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Microsoft’s latest incarnation of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9 has tonnes of cool new features.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be covering many of these features in How To & Quick Tip guides.

Todays Quick Tip is going to show you how to set IE9’s ‘speed dial’ as your Home page.

Have no idea what I’m talking about?  All the better!

Every time you open a new tab in IE9, you’re presented with 10 of your favourite websites.  For most, the Home page will be a website which in my experience only slows start-up time.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a page with all of the sites you care about most when you start your browser?  The Speed Dial in IE9 does just this.  It looks good and feels good.  Implements some good functionality and doesn’t jump to too quick conclusions about which websites are your favourites.  We’ll look at the Speed Dial more in-depth in subsequent IE9 Quick Tips & How To’s as for now, we just want to set our Home page as the speed dial page.

Step 1.

Open your Internet Explorer browser.  Head to the top-right corner and click the sprocket icon, or the Tools menu (Alt+X) to access Internet options.

Step 1

Step 2.

In the General tab and under Home page type about:tabs and click OK.

Step 2

Now, when you start IE9 (and of course when you open a new tab).  It’ll load the speed dial page à la Google Chrome.

Is it just me or does IE start lightning quick (like Chrome quick) with this set as Home page?

Let me know what you think in the comments.



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Comments

  • Phil Kennedy

    How do I increase the number of fave sites ? (Like Chrome)
    Its stuck on 10

    • Scott_okeif

      As of today, there is no easy way to increase the “most popular sites” via the browser WYSIWYG tools but, there is a way. First you have to be familiar with regedit, then–and only then– take a look at this ‘How to’ article.

      http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/display-more-sites-ie9-new-tab-page/

      Remember, you should get acquainted with regedit first, failure to do so could result in a broken OS(computer).

      http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724871.aspx

  • SV

    Nice Tip..Buddy..:)

  • Pongidae

    And what I think is … the author made no comment about who did what first and that you are making some assumptions here. Just because it is a feature that has been in other browsers for a while does not make it a cool new feature in IE9 – just not a groundbreaking exclusive feature. Rarely does the leader implement cutting edge features first, but then again Opera is one of the slowest all around browsers you can use so enjoy that. IE9 is currently the fastest followed by Chrome with Opera and then a very dated Safari coming last in a compiled speed test.
    Just enjoy the fact the the browsers are once again pushing each other to be better!

    • Scott_okeif

      “It’ll load the speed dial page à la Google Chrome”

      Should read, ‘It’ll load the speed dial page à la Opera’; since Opera created the “Speed Dial” page before Google Chrome. ;) Give credit where credit is due.

      And, which of these tests conclusively makes IE fastest?

      http://lifehacker.com/#!5711040/browser-speed-tests-ie-9-firefox-4-beta-chromes-crankshaft-and-opera-11-beta

      I happen to work in field that makes it a necessity for me to have all browsers installed– although I use IE9 and Google Chrome most, followed by Opera and Firefox. Trust me when I say, I enjoy the renovations many of the browsers have gone through over the years.

    • bal bal

      “ie9 is currently the fastest”
      is that your opinion? because ie9 is one of the faster – not the fastest.
      i’m using windows7 64bit with ie9 64bit. this page took about 5 sec to load completely.
      in palemoon 64bit, it took about 4.5 s. in opera, about 4.7. in google chrome, exactly 4s! yes, in firefox it was higher than 5s. but it was due addons. sans addons, firefox performs better than opera itself.
      you tell me if ie9 is the fastest browser given the data as above?
      the post by scott_okeif nails it.
      honestly, as of now while posting this, i’m using ie9 64bit. it took “eons” just to login to my g+ a/c to post. and again, in palemoon 64bit, chrome and opera, this login was way faster!
      personally, i’d always prefer an alternate browser while keeping ie as the default for system purposes.
      that’s not just my opinion, but of millions of users like me.

  • Mastersnoopy

    Sorry, but it want work on my pc, or i compare this “speed dial” with mozilla and I expect something different

  • Guest

    how do you edit these tabs lika a la chrome?

  • Avfff

    the speed dial is useless cuz u cant edit it =(

  • Thorn

    Until IE devs are scratching their a$$, the one solution is to make offline page and make it “startup”. Not so handy, but at least the same functionality.


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