"Start on Homepage" option gone from M19

[Meok]

In M19, you can no longer tell Chrome to start on the Homepage. You can specify what page the home button links to, but there's no way to tell it to start on that page. You can specify a set of pages (or one page) to open at startup but the two options aren't linked. 

Is this intentional or a regression?

[Evans Turner (Work)]

I always found the home-page to be counter-intuitive. If you visit a
specific page all the time, it will be front-and-center on the new tab
page...-just click it!

If you were working on something the last time you closed your
browser, it should restore your tabs automatically when you open it
and you could continue working.

If you *need* a homepage, you could find the shortcut that launches
Chrome and edit the properties to add specific URL as a parameter,
like this:

Target: ["C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application
Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" http://www.iamaluddite.com/]

I have only tried this in Windows, but I'm pretty sure you can add a
URL parameter to a shortcut in other operating systems too.

-Evans

[Capy]

I do not know what a URL parameter is, but it is easy to select a page (or several pages) that launch at startup.  Click "set pages" next to "Open a specific page or set of pages" on the settings page.  If you include only 1 page, it is the exact same as having a homepage.  If you use the home button, you can turn that on as well.

[Evans Turner (Work)]

FYI, Capy, this is what I meant by "parameter" in that context:
"Passing information to an executable while launching it."

For example, bring up the Windows Run menu ( [Win] + [R] ) and try
some commands with and without parameters.

"chrome.exe" --- No parameters passed, Chrome starts normally.
"chrome.exe msn.com" --- Parameter "msn.com" passed to Chrome, so
Chrome launches with msn.com already loaded.
"chrome.exe msn.com -incognito" --- Two parameters are passed to
Chrome: 1) "msn.com" and 2) "-incognito", so Chrome starts in
incognito mode with msn.com already loaded.

When you double-click a text file, Windows launches notepad.exe with a
parameter telling Notepad which file to load.
"notepad.exe C:\test.txt"

That's what I meant.

-Evans

[Tyler Breisacher]

Capy, you're exactly right, that's the new intended way to get the
desired behavior. Evans, your way should work too on any OS, and if
it's what you want to do then more power to you! But since most users
are not going to want to modify shortcuts or deal with command line
parameters, I suggest to most people that they follow what Capy said.
If you already had a homepage set, then you should have gotten
migrated automatically to this new setting when you switched from
Chrome 18 to Chrome 19. However, there is a known issue where this
will not happen for certain users: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=122936
-- If you are one of the unlucky few, I apologize, and you will have
to go in and change your settings manually to get back to the previous
behavior :(

[Capy]

@Evans: Thanks for the explanation about parameters.  I know some basic C++ and am just beginning to understand how an OS works.

@Tyler: Yes, I experienced that issue with both my computer and my family's computer.  I thought the changed homepage was an encouragement to change the homepage.