Windows 7 - How to set ANY new tab to open my home page in IE9

I am really frustrated with tabbed browsing in IE 9. My home page is Google, and I want ANY new tab to open to that, no matter what site I am on at the time.

For instance, if I am in my home page, and hit a taskbar link to say eBay, find something there I want to check out further, click on the new tab, it opens to another eBay window, Not the desired Google page.

I only have one link in my home pages, that is Google. I have new tab set to "first home page".

However, if I open eBay, then click on internet options nothing is in the home page window, and it says "eBay home pages"

It seems that "first home page" means the first page opened in that browsing session. NOT what I want! I want a permanent setting so that ANY new tab opens to my home page, like it was in earlier versions of IE.

If I am in my Google home page to start, then click a task bar link, it changes what the "first home page" is. Just plain sucks for me. 80% of the time I want my new tab to go to Google. The other times I just type in what I want. I rarely want to open a new page that is a duplicate of my current page!

Hello DShealey,

The tutorial below can help show you how to set what a new tab opens to in IE9.

Internet Explorer 9 New Tab - Change What Page it Opens To

To prevent your homepage from being changed, you might also use the tutorial below to help.

Internet Explorer Home Page - Specify and Prevent Changing

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Internet Explorer 9

1. Open google.com.
2. Click the Tools button (which looks like a gear) in the browser, then click Internet options.
3. Click Use current.
4. Click OK.

edit, this is just for the Home button. sorry

Tools > Toolbars> Menu Bar to see the classic menu bar in IE9.


Now. Tools > Internet options to open the Internet options window. At the bottom area, there is tabs, with a settings button. Click on it .


Click on the arrow at the left of the new tab page, button, and activate "your first home page" Click ok.


Hope it works for you.

EDIT : Brink's Tutorial explains it in a very easier way

I have already tried all the stated options, none of them work. I did look for quite some time for an answer before posting, none of the normaly stated settings fix my issue.

Someone else try this:

1-Open IE9 to your normal home page.
2-Click on the new tab, it should open another same page.
3-Then click on a taskbar internet link to another site.
4-Now click on the new tab, if it behaves like mine it will now open another page like the one from the taskbar link, NOT the desired home page.

My example:

My home page (the only one in the home pages window in options) is Google.com
I have some links to often used sites (example: eBay) on my links area on the taskbar.

If I open IE9, I get my normal Google home page, and if I click a new tab I get that again.

BUT: If I am in my Google home page, and click eBay on my taskbar, it opens eBay, now if I click on a new tab, it opens yet another eBay page, NOT my home page.

It seems that whatever is in the url address window on the left becomes "the first home page" for any new tab thereafter. Not what I want.

DShealey,

I think I know what is going on here now. By chance when you click on say the pinned eBay icon on the taskbar, is the back and forward arrow buttons a yellowish orange color like in the screenshot below?

If so, then see the tutorial for a more detailed explanation of this. Basically, by pinning a site, the site is at the center of the experience, not the browser. When a pinned site is launched from the taskbar, the browser frame and navigational controls integrate the site's icon and primary color, providing an experience that's tailored to the site you're viewing.

Internet Explorer 9 - Pin and Unpin Websites to Taskbar or Start Menu

This would be why your Google homepage is not there when you click on the pinned eBay taskbar icon, and why new tabs will only open to say eBay when using "Your first home page" with Google set as the home page even in the pinned ebay IE. In a say pinned eBay taskbar icon when opened, Ebay is considered to be the first home page no matter what and cannot be changed. Does your Internet Options look like this for the opened pinned eBay icon with the example of the area boxed in red below?

To not have this issue anymore, create your internet shortcut using OPTION THREE in the tutorial below instead, then pin that icon to the taskbar. A IE shortcut using this method will open and work normally in IE like you are wanting instead.

Internet Website Shortcut - Create

Thanks Brink,

You grasped my explanation of what I wanted, and solved it.

I was saying TaskBar in my explanation, it was really the "Quick Launch" bar on the Task Bar. my bad, but your explanation worked like a charm, but I had to right click on the newly created shortcuts to drag them to the Quick Launch bar, but now it works like I wanted it to.

Question: Why does Microsoft keep changing the way things "always" worked, without the simple option to use it like before. They could have easily added "Use Default Home Page" to the drop down for how to open new tabs, and everything would have been just fine.

"But no, we must make use of our system far more difficult for those who want to use it as before to force them to learn our "better" way."

You're most welcome DShealey.

Pinned Sites is a new concept in IE9 that was designed to be able to have shortcuts to a website that opens IE in a separate process with that specific website as the pure focus instead with it's own separate Internet Options settings.

It could be a useful for it purpose, but no so much if you still wanted to use the default IE home page instead of the pinned site.