Surely on more than one occasion you have wondered what the about: blank page is that opens in Chrome and other browsers, so we are going to give you all the details about this curious page so that when you finish reading you are clear about what it is for and if it has any functionality.
Actually the about: blank page is not exclusive to Chrome , if you open other browsers such as Firefox or Edge, you will see that if you put that address in the address bar and open that page, you will find the same thing as if you did it in Chrome, in abstract, a blank page.
And basically it is that, a blank page that offers no use because you cannot do anything on it, it simply opens as a new tab in the browser, but its use in certain circumstances can be quite useful as we will explain later.
about: blank does not use bandwidth, so you will not waste your connection resources since a white page has nothing to load, it does not lead anywhere. It’s a quick way to open the browser if you don’t want any other tabs to open.
To open the about: blank page you just have to open your usual browser, type about: blank above and press the Enter key on your keyboard.
What can I use about: blank for
Knowing what about: blank is, the other big question to be resolved is knowing what about: blank is for , the answer is that it is not for anything in particular, although you can give it some other use that you probably did not know and that will come in handy in some moments, for example:
- As a home page: you can make your browser always start with the blank about: blank page if you don’t want another page to be shown, it is something that many do. In Chrome go to settings and the section “when opening” check “Open a specific page or a set of pages” and add a new page by putting about: blank.
- To open Chrome on slow PCs: taking into account that about: blank does not load anything at all because it is a blank tab, it is good to put it as the home page following the previous steps if you have a computer with few resources, so Chrome will not consume as many resources as you would with other tabs.
- To open Chrome on slow or mobile connections: if you have a slow connection or are connected through a mobile rate on your PC through tethering, it is good for Chrome to load the blank page when it opens to avoid wasting data or preventing your connection collapse.
- To “block” the use of the browser: a curious utility that the about: blank page could have is that you could “block” the use of the browser by pressing F11, so that it opens full screen and you see all white, as well user who does not know this keyboard shortcut will think that the PC is locked.
Questions and answers about about: blank
At this point you probably still have some questions about the about: blank page , so let’s try to solve them below:
Can it be removed or disabled?
about: blank is an internal element of Chrome and other browsers, it is something that cannot be removed or disabled.
In which browsers can I use it?
You can open the about: blank page in Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Safari and other browsers, in addition to being able to set it as the home page in any of them so that when you open you see a blank screen.
Can I open it on Android or iOS?
Yes, you can open about: blank on your Android mobile or tablet, iPhone or iPad as long as you have a browser, if you put it in the address bar and open it, you will see the same thing, a blank page.
Can I do something on it?
No, it is simply a clean page without any visible or hidden elements, you can not do anything more than close it or open a different tab.
It’s a virus?
about: blank is not a virus, it is a blank page of the browser as we have already explained. However, there may be some malware that can open a similar page and have a strange behavior, for example, that it is opened many times or that it opens when we do not have it configured like that. If so, it is best to run a scan with your antivirus.
