Change These 8 Chrome Settings Immediately

Every user must check and change these important Chrome settings for better user experience and overall security while browsing.

Chrome, the all-important and the most popular browser in the whole of the known universe, is pretty good out of the box. In most cases, you don’t have to change almost anything for a decent browsing experience. However, for better security and user experience, there are a few Chrome settings that you should change.

In this article, we will go through 8 Chrome settings you should check and change. This applies to all users as it makes your browsing a little bit more secure and improves the overall user experience.

Change these Important Chrome Settings

Below is a list of all the important Chrome settings you should change. The below list only contains active Chrome settings and doesn’t include options from Chrome flags or extensions.

Enable Enhanced Protection
Use Secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS)
Enable Quieter Notifications
Enable Page Preloading
Stop Chrome from Running in the Background
Change Chrome Startup Behavior
Change Chrome Theme
Run a Full Safety Check

Let’s see how to change each setting in detail:

1. Enable Enhanced Protection

Enhanced Protection is the first and foremost setting you should enable after installing Chrome. Once turned on, this feature will protect you from malicious websites, downloads, & extensions, predicts and warns you about dangerous events, warn you if your passwords are exposed in a data breach, etc.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “Privacy and Security” tab.
Click on the “Security” option.
Select the “Enhanced protection” option.

Important note: Enhanced Protect will send all your URLs to Google’s Safe Browsing to check them. It may also send an occasional sample of your pages, extensions, and download to help discover new threats.

If you don’t like using the Enhanced Protection feature for privacy reasons, use “Standard Protection.” It gives you the best of both worlds and protects you from malicious websites, downloads, and extensions.

2. Use Secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS)

DNS over HTTPS, also known as Secure DNS in Chrome, encrypts your DNS requests. It provides an extra layer of privacy and security and stops DNS snooping and logging by ISPs, potential eavesdroppers, and other network intermediaries.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “Privacy and Security” tab.
Click on the “Security” option.
Scroll down to the “Use Secure DNS” section.
Select the “With” radio option.
Choose the DNS provider of your choice.

enable dns over https in Chrome (secure dns)

I use Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) DNS. You can use any of the listed DNS providers. If your preferred DNS provider is not listed, select “Custom” from the dropdown menu and then type the DNS address. You can get the DNS address from the DNS provider.

You can also enable DNS over HTTPS in Windows 11. i.e., operating system wide.

After enabling DNS over HTTPS, flush Chrome DNS cache and Windows DNS cache.

3. Enable Quieter Notifications

Anytime a website wants to send notifications in Chrome, the browser shows an intrusive prompt asking if you want to allow notifications. You can stop this intrusive behavior by enabling Quieter Notifications. Once enabled, Chrome will block the notification permission prompt and shows a small icon in the address bar.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “Privacy and Security” tab.
Click on the “Site Settings” option.
Click on the “Notifications” option.
Select the “Use quieter messaging” radio option.

If you want to block all Chrome notifications, select the “Don’t allow sites to send notifications” option.

4. Enable Page Preloading

Page preloading makes your browsing and searching faster. Follow the below steps to enable page preloading in Chrome.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “Privacy and Security” tab.
Click on the “Cookies and other site data” option.
Click/tap on the “Preload pages” option.
Select the “Standard preloading” option.

If you want a bit more (negligible) faster browsing experience, you can select “Extended preloading.” Do keep in mind that some URLs might load from Google servers.

Chrome page preload options - seect standard preload option

5. Stop Chrome from Running in the Background

Even after closing Chrome, it keeps running in the background. This allows Chrome to send notifications and start quickly when you open it the next time. However, letting Chrome run in the background may reduce your system performance and battery backup time.

Follow these steps to stop Chrome from running in the background:

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “System” tab.
Turn off the “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” option.

6. Change Chrome Startup Behavior

By default, Chrome opens to a new tab page on startup. If you want, you can change it to start from where you left off or with a specific web page. Here’s how.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “On Startup” tab.
Select the startup behavior of your choice.

7. Change Chrome Theme

Chrome has several built-in themes to choose from. You can don’t have to stick with the default Light/Dark theme. Follow the below steps to change the Chrome theme.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “You and Google” tab.
Click on the “Customize your Chrome profile” option.
Select the Chrome theme color of your choice.

If you want, you can create a Chrome theme of your own.

8. Run a Full Safety Check

Chrome includes a built-in Safety Check tool that scans your Chrome browser and checks if it is configured securely and warns you of any weak passwords. Here’s how to run Safety Check in the Google Chrome browser.

Open the Chrome browser.
Click on the three-dotted menu icon in the top right corner.
Click/tap on the Settings option.
Navigate to the “Privacy and Security” tab.
Click the “Check now” button under the Safety Check section.
Click on the recommended settings and change them accordingly.

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That is all. These are the important Chrome settings that every user should check and change for better security, privacy, and overall browsing experience.

Here are a few more related Chrome how-to guides:

I hope this simple and easy Chrome how-to guide helped you.

If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.