Simple clear advice in plain English

Changing the home page in Internet Explorer and Firefox

Customise these browsers to show your favourite website when they start

Automatically load your favourite websites

Many manufacturers supply computers with the internet browser home page set to their own website, presumably in the hope that you will buy something more from them. Changing the home page is a simple task and this video will show how to this for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Internet Explorer

  1. Left-click on the Start button, then All Programs and Internet Explorer.
  2. Enter the web address you want to use in the address bar and press Enter. This is not essential but it makes the process much easier.
  3. Once the page has loaded click on the Tools button and select Internet Options.
  4. The home page options are at the top of the window. Click on the Use Current button to automatically copy the current address into the box.
  5. Internet Explorer can use more than one web site as a home page, each of the web pages is loaded in a separate tab. To add an extra tab, click after the first address press enter and then type the next address.
  6. Click on the OK button when you have finished to save the changes and close the Internet Options window.

    Firefox

    1. Left-click on the Start button then All Programs, Mozilla Firefox and then Mozilla Firefox.
    2. Click on the Tools menu and then Options. We prefer to leave the top option as Show my windows and tabs from last time, it prevents having to save bookmarks before shutting Firefox down.
    3. Click on the Use Current Pages to set Firefox to always open the webpages that are currently on display.
    4. If you are going to enter by hand you can still use several sites in different tabs but rather than pressing Enter to denote a new tab enter a | character. This is normally the key between Z and the left Shift (hold Shift down at the same time).
    5. Click on OK to apply the change and then click on the Home button to check the settings are correct.

    Changing the internet home page may not seem like a massive change but it personalises your computer. As both Internet Explorer and Firefox can remember several tabs both are very convenient for checking several web pages at the same time.

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