How to Enable or Disable Edge Preload New Tab Page

Option 1Control Preloading from Edge Settings (For Your Account Only)

This is the quickest way to manage New Tab page preloading. It only affects your own user account and does not need administrator rights. It works the same on Windows 11 Home and Pro.

Open Microsoft Edge

These steps turn the Edge preload page feature for new tabs on or off for your account.

1. Launch Microsoft Edge. Look for the blue and green swirl icon on the taskbar🖥️, on the desktop, or in the Start menu⊞. An Edge window should open.

Access the Menu

2. Click the three dots in the top-right corner. This opens the “Settings and more” menu, and a drop-down list of options should appear.

Navigate to Settings

3. Click Settings. It is usually near the bottom of the list. Edge opens the Settings⚙️ page in a new tab.

Find the New Tab Page Settings

4. Click Start, home, and new tabs on the left side of the Settings⚙️ page. If you don’t see the left-hand list, widen the Edge window. On a narrow window, Edge hides the list behind a menu icon.

Toggle the Preload Feature

5. Open the New tab page section and find the preload option. It is usually on by default. In current versions of Edge the label reads along the lines of “Preload the new tab page for a faster experience”, though the wording can change between releases.
6. Set the preload switch to Off or On. The switch changes right away.

   • Set the switch to Off to stop Edge from loading the New Tab page in the background.
   • Set the switch to On if you want faster loading times for new tabs.

If the switch is greyed out, or Edge shows a “Managed by your organization” message, a policy is controlling the setting. That can be a work or school policy, or the Registry method later in this tutorial. Remove or change that policy before the toggle will respond.

Close the Settings Tab

7. Close the Settings⚙️ tab in Edge. The change takes effect immediately, so you don’t need to restart the🔄 browser. To undo it, come back to this page and flip the switch again.

Option 2Manage Preloading for All Users via Registry Editor (Advanced)

The Registry Editor lets you control this setting for every user account on the computer. This is an advanced method and it requires administrator access. It also works on both Home and Pro. If you are not comfortable changing system settings, use the in-browser switch instead, or ask someone for help.

Here’s what we’ll do:

• Registry Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
• Key Name: NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled
• Value Type: DWORD (32-bit) Value
• Data Values:
  • Set the value to 1 to enable preloading for all users.
  • Set the value to 0 to disable preloading for all users.

If the key is missing or set to 0, the setting is usually enabled by default or left to each user’s own settings (as in Option One). Removing the key or setting its value to 0 hands control back to the user settings.

How to Manually Edit the Registry

We will make these changes step by step in the Registry Editor.

Open the Registry Editor

These steps enable, disable, or reset the Edge preload page policy for every user on the PC. Do steps 1 to 8 first, then follow only one of the three paths after them (enable, disable, or revert), and finish with the last two steps.

1. Press the Win+R. The “Run” dialog box opens.
2. Type regedit in the box and press Enter. You can also click OK.
3. Click Yes if a User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears. If you are signed in with a standard account, Windows asks for administrator credentials instead. The Registry Editor window should now be open, with a folder tree on the left.

Navigate to the Correct Registry Key

4. Go to 🗝️HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edgecopy. You can get there in one of two ways:

   • Expand the folders on the left side of the window one by one.
   • Click the address bar at the top of the Registry Editor, paste the complete path, and press Enter.
5. Right-click the Microsoft folder if the Edge key is missing. If the Edge key already exists under Microsoft, skip to step 8. A missing key is common on a PC where no Edge policy has ever been set.
6. Select New › Key. A new folder appears with its name highlighted for editing.
7. Name the new key exactly Edge and press Enter. The new key should appear under the parent folder.
8. Select the Edge key. Its contents show in the right pane, which will be empty if you just created it.

Create or Modify the Value

Next, create a DWORD value named NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled. Set its data to 1 to enable Edge’s New Tab page preload for all users, or to 0 to disable it. The two sections below cover each case, and a third covers removing the policy. If the value already exists, you don’t need to create it again. Just double-click it and change its data.

To Enable Preloading (Set Value to 1):

9. Right-click in the empty space on the right side. A small context menu🖱️ appears.
10. Select New › DWORD (32-bit) Value. A new entry appears with its name highlighted for editing.
11. Name the new value exactly NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled and press Enter.
12. Double-click the new NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled value. An edit dialog opens.
13. Type 1 in the “Value data” box. Make sure “Base” is set to Hexadecimal.
14. Click OK. The value now shows your data in the right pane.

To Disable Preloading (Set Value to 0):

15. Select the NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled value. If it isn’t there yet, create it first with steps 9 to 11.
16. Double-click the value. The edit dialog opens.
17. Type 0 in the “Value data” box. Make sure “Base” is set to Hexadecimal.
18. Click OK. The value now shows your new data in the right pane.

To Reset to Default (Allow User Control):

To let individual users control this setting through Edge’s own options again (as in Option One), you can either delete the NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled value or change its Value data to 0. Deleting it is the cleaner way to revert completely.

19. Right-click NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled in the right pane. A context menu🖱️ appears.
20. Select Delete. Windows asks you to confirm.
21. Click Yes. The value disappears from the list. After a restart of Edge, the switch in Settings should work normally again.

Close the Registry Editor

22. Close the Registry Editor window. Registry changes are saved as you make them, so there is no save button.

Apply the Changes

23. Restart Microsoft Edge so the registry change takes effect. Close every Edge window completely, then open the browser again. This applies the new policy without restarting Windows. Edge can keep running in the background after you close its windows. If the change doesn’t seem to apply, right-click the Edge icon in the notification area🔔 and exit it, or end it in Task Manager📊, then reopen it.

Summary

There are two ways to control Edge’s New Tab page preload, depending on what you need. For your own account, use the toggle switch in Edge’s settings. To apply the rule to every user account on the computer, use the Registry Editor, and take extra care while doing it. If you later find the switch in Settings greyed out, check whether a policy value is still present in the Registry.