Maybe sometime you've asked yourself a question: "How the heck do I customize my Chrome' speed dial page?" If you don't, you can always do it right now. The problem is, when you accidentally delete you favorite web-site shortcut from the Google Chrome's top page (of course, if you use it for speed dial), you don't have any obvious way to restore the link. Or, perhaps, you want to add a new shortcut to your speed dial screen.
Well, there are a couple of magic things you actually can do. First, you can download some extension for your Chrome browser (just google for "Speed dial 2"). But this magic is too straightforward for real jedi.
The true way is to modify Chrome browser's program files directly, as it doesn't require much of experience or mana.
When you delete a thumbnail from the speed dial page, the identification of the deleted thumbnail is stored inside Chrome's preferences. So, you can do the trick in two possible ways: edit preferences to make Chrome "forget" than you deleted thumbnail once (kind of "Obliviate" spell), or you can manually add and set up required link on the speed dial page.
Close all Chrome's windows and stop all Chrome's processes. Navigate to the following folder on your computer:
-- C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default (where "XXXXX" is for you current user account name. This one is for Windows Vista/7 users, XP adepts should find their own path inside "Programs and Settings" directory).
There you should find "Preferences" file (nope, no extension, folks) -- it stores every thing you set up in you Chrome browser, including ids of deleted top pages. Open this file with your favorite text editor and meet JSON format, used to store the Chrome's settings. Now find "ntp" node and "most_visited_blacklist" sub-node: you have all the deleted thumbnails listed here. I'm pretty sure it will be hard to understand, which hash key belongs to which deleted url, so just delete everything starting from "most_visited_blacklist" until the first "}," sign. Don't forget to save the file!
Try to launch Chrome browser and see, if you deleted thumbnail appeared on the top page or not. If you can't see it, or you want to modify your speed dial page more, proceed to the following magic.
Top page's thumbnails and links are stored in a SQLite-database in Google Chrome work folder in file "Top Sites". Navigate to the same folder:
-- C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default (where "XXXXX" is for you current user account name)
and look for the file "Top Sites" (that's right, no extension here again).
To open and edit this file you should have SQLite browser on your computer. If you still don't have it -- you can get it here (requires no installation). Once you launched SQLite browser exe file, open database file ("Top Sites") located at the path mentioned above -- at this point you should see database structure shown int he browser's main window. On the "Database structure" tab you can see two datatables in the file: "meta" and "thumbnails". "Meta" datatable contains meta-information (information about information) and is not a target for our magic. We will be modifying "thumbnails" datatable, so click on the "Browse data" tab and select "thumbnals" in the table combobox.
Now you should see a data table with several columns:
and some others.
Now click on the "New record" button, and new record will be added to the bottom of the table. Modify the columns' contents (i.e. insert "http://www.google.com" or whatever in "url" field, edit position in "url rank" field, etc.). Save the file in the Database browser, launch Chrome and enjoy the results of this simple magic.
You can surprise your friend with this simple trick by modifying his/her thumbnail image or link title on the speed dial page of the Chrome. If you do -- we have not ever met.
Well, there are a couple of magic things you actually can do. First, you can download some extension for your Chrome browser (just google for "Speed dial 2"). But this magic is too straightforward for real jedi.
The true way is to modify Chrome browser's program files directly, as it doesn't require much of experience or mana.
When you delete a thumbnail from the speed dial page, the identification of the deleted thumbnail is stored inside Chrome's preferences. So, you can do the trick in two possible ways: edit preferences to make Chrome "forget" than you deleted thumbnail once (kind of "Obliviate" spell), or you can manually add and set up required link on the speed dial page.
Close all Chrome's windows and stop all Chrome's processes. Navigate to the following folder on your computer:
-- C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default (where "XXXXX" is for you current user account name. This one is for Windows Vista/7 users, XP adepts should find their own path inside "Programs and Settings" directory).
There you should find "Preferences" file (nope, no extension, folks) -- it stores every thing you set up in you Chrome browser, including ids of deleted top pages. Open this file with your favorite text editor and meet JSON format, used to store the Chrome's settings. Now find "ntp" node and "most_visited_blacklist" sub-node: you have all the deleted thumbnails listed here. I'm pretty sure it will be hard to understand, which hash key belongs to which deleted url, so just delete everything starting from "most_visited_blacklist" until the first "}," sign. Don't forget to save the file!
Try to launch Chrome browser and see, if you deleted thumbnail appeared on the top page or not. If you can't see it, or you want to modify your speed dial page more, proceed to the following magic.
Top page's thumbnails and links are stored in a SQLite-database in Google Chrome work folder in file "Top Sites". Navigate to the same folder:
-- C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default (where "XXXXX" is for you current user account name)
and look for the file "Top Sites" (that's right, no extension here again).
To open and edit this file you should have SQLite browser on your computer. If you still don't have it -- you can get it here (requires no installation). Once you launched SQLite browser exe file, open database file ("Top Sites") located at the path mentioned above -- at this point you should see database structure shown int he browser's main window. On the "Database structure" tab you can see two datatables in the file: "meta" and "thumbnails". "Meta" datatable contains meta-information (information about information) and is not a target for our magic. We will be modifying "thumbnails" datatable, so click on the "Browse data" tab and select "thumbnals" in the table combobox.
Now you should see a data table with several columns:
- url - link to the webpage;
- url rank - order position, started from 0 (top left thumbnail) to 7 (bottom right);
- title - title of the link;
- thumbnail - blob data (binary image data);
and some others.
Now click on the "New record" button, and new record will be added to the bottom of the table. Modify the columns' contents (i.e. insert "http://www.google.com" or whatever in "url" field, edit position in "url rank" field, etc.). Save the file in the Database browser, launch Chrome and enjoy the results of this simple magic.
You can surprise your friend with this simple trick by modifying his/her thumbnail image or link title on the speed dial page of the Chrome. If you do -- we have not ever met.
