How to Remove Most Visited from Google Chrome

When you open a new tab in the Google Chrome Web browser on your laptop or desktop computer, you are going to see a couple of rows of the sites that you visit the most.

But you might want to hide these for the sake of privacy, which can leave you wondering how.

Our tutorial below will show you how to remove most visited from Google Chrome so that you or anyone else using your computer won’t be able to see and click the buttons.

How to Get Rid of Chrome Most Visited Sites

  1. Open Google Chrome.
  2. Open a new tab.
  3. Click Customize Chrome at the bottom-right.
  4. Select the Shortcuts tab.
  5. Choose the Most Visited Pages button.
  6. Turn on Hide shortcuts.

Our guide continues below with additional information on how to remove most visited from Google Chrome, including pictures of these steps.

Related Topic: Check out our how to share documents on Google Docs article if you would like to be able to work on files with another person.

The Google Chrome Web browser is becoming a very popular alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, due mainly to its excellent performance and its seamless integration with your Google Account.

However, the methods for performing common tasks in Chrome vs. performing those same tasks in Internet Explorer can seem a little foreign the first time you attempt them.

For example, clearing your browser history in Chrome is a little different than Internet Explorer users are probably used to. This holds true for tasks that are related to tasks like deleting your browser history, such as removing the Chrome most visited sites.

These are the icons that are displayed on screen when you open a new tab in Chrome.

While this feature can be helpful if you frequently visit a lot of sites, it might be unwanted for your browsing habits, or you might just not want other people using your computer to see what your most visited sites are.

Fortunately, you can remove your Chrome most visited sites at any time by clearing your browser history.

Related Topic: Want a copy of your bookmarks file? Our where are Google Chrome bookmarks stored article can show you how to get it.

How to Erase Google Chrome History (Guide with Pictures)

The procedure for removing your most visited sites in Chrome is actually the same procedure that answers the question how do I delete my Google Chrome History?

Chrome populates your most visited list by using the history information stored within the browser, so you must clear that in order to remove the most visited Chrome sites.

Step 1: Begin by launching Google Chrome.

Step 2: Click the Wrench icon at the top-right corner of the window.

Step 3: Next, click Tools, then click Clear browsing data.

remove chrome most visited sites

This will open a window that looks like the image below.

Step 4: Check the box to the left of Clear browsing data (you can check other options, too, if you want, but it is only necessary to choose Clear browsing data to remove the Google Chrome most visited data), then click the Clear browsing data button at the bottom of the window.

Your most visited sites will now be erased from Google Chrome the next time you open a new tab.

clear your chrome history

If you are looking to do something that is a little less disruptive to your browsing experience, then the next section describing the removal of a single site from the most-visited section might be what you want.

Related: How to Remove Frequently Visited on iPhone

How to Remove a Single Most Visited Site in Google Chrome

Instead of deleting all of your most visited sites in Google Chrome, you can also selectively delete displayed sites on the Most Visited screen.

Step 1: Open a new tab in Google Chrome to display your most visited sites, then hover over the thumbnail of the site you want to remove.

*This will permanently delete this site from ever appearing on your most visited page again. If you do not want to permanently delete the site from this screen, you may want to reconsider. You can get a deleted site back using the procedure further down the page, but it is a complicated process.*

how to remove most visited from Google Chrome

Step 2: Click the black X that displays in the top-right corner of the window to remove that site from your most visited page.

If you change your mind, there is an Undo option that you can click at the top of the window right after the site is removed, but that will go away after a few seconds.

undo deletion of a most visited site

Now that you know how to remove most visited from Google Chrome, it can be useful to know what to do in case you accidentally remove the wrong page from that location.

Related: How to Show or Hide the Favorites Bar in Microsoft Edge

Restoring a Site That You Inadvertently Deleted From the Most Visited Screen

If you click the black X on a most visited site to remove it from the screen, it will actually be permanently removed from appearing on that screen because your action has added it to a blacklist on your computer.

You can restore sites that have been removed from the most visited page by following the procedure below.

*Before you begin, make sure that Google Chrome is not open. This procedure will not work while Chrome is open.*

Step 1: Click the Windows Explorer icon in the taskbar at the bottom of your Windows 7 computer screen.

Step 2: Click Organize in the blue toolbar at the top of the window, then click Folder and Search Options.

open the folder and search options window

Step 3: Click the View tab at the top of the window, click the option to Show hidden files, folders and drives, then click the Apply button at the bottom of the window, followed by OK.

view hidden files and folders in windows 7

Step 4: Click your C drive in the column at the left side of the window, under Computer, then double-click the Users folder.

Step 5: Double-click your user name, then double-click the AppData folder.

Step 6: Double-click the Local folder, double-click the Google folder, double-click the Chrome folder, then double-click the User Data folder.

Step 7: Double-click the Default folder, right-click the Preferences file, choose Open, click Notepad as the program you want to use, then click OK.

Step 8: Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard to open the find tool, type most_visited_blacklist into the field, then press Enter on your keyboard.

Step 9: The most_visited_blacklist section should look something like this –

“most_visited_blacklist”: {
“2gaj4v21nn0iq7n5ru7mla374un3n79m”: null
},

Step 10: Delete the middle line so that the section looks like this –

“most_visited_blacklist”: {
},

Step 11: Click File at the top of the window, then click Save.

Now that you know how to adjust the most visited sites blacklist in Google Chrome, you will be able to fix any mistakes that you make involving the removal of a site from that location.

Conclusion

Managing the most visited sites on Google Chrome is a great way to make sure that you have access to the sites that you visit the most.

But following our how to remove most visited from Google Chrome steps above will let you get rid of a site in that location that you don’t want to see on every new tab, or that you don’t want someone else with access to your computer to be able to see.

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