About Blank: What is about:blank and How to Solve It?

Before we delve into the meaning of about:blank, it is important to understand what “about:” stands for. About is part of the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme that provides information about the built-in functions of a web browser. Some of the web browsers that support “about:” are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer.

What is about:blank?

When you enter “about:blank” into the address bar of your browser, a blank page is rendered.

“about:blank” like all other “about:” commands don’t necessarily require an internet connection to load. It is generated within the web browser and not from the internet. A blank page opening after entering the “about:blank” command doesn’t imply that anything is wrong with the browser or system.

Why Does An Empty Page Appear?

Apart from a blank page being rendered after entering “about:blank” in the address bar, there are a few other reasons that could lead to an empty page. 

While about:blank pages are not malware or adware, they can sometimes be caused due to malware or bugs in the browser or other applications.

Some other causes of “about:blank” tabs are:

• Webpage loading for a long time.
• Removal of malware leaving the browser in a non-functional set.
• Poor internet connection.
• Corrupted page cache.
• Corrupted add-ons or extensions.
• Clicking a download link that opens in another window or tab, and the browser displays a blank page to start the download.

Uses Of about:blank

About:blank command can be more useful than you think. Some of the benefits of setting about:blank as the default address of the home page of your browser are:

• Privacy whenever the browser is launched.
• Saving up on bandwidth by opening a blank tab that doesn’t require an internet connection.
• Preventing the browser from opening tabs or windows from the previous sessions.
• Maximizing performance by optimizing the tasks that a browser conducts behind the scenes.

How To Remove about:blank?

Although there is nothing wrong with the about:blank feature, you might prefer to replace the empty tab that opens as the home page of your browser with something of your choice. Here is how you can do it.

Changing home page address

• GOOGLE CHROME

1. Open the menu (three vertical dots on the top right).
2. Go to Settings.
3. Select the On Startup option from the list on the left.
4. Scroll down till you find the On Startup section.
5. Select either “Open the New Tab page” or delete about:blank from the “Open a specific page or set of pages” section and add a new page of your choice.

• MOZILLA FIREFOX

1. Open the menu (three vertical bars on the top right).
2. Go to Settings.
3. Select the Home option from the list on the left.
4. Remove about:blank from all fields in the New Windows and Tabs section.
5. Select the home page address of your choice for new windows and new tabs.

• APPLE SAFARI

1. Open the menu (top left of your screen).
2. Select Safari.
3. Choose Preferences from the drop-down menu.
4. Select the General tab from Preferences.
5. In the Homepage field, replace about:blank with the URL of your choice.
6. Close the window to save the changes.

Sometimes the about:blank page appears while browsing through web pages due to malware or corrupted pages. The following steps should be followed in that case:

Clearing browsing data

• GOOGLE CHROME

1. Open the menu (three vertical dots on the top right).
2. Go to Settings.
3. Select Privacy and security from the list on the left.
4. Click on Clear browsing data.
5. Select All Time from the dropdown menu.
6. Check all the boxes under the Basic and Advanced sections.
7. Select clear data.

You can also clear cache by following these steps.

• MOZILLA FIREFOX

1. Open the menu (three vertical bars on the top right).
2. Go to History.
3. Select Clear Recent History.
4. Choose Everything from the dropdown menu under Time range to clear.
5. Check all the boxes under History and Data.
6. Click on OK.

• APPLE SAFARI

1. Go to the menu bar (top left of your screen).
2. Click on History.
3. At the bottom, select Clear History.
4. In the drop-down menu, select “all history” to clear history and cookies from Safari.
5. Click on Clear History.

If the problem persists despite clearing browsing data, try disabling chrome extensions using the following steps.

Disabling Chrome Extensions

• GOOGLE CHROME

1. Open the menu (three vertical dots on the top right).
2. Go to Settings.
3. Select Extensions from the list on the left.
4. By unchecking the boxes, disable the recently installed extensions, out-of-date extensions, and extensions that violate Chrome web store policy.

• MOZILLA FIREFOX

1. Open the menu (three vertical bars on the top right).
2. Go to Settings.
3. Select Extensions & Themes from the list on the left.
4. By turning the toggle button off, disable the recently installed extensions and out-of-date extensions.

If none of these methods eliminate the problem of about:blank, uninstall and install your browser again. This shall restore the default settings of your browser and clear the custom settings, extensions, plug-ins that might have been the cause of the problem.

NOTE: It is recommended to run a virus scan from time to time as it prevents the frequent occurrence of an empty page while you are browsing. You must take care of these steps to ensure the safety of your Windows PC and perform regular cleaning up of your system using PC optimization tools like CCleaner. 

Conclusion

It is important to identify the reason behind an empty web page on a browser and follow the above steps accordingly.

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