Chrome settings - initial setup, reset and transfer features

No complex application can be perfectly configured from the start, from both the developer’s and the user’s perspectives. In our view, some options can significantly enhance the convenience and speed of working in Chrome. We will cover them in this article.

Chrome settings main sections

How to Access Settings

You can access the Chrome settings page on Windows in one of two ways:

Menu → “Settings”
Alt+E, ↑, ↑, Enter

There is only one way to open Chrome settings for Android:

Menu → “Settings”

Initial Settings

Our recommended initial Chrome settings package consists of 5 elements:

Enable displaying previously opened tabs after restarting the application.
Enable the convenient bookmarks bar, which is initially hidden.
Ability to choose a folder for downloading files.
Add an ad blocker for comfortable content viewing on “aggressive” websites.
Select necessary search engines for use in the address bar.

Reset Settings

The reset settings function in Chrome is primarily needed to counteract malicious programs or extensions that change some browser parameters to display advertising information to the user. Most often, victims of such interference are the search engine, start page, and pinned tabs. Less frequently, “gray” extensions are auto-installed. The purpose of reset is to attempt to return vulnerable components to their initial, correct state.

What will happen to Chrome specifically after resetting settings:

All installed extensions will be disabled.
The home button and start pages will be reset.
The default search engine will be set to Google.
Cookie files (active authorizations on sites) will be removed.
Pinned tabs will be removed.
Bookmarks, history, passwords will remain intact.

How to Reset

Go to the settings section called “Reset settings”:
1. via the link chrome://settings/reset
2. Menu → “Settings” → left panel “Reset settings”
Click on “Restore settings to their original defaults”
In the popup window “Reset settings?”, click the corresponding button

There is no direct reset settings function in the Android version of Chrome due to the specifics of how this OS works. We’ll show you how to do it on a Google Pixel smartphone:

Long press Chrome shortcut → select “App info” from the context menu → “Storage & cache” → “Clear storage” → “Clear all data”
“Settings” → “Apps” → “See all X maps” → find “Chrome” in the list → “Storage & cache” → “Clear storage” → “Clear all data”

Chrome will automatically close if it was running during the reset procedure.

Settings Transfer

Transferring Chrome settings is the same as profile transfer, which contains the settings of each specific user.

Experimental Settings

The entire list of Chrome settings available through the main menu is just a part of their common base. There are also so-called hidden, or more precisely experimental settings. You can only access them at:

chrome://flags/

Hidden settings in Chrome are mostly necessary to activate any experimental capabilities in this version of the browser. If they are not yet in the stable release but you want to use them already. In our example, you can see that 2 experimental features are activated:

Parallel Downloading (described here)
Choose ANGLE graphics backend (described here)

Settings in Google Chrome