Chromebook 101: how to customize your Chromebooks desktop

Chrome OS isn’t the most option-packed operating system around, but there are some things you can do to make your Chromebook’s desktop look and work the way you want.

First, let’s tackle your desktop’s basic appearance:

You can choose from several categories of wallpaper images.

You can also personalize the page that comes up every time you open a new tab in your browser:

You can customize the background or theme of each new browser page.

Select a color and theme, or customize your own.

Last but not least, take control of the Chrome OS shelf — the dock-like row of shortcuts at the bottom of your screen. Start by selecting exactly what icons appear in that area:

Pin an icon to your shelf to make the app more accessible.

You can also pin a website shortcut to your shelf.

If you want the site to open in an app-like window, without the usual browser elements on top, click the Open as window option in the Create shortcut? pop-up window that appears. Then click the blue Create button.

“Open as window” lets you open the site in an app-like window.

Don’t want the app in your shelf anymore? Unpin it.

And one final pair of possibilities: If you want your shelf to appear on the left or right side of your screen instead of at the bottom, right-click anywhere inside it, select Shelf position, then select Left or Right. And if you want your shelf to remain hidden by default and appear only when you mouse over it, right-click the shelf and select the Autohide shelf option.

You can move the shelf to either side of your screen.

Update May 27th, 2022, 9:30AM ET: This article was originally published on October 12th, 2019, and has been updated to account for slight changes in the OS.

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