How to Add or Remove Home Button on Toolbar in Microsoft Edge?

The Home button in a browser is an icon found on the toolbar in Microsoft Edge. This button lets you quickly return to a preset homepage. Depending on how you use your browser, you might want to add or remove this button. By default, the Home button is disabled. Users can enable or disable the Home button by following one of the methods described in this article. We’ve also included steps to remove the Home button, as well as instructions for disabling the Home button settings for standard users.

The Microsoft Edge settings method is the default way for any user on the computer to configure the Home button. However, the Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor methods will enforce your chosen setting in the browser, so users won’t be able to change it from the browser’s settings anymore.

1. Configure the Home Button in Browser Settings

The simplest and most common method is by using the built-in browser settings. In the Appearance section, you’ll find the Show Home button option. With this setting, you can enable or disable the Home button. You can also decide what happens when you click the Home button — it can either open a new tab or take you to a specific website.

1. Open the Microsoft Edge browser by double-clicking the shortcut or searching for it in Windows search.

   

2. Click the Settings and more (Alt+F) button in the top right corner, then select Settings from the menu.

   

3. Select the Appearance option from the left pane. Here, use the Show home button toggle to add or remove the Home button. When you change the toggle, you’ll notice the toolbar updates instantly.

   

4. If you add the Home button, you can decide what it does. Choose New tab page to have it open a new tab, or select Enter URL to have it open a specific website of your choice.

2. Configure the Home Button using Registry Editor

The Windows Registry is a database that stores settings for Windows and installed apps. It also saves changes you make to Microsoft Edge. This method is an alternative to using Group Policy Editor. If you’ve already used the Group Policy method, this setting will update automatically. If you use the Registry directly, just be sure to create any missing keys or values.

1. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog. Type “regedit” and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. If prompted by UAC (User Account Control), click Yes.

   

2. If you want to create a Registry backup first, go to the File menu and choose Export. Name the backup file, select where to save it, and click Save.

   

3. In Registry Editor, go to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge

4. If the Edge key doesn’t exist, right-click on Microsoft, select New > Key, and name it “Edge“.

   

5. Select the Edge key. In the right pane, right-click and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it “ShowHomeButton“.

   

6. Double-click on ShowHomeButton. In the window that opens, set the value data to 0 to remove the Home button, or 1 to add the Home button to the toolbar.

   

7. If your changes don’t take effect right away, restart your computer.
8. To undo your change, simply delete the value you created in the Registry Editor.

3. Configure the Home Button with Local Group Policy Editor

The Local Group Policy Editor contains a variety of settings you can easily configure. You just need to open the right setting and adjust it. However, policy settings for the latest Microsoft Edge (Chromium) may not be available on your system by default, so you might need to download the latest policy files.

1. Open your browser and go to the Microsoft site. Choose your Microsoft Edge version and click the GET POLICY FILES button.

   

2. Once the zip file is downloaded, extract it using WinRAR or a similar tool.

   

3. Open the extracted folder, and go to “MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates\windows\admx“. Copy the “msedge.admx” and the relevant “msedge.adml” language file into “C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions“.

   

   Note: The ADML language file is found in a subfolder labeled with your language code (such as “en-US”). Copy it from there to the same location as above.

4. Hold down Windows + R on your keyboard, type “gpedit.msc” and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.

   

5. In Group Policy Editor, go to:

   Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Edge\Startup, home page and new tab page\

   

6. Double-click Show Home button on toolbar to open its settings. To add the Home button, set the option to Enabled. To remove it, set to Disabled.

   

7. Finally, click Apply or OK to save your changes.
8. You can revert the setting to default any time by changing the option to Not Configured in step 6.