How to Prevent Chrome from Opening Old Tabs at Startup

Chrome is one of the most used browsers out there due to its fast speed and easy-to-use interface. It has millions of users, and updates are provided to the browser regularly. However, quite recently, a lot of reports have come in where the browser opens up previously opened tabs at startup. Normally, Chrome opens a new tab at startup; however, in this case, it opens all the tabs that were loaded in the previous instance of its launch.

What Causes Chrome to Load Old Tabs at Startup?

After receiving numerous reports from multiple users, we decided to investigate the issue and devised a set of solutions that fixed it for most of our users. Also, we looked into the reasons due to which this problem is triggered and listed them below.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the nature of the problem, we will move on towards the solutions. Make sure to implement these in the specific order in which they are provided to avoid any conflicts.

Solution 1: Change the Startup Configuration

It is possible that the browser has been configured to open up a specific set of pages or tabs at startup. Also, in some cases, the browser might be configured to start where you left off. In this step, we will be configuring the browser to start at a new tab.

1. Open Chrome and click on the three vertical dots in the top right corner.
2. Select “Settings” from the list and scroll down to the “On Startup” heading.

   

3. Select the “Open the New Tab Page” option by clicking on the “Circle” before it.

   

4. Restart the browser and check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 2: Prevent Background Usage

If Chrome is configured to run in the background, it might open up old tabs at startup. Therefore, in this step, we will close Chrome from the background and prevent it from running in the background again.

1. Open Chrome and click on the three vertical dots in the top right corner.
2. Select “Settings” from the list, scroll down, and click on the “Advanced” option.

   

3. Scroll down further to the “System” heading and toggle the “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” button off.

   

4. Now minimize Chrome by clicking on the “–” in the top right corner.

   

5. Press “Windows” + “X” keys simultaneously and select “Task Manager” from the list.

   

6. Click on “Details” and click on “Chrome.exe” in the list.
7. Select the “End Task” option to close the application.

   

8. Repeat this process for all instances of “Chrome.exe” in the list to completely close the browser.
9. Open Chrome and check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 3: Disable “Fast Tabs” Feature

It is possible that the “Fast Tabs” feature in Chrome is interfering with important elements of the browser and causing it to open up old tabs at startup. Therefore, in this step, we will disable the “Fast Start” feature completely.

1. Open Chrome, close all tabs and open a new tab.
2. Type the following in the Address bar and press “Enter“:

   chrome://flags/#enable-fast-unload

   

3. Click on the dropdown and select “Disabled” from the list.

   

4. Click on the “Relaunch Now” option to reinitialize your browser.
5. Check to see if the issue persists after Chrome restarts.

Solution 4: Reset Chrome Flag Configurations

It is possible that in the “Flag” settings, certain configurations have been set to load old tabs at startup. Therefore, in this step, we will completely reinitialize Flag Configurations. 

1. Open Chrome, close all tabs and open a new tab.
2. Type in “Chrome://Flags” in the “Address” bar and press “Enter“.

   

3. Click on the “Reset All to Default” option.

   

4. Select the “Relaunch Now” option.
5. Check to see if the issue persists after Chrome restarts.