Google Chrome - 'new tab' question

Google Chrome 2.0.172.33

Whenever I open up a new tab in Chrome, it displays 9 mini windows of the "most visited" sites in the middle and links to the "recently closed" sites on the right hand side.

Is there a way to permanently DISABLE this feature so when you open a new tab/page.....it does not show your history of visited sites?

I have checked the options section but could not find anything.

Thanks.

 

Yeah, don't care much for that either. Here's a link to the instructions:

http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95314

Basically, you just don't want to have "Use the New Tab page" checked under "Home page" (go to Options>>Basics to change that).

EDIT: Sorry.....missed the new tab thing. Once you have the correct settings in Options, you can choose to hide the thumbnails and recommendations using the icons near the top of the screen. The browser should remember the settings from that point on.

 

I did not see where this could be done.

 

Just to make sure, you don't see the following icons near the top of the window when you open a new tab?

 

Nope. I don't see any of the icons when I open up a new tab. It might not be available in the build I'm using.

What version of Chrome are you using?

 

It has the options in this build

 

Yes, somehow I got the (obviously mistaken) impression that they took care of this issue in the latest released version. God knows they had enough complaints about the inability to configure new tabs.

Anyway, below is a link to an extension in case you care to go that route. It certainly appears as if it will do precisely what you want the browser to do (open new tabs without 'speed dial', preferably blank pages).

http://code.google.com/p/customnewtab/


EDIT: Sorry, but the above is for v3.0.189 and higher. For older Chrome versions (2.0 - 3.0.187) see the following:

http://www.chromeplugins.org/chrome/customize-your-new-tab-page/