If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to our RSS feed or free newsletter to get all new articles directly in your Inbox. Also check out our most popular articles and archive to read other interesting articles. If you have some news or tip to share, please send us.

Have You Checked Out Following Popular Articles?

MAB

How do I change my tab page back to the way it was when it show quick links to my most common internet pages?
Can anyone help?
MAB

How do I do that? I am a novice
president Kush

this will not help in ALL situations..!!! I ran into this problem first, when installing icq on my pc, fixed, and now i just got comcast installed @ my new apartment and it happended again. comcasts, icq, others? will replace the "the new tab page" option, so even when setting it to the "the new tab page" option, it will STILL NOT go back to the original IE8 default blank tab page. To fix this, you have to go into the REGISTRY and change some stuff. I'll try and find out how to do it again, and I'll post a link for anyone still having problems.
president Kush

found it!!! if method shown in this blog doesn't work, that means that a program has changed the WINDOWS REGISTRY, so here is how you fix it...

Click Start (windows start button in lower left hand corner)
Click "Run"
Type: regedit (in the Run Dialog Box)
Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs

Right Click on "Tabs" (in the right column)
Left Click "Modify" on the Right Click Menu.
In the "Edit String" Window replace the contents of "Value data" Dialog Box with:

res://ieframe.dll/tabswelcome.htm
Richard

Hi, My problem is that about:tab page was replaced by the winamp page, and how to repair this?
VG

^^ There should be an option to enable / disable the page in Winamp Settings.
MT

Sometimes software chages "The new tab page." That's what happened to me, I already checked there and I already found the changed entry in the registry but what I'm looking for is the default value for the registry entry Tabs.
MT

Sorry didn't see Kush's comment to start with. " res://ieframe.dll/tabswelcome.htm "
Skweekah

thanks. worked for me.
Joseph

Hi VG,
I am not a big fan of IE, but I would like to know how to: how to automatically open a new tab when clicking on a site in bookmarks without first creating the new tab on the taskbar?

Thanks.