Do you use Safari as the default web browser on your Mac? If so, you might be happy to know that Safari’s start page is now customizable, as long as you’re running a new version of Safari on the Mac.
With Safari 14 and later, start page customization allows users to set a background image, choose the sections that are displayed like Favorites or Frequently Visited, and more. These modern Safari version are available on macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, and macOS Mojave, so as long as you’re on a modern macOS release you can get started.
Let’s review how you can customize the start page in Safari for Mac.
How to Customize Safari Start Page in MacOS
Customizing your start page is actually a pretty simple and straightforward procedure, here’s what you’ll want to do:
- Launch “Safari” on your Mac from the Dock, Spotlight, or Applications folder
- First, we’ll learn how to show/hide certain sections. To do this, click on the customize button located at the bottom-right corner of the Safari window. Here, simply uncheck or check the sections that you want to hide or show on the Start page.
- Next, we’ll see how to remove unwanted favorites from Safari and clean up your start page. To do this, right-click on any of the icons under the Favorites section and choose “Delete”.
- Similarly, if you want to remove any of the Frequently Visited websites from showing up on the home screen, right-click on it and choose “Delete”.
- Reading lists can also be removed in a similar way too. They show up at the bottom of your start page. Right-click on any of the reading lists and choose “Remove Item”.
- In this step, we’ll learn how to change your Safari background. To do this, simply right-click on the empty area in the start page and click on “Choose Background”. This will open up Finder and you can set any picture as the background.
And there you have it, you’ve customized the Safari start page to your liking.
Whether you’re using Safari 14+ that’s pre-installed on macOS Big Sur or you’re running a standalone version of Safari 14 on an older version of macOS like Catalina or Mojave, the above steps are going to be identical. As long as you have a modern Safari version you’ll have these options available.
Aside from the new customization options, newer versions of Safari also let you check the Privacy Report for websites to see how many trackers have been contacted by a specific website. These trackers are automatically blocked and prevented from tracking you across the web. Safari also has native translation with support for seven different languages, with more languages likely to be on the way.
Safari 14 also brings some performance improvements. According to Apple’s claims, Safari is now capable of loading frequently visited websites 50 percent faster on average than Google Chrome. Power efficiency has also been improved as Safari can now stream video for up to three hours longer and browse the web for an hour longer compared to third-party browsers like Chrome or Firefox.
Did you overhaul the look of your start page in Safari for Mac? What do you like about a customized Safari start page? Share with us your thoughts and relevant experiences in the comments.
