How to Restore Old Speed Dial Page and Move New Navigation Bar Back to Top in Opera?
If you are using Opera web browser or if you are regularly following this blog, you might be aware of the fact that a new version 27 of Opera has been released and available for download to public.
Apart from new features and fixes, this new version comes with following 2 new things:
- Modified Speed Dial page
- New Navigation bar at bottom of Speed Dial, Bookmarks and Discover pages
Following image shows the new Speed Dial page and Navigation bar in action:
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There are many Opera users who don’t like these new UI changes. They find the previous Modern Speed Dial page better and also they are not liking the new Navigation bar at bottom of all internal pages.
Today in this tutorial, we are going to tell you ways to restore previous Speed Dial page and move the new Navigation bar to top in Opera web browser.
1. Launch Opera and open the hidden secret advanced configuration page of Opera using opera://flags command in addressbar as told in following tutorial:
How to Access “Advanced Configuration” Pages in Web Browsers?
To Restore Previous Modern Speed Dial Page:
2.a. Now look for “Experimental start page” option. It’ll be present in the beginning of the page.
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2.b. Once you find the option, change its value to Enabled using the drop-down box.
2.c. Restart Opera and you’ll get a new link “Try out the new start page” at the bottom-right corner of the new Speed Dial page.
2.d. Click on the link and you’ll have the previous Modern Speed Dial page back in Opera.
PS: You can revert back to the new Speed Dial page at any time by either clicking on “Go back to the old start page” link at the bottom-right corner of the Speed Dial page or by changing value of “Experimental start page” option in opera://flags page to Default (disabled) again.
To Move New Navigation Bar Back to Top:
3.a. Now look for “WebUI navigation bar” option. It’ll be present in the middle of the page.
3.b. Once you find the option, change its value to Disabled using the drop-down box.
3.c. Restart Opera and you’ll see the old Navigation buttons at top in Opera.
PS: To restore the Navigation bar at bottom, change value of “WebUI navigation bar” option in opera://flags page to Default (enabled) again.
Thank you!
My main problem with the new Opera was with the thumbnails loading forever and being simply unreadable. Then came an improvement – logos/page names on speed dial tiles. Then it was lost again. So thank you again. But, either I broke something, or that’s the way it just is right now. The folder tiles on speed dial are blank now – they don’t have the tiny tiles on them, nothing. On the inside they’re fine. Help, please.
So helpful, thank you! The new default speed dial/start page was awful!
You sir, are an absolute legend! Thanks so much! The new start page thumbnails were driving me nuts.
i just want to know how to return to Opera 28 again and disable Auto update
Why can’t I remove this intrusive Navigation bar completely – I already have the Speed Dial on-screen, I don’t require more navigation aids. Or is this about Opera looks and having more features on-screen instead of usability and user-irritation factor?
It should be noted that as of Opera 31, the execs at Opera had the Old Speed dial option removed from the Opera and it can not be used – so this article is no longer valid.
If a thumbnail speed dial is important to you there are temporary ways around this, such as rolling back to Opera 30 and making sure you prevent the autoupdater.exe from running immediately (rename them with a .bak on the end of their names, there are multiple copies of them) afterwards or it’ll upgrade again. The downside here is that 30 is now out of date security wise and will only get worse as time goes on. Doesn’t appear that Opera corporate gives a care (they removed the option even though they were aware users liked the old version) – so its probably time to work on a exit strategy from Opera.
There are plugins for Firefox that will give you similar functionality…but it appears the closest is from the former developers of Opera (the old version) themselves – Vivaldi. Still being developed but works well enough to start migrating from Opera 30: vivaldi.com
On the page about Opera 31, there is a link directing people to this page.
The info about changing back into the “old” speed dial and/or navigation bar does however NOT apply to version 31. But I’m sure that when version 32 comes out, the link will still be there….
Thanks, with this information, i hope my speed dial can be fixed soon.
I don’t seem to be able to export and import thumbnails in Opera.. is there an option? I’ve got quite a few thumbnails and it’s not practical to re-enter them manually, or use a .db viewer/converter to turn them into a spreadsheet format. I can do this using Database Browser for SQL Lite (freeware), but again it’s not practical. Thanks.
New opera update (at least the page has change ) and gmail has disappeared. Have tried to add gmail but nothing. Have notification that mail.google.com is blocked. Can access gmail by other means so what is going on? 14/05/2019
So I followed,the instructions closely, many times. The page that you show in these instructions isn’t there. So I was unable to get back my speed dials.
Now what?
Thank you, Mary Jo Banco
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