Sometimes, unbeknownst to us, adware, malware, and unwanted extensions change settings such as default home pages and search engines and make it almost impossible to change them back. When you reset your browser settings, it removes some of the guesswork and does everything for you.
What settings get reset?
When you reset Chrome to default, a lot of data is deleted, but not all. When you’re signed in to your Google account in Chrome, for all devices you’re currently signed in to, the following settings will revert to their default settings:
- Default search engine: goes back to Google.
- Home page and tabs: The home button — if you enabled it — will disappear and any tabs on startup will be removed.
- New tab page: returns to the default new tab page with the Google logo, search bar, and thumbnails of the most visited sites.
- Pinned tabs: they will be unpinned and removed.
- Content settings. This includes site access to the camera or microphone, pop-up blocker notifications, etc.
- Cookies and site data: everything will be cleared.
- Extensions and themes: will be disabled.
Some settings, such as fonts, accessibility, bookmarks, history, and passwords, will remain unchanged. If you want to completely erase your Google account, you can use our guide to delete all synced data in Chrome.
RELATED: How to delete synced information in Chrome
How to reset Chrome settings
Launch Chrome, click the menu icon, and then click Settings. Also, you can enter chrome://settings/ in the omnibox to go straight there.
