Microsoft Edge changing your homepage back to Bing or a Microsoft page — reverting settings you’ve changed, or the homepage looking different from what you configured — is almost always caused by an extension, a Windows update that ships with new Edge settings, or a corporate Group Policy applied to managed machines. For a broader walkthrough, our Google Chrome Errors is a good next read.
Set it correctly first: Edge Settings → Start, home, and new tab → “When Edge starts” — choose your preferred option. “Open a new tab” is the cleanest choice; “Open a specific page” lets you set an exact URL. Save this and reopen Edge before testing whether it sticks.
Why Edge keeps reverting the homepage
Three common reasons Edge’s homepage resets after you set it:
- An extension is overriding it — new tab extensions, browser theme extensions, and some VPN extensions replace the default new tab or homepage
- Group Policy or Intune is forcing it — on work or school machines, IT controls the homepage through managed policies
- Edge Sync is restoring old settings — if another device signed into the same account has a different homepage, sync may be overwriting local settings
Check for extensions overriding the homepage
Edge menu → Extensions → Manage Extensions → look for any extension that handles “New Tab,” “Start page,” “Homepage,” or similar descriptions. These typically override Edge’s built-in new tab page. Toggle them off → restart Edge → check whether your homepage setting now persists.
Common culprits: productivity dashboard extensions (Momentum, Tabliss), browser security extensions that replace the new tab, and extensions from antivirus software that add their own start page. Identifying the conflict by disabling and re-enabling extensions one at a time takes a few minutes and definitively identifies which one is overriding Edge.
Group Policy — the corporate scenario
If Edge is managed through work or school, the homepage may be force-set by IT. Signs: the homepage setting in Edge’s Settings page is greyed out with a lock icon or “Managed by your organization” note, and any changes you make revert when Edge restarts.
Check: navigate to edge://policy in the address bar. If you see entries for HomepageLocation, NewTabPageLocation, or similar: IT policy controls these settings. You can’t override Group Policy from within Edge — this is by design. Speak to IT if you need a different homepage for work purposes.
Edge Sync overwriting local settings
Edge Sync can restore settings from another signed-in device. If you set a homepage on your desktop, but your phone or work laptop has a different homepage configured and syncs: the setting gets overwritten.
Edge Settings → Profiles → Sync → check whether “Settings” is included in what syncs. Disabling sync for “Settings” (while keeping passwords and bookmarks) prevents cross-device homepage conflicts. Alternatively: set the correct homepage on all signed-in devices so the sync consistently restores the right value.
The Start button and homepage are different things
A common confusion: Edge has both a “homepage” (what loads when you click the house icon in the toolbar) and a “new tab page” (what opens when you click + for a new tab). These are configured separately:
- Home button URL: Settings → Appearance → “Select what to display” under Home button → set URL
- New tab page: Settings → Start, home, and new tab → “New tab page” section — change from MSN content to a custom URL or blank page
- Startup page: Settings → Start, home, and new tab → “When Edge starts” — set to “Open a specific page” with your URL
If you’ve set the startup page but the new tab page is still showing Bing: you’ve only fixed part of the configuration. Both need to match your preference.
New tab page content — separate from the URL
Even when the new tab URL is set correctly: the new tab page still shows news, weather, and MSN content by default because these are controlled separately from the URL. Edge → new tab → click the gear icon in the top right → “Page settings” → change Content to “Focused” (news feed only) or “Inspirational” (image only) or use a custom new tab extension to replace it entirely.
Our guide on Edge configuration issues covers the profile and policy settings that affect Edge behaviour more broadly. For Edge sync behaviour that affects settings across devices, our Edge sync guide covers what syncs and how to control it. Microsoft’s Edge settings documentation covers the full new tab page customisation including removing specific content modules (weather card, news feed, Quick Links) independently without changing the page URL.
Edge profile-specific settings
Edge supports multiple profiles (work profile, personal profile) each with independent settings including homepage. If you’re using a work profile that has a policy-enforced homepage: switching to your personal profile restores the homepage freedom you set there. The profile icon in the top right shows which profile is active. Settings in one profile don’t carry over to another.
Clearing Edge settings completely
If homepage settings persistently revert despite no extension or policy explaining it: a corrupted Edge profile is storing conflicting settings. Edge Settings → Reset settings → “Restore settings to their default values” → Confirm. This resets the homepage, new tab, extensions’ states, and appearance — but preserves bookmarks, passwords, and history. After reset: configure the homepage fresh and test whether it persists without reverting.
Edge custom new tab extensions
For a completely custom new tab experience — not just a different URL — new tab extensions from the Edge Add-ons store provide full control. Popular options:
- Momentum: clean interface with clock, daily focus, and weather
- Tabliss: minimal, fully customisable with widgets
- Start.me: dashboard-style with bookmarks and feeds
When using these: Edge’s built-in new tab settings become secondary — the extension controls the new tab page. The extension’s own settings manage what appears. If the extension reverts to a default after an update: check its settings, not Edge’s settings.
Startup page vs home button vs new tab — reference
| What you’re setting | Where to configure it | When it applies |
| Startup page | Settings → Start, home, new tab → “When Edge starts” | Opening Edge from scratch |
| Home button destination | Settings → Appearance → Home button → URL | Clicking the house icon in toolbar |
| New tab page URL | Settings → Start, home, new tab → “New tab page” | Opening a new tab with + |
| New tab page content | New tab gear icon → Page settings | What appears on Edge’s built-in new tab |
Preventing malware from changing Edge settings
Some browser hijackers install as extensions or modify Windows Registry values to force Edge to a specific homepage. If the homepage reverts to an unfamiliar URL (not Bing, not a recognizable site) rather than just reverting to Edge’s defaults: a browser hijacker may be responsible.
Signs: the homepage URL contains ad networks, shopping sites, or search engines you didn’t choose. Fixes: Edge → Extensions → remove any extension you don’t recognize → run Windows Security scan → run Malwarebytes (free) → check the edge://settings/privacy page for any unexpected search engine change alongside the homepage. A homepage hijacker typically also changes the default search engine simultaneously.
Edge Group Policy via Windows 11 Home
Windows 11 Home doesn’t include the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc), so you can’t directly check whether Group Policy is controlling Edge on a Home machine. However: edge://policy still shows all active policies regardless of how they were applied. If policies appear there on a Home edition machine: they may come from third-party software that writes policy registry values directly (some antivirus and parental control software does this).
Check the registry: Win+R → regedit → HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftEdge — if Edge policy values exist here: software added them outside of Group Policy. Right-click → delete those values and restart Edge. The homepage policy no longer forces, allowing Edge’s own settings to take effect.
Edge and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
Installed PWAs occasionally affect Edge’s new tab page or startup behaviour when configured to open at startup or on specific actions. Edge → Apps → Manage apps — if you have PWAs set to open at Edge startup, they may interfere with the startup page you configured. Configure each PWA’s startup setting individually through this page.
Setting the homepage permanently via registry
For advanced users who want to lock the homepage through a non-policy approach: the registry can set Edge defaults that survive most extension interference (though not Group Policy override). This should be done carefully:
Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftEdgeSuggested Site List — this is the location Edge reads startup preferences from. However, directly modifying Edge registry values is unsupported and changes may be overwritten by Edge updates. The supported method is always through Edge Settings or Group Policy.
The practical advice for most users: correctly set the homepage in Edge Settings (all three settings: startup, home button, and new tab page), disable any new tab extensions that conflict, and check edge://policy for any corporate overrides. These three steps resolve the homepage changing issue in the majority of cases without registry or policy investigation.
One thing many users don’t realise: Edge’s new tab page by default shows significantly more content than just a search bar. Weather, news, sports scores, financial information, and Microsoft Copilot shortcuts are all enabled by default. Reducing this to a minimal interface (gear icon on new tab → “Focused” or even “Blank page”) is a separate action from changing the homepage URL. The two settings together create a clean, minimal Edge starting experience. Users who only set the URL but leave the content settings at default end up with a URL they chose but an interface cluttered with MSN content they didn’t ask for.
Edge Sidebar and the homepage
Edge’s sidebar (enabled by default in recent versions) sometimes loads content that interferes with the perceived homepage. If the sidebar auto-opens with Microsoft tools (Copilot, Shopping, Discover) when Edge starts: Settings → Sidebar → “Always show sidebar” → Off, or disable specific sidebar apps. The sidebar content isn’t technically the homepage but adds to the confusion of “Edge is showing stuff I didn’t configure.”
Checking what Edge actually loads on startup
If uncertain about what Edge is doing on startup: navigate to edge://settings/onStartup in the address bar — this takes you directly to the startup configuration page without clicking through multiple settings menus. Similarly: edge://settings/appearance shows the home button configuration and edge://newtab (or just clicking +) shows the current new tab state.
For a complete picture of what’s controlling Edge’s behaviour: open edge://settings in one tab, edge://policy in another, and edge://extensions in a third. Reviewing these three pages simultaneously shows the complete configuration state — your settings, any policy overrides, and installed extensions — making it straightforward to identify which one is causing the persistent homepage change.
Windows 11 and Edge’s default browser designation
When Windows 11 opens links from other applications (email clients, document editors, system notifications): it sends them to the default browser. If Edge is the default: those links open in Edge. If you have a custom homepage set: those links may open to your custom page first then navigate to the link (depending on startup configuration), or they may open directly to the link in a new Edge window using whatever the new tab page is set to. These are expected behaviours from the startup configuration choices — not homepage reverting. Reviewing the “When Edge starts” setting (“Continue where you left off” vs “Open a new tab” vs “Open a specific page”) clarifies how Edge behaves when opened from external links versus clicked directly.
Edge homepage control is one of those areas where Microsoft’s defaults clearly favour Microsoft’s own services (Bing search, MSN news, Microsoft Copilot), and overriding these defaults is possible but requires understanding the layered system: startup setting, home button setting, new tab URL, and new tab content are all separate controls that need to be individually configured. Most users only change one of them and find “Edge still shows Microsoft stuff” because the other three haven’t been changed. Working through all four settings deliberately produces a browser experience that looks and behaves exactly as intended.
For users who find Edge’s aggressive defaults frustrating and want the simplest possible fix: using a different browser as the default (Chrome, Firefox, or Brave) for personal browsing while keeping Edge for work-specific tasks (SharePoint, Teams web, Microsoft 365 apps that work best in Edge) sidesteps the homepage issue entirely. The browser you prefer for general browsing doesn’t have to be the system default browser — Windows lets you set default applications per-protocol and per-file-type, giving full flexibility in how Edge and alternative browsers coexist. If this sounds familiar, Microsoft Edge Keeps Freezing is worth a look.
The most effective summary for non-technical users: set all three things in Edge Settings (startup page, home button, new tab page), check for new tab extensions that override your settings, and look at edge://policy for any managed settings. That sequence resolves the issue for most home users within 10 minutes. The registry and policy investigation is for the minority of cases where extensions and syncing aren’t the explanation. Our guide on Chrome Keeps Reloading Tabs covers an adjacent issue.
