Tips & Tricks

Fast Browser Starts

Do you hate waiting for your homepage to load when you really need to go somewhere else anyway? Sure, you can hit the Stop button or start typing the web address (usually to have it overwritten during said typing), but there has to be a better way, right?

Well, you could set your browser to start with a blank page, but then you kiss your regular homepage goodbye. That's no good.

A better way is to make a blank web page that sits on your desktop. When you click your blank page, your default browser will launch and load the page. Since the page has nothing on it, there is no waiting involved - it loads almost instantly. From your blank page, you can go to the site you *really* needed by selecting it from your Favorites menu or typing in the URL.

So, how do you set this up? Easy:

1. First, you need to make a blank page. The best way to do this is to open Windows Notepad (Start button, Programs, Accessories, Notepad).

OR -

You can download a blank page I made. Right-click the link below and select Save Target As from the resulting menu. When prompted, save the page to your Desktop. If you just click it with your left mouse button, you'll end up going to a blank page, but it won't get downloaded. If you decide to download this page, skip to step 3..

Download the blank page - Right-click here

2. Next, click the File menu, Save as. Navigate to your C:\Windows\Desktop and save the file as "blank.htm" (no quotes). To get to your Desktop folder quickly, click the little desktop icon on the Save As dialog box.

3. That's it. The file should now be on your desktop. Anytime you want to bypass your regular homepage and just get the browser running, click it. In fact, I've even dragged it to my quick-launch toolbar for easier access.

Oh, here's a bonus idea for our more advanced users who know how to program in HTML or have access to some kind of web page creation software. If that's yo,u try making a page similar to the one above, but with links to your most frequently accessed sites.

A page with 20 or so of your favorite links won't make this page load that much slower (we're talking 10ths of a second), but it will make getting to your favorite sites much easier.

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