How To Stop Chrome From Opening New Tabs When You Click Links

People prefer clicking a link ad having it open in a new tab. But, some want to keep a single tab, hence the question, how to stop Chrome from opening new tabs when you click links. Well, there are very few viable options and we will be sharing them with you.

How to Stop Chrome from Opening New Tabs When You Click Links

Drag and Drop Link in the URL Tab
Change How Search Results Are Displayed
Reset Chrome
Reinstall Chrome

Fix 1: Drag and Drop Link in the URL Tab

To make links open in the same tab, you can drag the address to the address bar with the left mouse button held down instead of clicking it. In other terms, copy the desired link and paste it into the URL bar. This is the surest way to stop Chrome from opening new tabs when you click links.

Understand that some links are coded in such a way that clicking on them automatically opens a new tab. This is because an HTML source can include an attribute named “target” which specifies that the link opens in a new target or tab, so to speak. Hence, there is no way clicking the link directly will open in the same tab because whoever created the link has specified that it opens in a new tab.

If though, it is a normal link, it will open in the same tab. You can also use a Chrome Extension to achieve the desired result. Below are other suggested options you can try.

Fix 2: Change How Search Results Are Displayed

If the option to open searches in new tabs is checked, Chrome will open links in the new tab. You can uncheck this by doing the following:

On Chrome, type in any website address and enter. Once a list of searches is displayed, click Settings in the top right corner, and the drop-down tab, click Search settings where you will be directed to a page with search filters.
Scroll down till you find Where results open and go to the box Open each selected result in a new browser window.
Uncheck the box and click save.

Note that this can check itself back once you leave. To try and fix this, go to the Web& App Activity option on your Google account and disable or pause this feature.

Go to account settings and click Manage your Google Account. Then, go to Data & Personalization. Click on Web & App Activity in the Activity controls panel and disable it. Once you do this, your search options might save properly and stop opening new windows. Note that re-enabling the Web & App Activity option will force the open in new window option back on.

Fix 3: Reset Chrome

This might fix the issue. All you have to do is:

Go to the Settings tab on Chrome, scroll down to and click Advanced
Scroll down to the Reset and clean up option and click Reset Settings
Then, click the bold RESET button to confirm this.

This might be all you need to do to stop Chrome from opening new tabs when you click links. This way, you remove all cache, history, and extensions.

Fix 4: Reinstall Chrome

If Chrome installation is corrupted, Chrome might start opening new tabs every time you click a link. To fix this, uninstall and reinstall Chrome.

You can also disable background apps that could be contributing to the issue, clear malware, or remove any conflicting extensions. Although the first suggestion is the surest way to stop Chrome from opening new tabs when you click links, it requires extra action. If you want to go from click to see directly, you can try the other options to see if they fix the problem.

John Adebimitan

John follows everything happening in the tech industry, from the latest gadget launches to some of the big-name moves in the industry. He covers opinionated pieces and writes on some of the biggest names in the industry. John is also a freelance writer, so he shares articles on freelancing every now and then. email: john@tekpip.com Learn more about tekpip and the team here on our about us page.

How to Stop Chrome from Opening New Tabs When You Click Links