When you are viewing an empty page built-in your web browser, your browser’s address bar will show “about:blank”. You could be using Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, or any of the other browsers, the “about:blank” is a part of all of them.
About:blank doesn't have to worry you as there is nothing wrong with it. You can even use it as your homepage so that your web browser always opens with an empty white screen. And if it's the opposite of that, i.e. your web browser opens with an about:blank and you want to remove it, we will show you how to do that.
What Is about:blank?
It is a built-in feature of your web browser, where the "about:" part of the address commands the browser to show the internal, built-in web pages. For instance, in most browsers, you can type about:downloads in the address bar and you will be directed to the downloads, same with about:settings, you will be directed to the settings.
Similarly, when you type about:blank in your web browser and press the Enter key, the browser will load a blank page that has nothing on it. This is not an online page, it is built into your browser.
Why Is about:blank Useful?
About:blank is used by many people as their home page as it gives them an empty space as they open their browser.
For this, you just need to go your browsers settings and change the option of open with to "about:blank" instead of another web page and this will be set as your homepage.
Also, if you have limited bandwidth or slow internet connection, setting about:blank as your default homepage could help you save a lot of time while opening the browser.
What causes about:blank?
Now you might think, why does this blank page appear. Well, some of the main reasons for this are:
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When there is a bad link/URL.
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When the browser is not sure what to do or where to go, it has to do something – so it shows you about:blank
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When your browser detects some malware on the internet, it will rather open a blank page than visiting the site sometimes.
Thus it is quite clear from this that about:blank isn't something that causes any harm to your computer, but yes if it is appearing a lot, you might want to check your computer for malware.
Other uses for about:blank
About:blank is also particularly helpful when you want to make sure that the tabs from your previous web endeavour have not been preserved.
If you are privacy-conscious then you must consider doing this, also as the session begins without the internet it uses less bandwidth.
How to fix about:blank?
You can not really avoid about:blank but if you are seeing it very frequently, then chances are that it has been set to display with the launch.
To change that just change your homepage to whatever you want it to be.
Another reason for seeing it very often could be your browser's frequent encounters with malware, in that case, you would want to get your computer checked.
Is about:blank malware or a virus?
We have understood through the whole article that about:blank in itself isn't anything malicious, but it could very well be a sign that your computer is frequently being subjected to malicious websites.
There are various anti-malware and anti-virus software that use about:blank when they detect a bad site or URL. Then instead of directing you to the malicious website, they open a blank page for your protection.
If in the process of removing the malware something broke in your system, the browser will show the blank page as it won't be able to perform the action.
Thus, if you don't think that you need to investigate viruses or malware on your system, or you don't want to use it as the homepage for your browser, you don't need to worry much about about:blank
