There are many countries like China completely blocks services from Google, Facebook and Twitter. However, Microsoft has a different working model of cooperating with governments to sell their products through the world. Though this is good news for using Windows, Office and other Microsoft products, it creates unexpected problems for users causing inconvenience. One such problem is the language in new tab page of Microsoft Edge browser. If you are stuck with different language in Edge new tab page, here are some options that you can try.
Edge New Tab Page Language Problem
Microsoft Edge browser shows quick links, news feed and few other items on the new tab page. Ideally, you expect to customize the news feed and other text options in your favorite language. Unfortunately, it does not work like that and changing the browser’s language in settings page will not have any effect on the new tab page language. We have a Huawei Matebook and MacBook purchased from China Mainland and the new tab always show in Chinese as you can see below:
Though we have to manually install Edge on Mac, it still shows Chinese language in new tab page. Also, there are no options during installation to select the language. If you don’t know Chinese, you will easily go crazy whenever opening new tab page. Though you can disable news feed and quick links in new tab page, it does not make sense to view other text in different language that you do not understand.
How to Change New Tab Language in Microsoft Edge?
After trying different options, we understand Edge new tab page takes the language from your computer’s language setting. Though changing computer regional language settings fixed the Chinese language problem, it may work differently based on your country. Hence, we will explain all possible options that you can try and we hope at least one should fix your problem.
1. Change Regional Computer Language
There is a regional setting both in Mac and Windows that default uses the language where you have purchased the device. In our case, the region is China Mainland which is the one Edge picks up for deciding the language in new tab page.
1.1. Change regional language in Mac:
First, we will explain changing the region settings in Mac.
- Click on the Apple logo showing on the top left corner of your Mac and select “System Preferences…” menu.
- Find and click on “Language & Region” option, you can also use the search box to find the item.
- The section has two tabs – General and Apps. Ideally, you can go to “Apps” tab and select a custom language for any of the installed apps like Edge. Unfortunately, that does not work with Edge new tab page language. Hence, you need to change the “Region” under “General” tab to change the language in Edge new tab page.
- As you can see, the current region is showing as “China mainland” which is the one picked up by Edge.
- Click on the “Region” dropdown and select “United States” from “Americas”. This will set the Edge new tab page language as English in Mac. Make sure to select your own region to set the corresponding language and news feed.
- You will be prompted to enter the admin password twice, provide the password and click on “Modify Settings” button.
- It should look like below with the “Region” showing as “United States”. If required, change the formats for calendar, time and temperature.
- Now, close Edge completely if you have the app opened. Relaunch the app and open a new tab. Remember, launching Edge will open a startup or home page and now a new tab page. You need to press “Command + T” or use the menu or click on the + icon on the title bar to open a new tab. Edge will show content in English and the news feed will be from msn.com English version instead of Chinese version.
1.2. Change regional language in Windows:
Follow the below instructions to change the region in Windows 11:
- Press “Win + I” keys to open Windows Settings app.
- Go to “Time & language” tab on the sidebar and click the “Language & region” section.
- Scroll down the settings page and check the “Country or region”, as you can see it shows “China” in our case.
- Click on the dropdown against “Country or region” under “Region” section and select your country.
- Close the Settings app and restart your computer.
Open Edge and check the new tab page has changed to the regional language.
Note: The Edge new tab language problem is something similar to Windows OS language problem. Huawei Matebook laptop what we have purchased came with single Chinese language installation without any option to change the display language. We have to upgrade to Windows Pro version to get a language pack and change the display language from Chinese to English.
2. Change Language from Page Layout
You can change the browser’s language from the page layout settings and check if that helps to change language in your new tab page.
- Click on the gear icon showing on the top right corner insider the browser.
- Select “Advanced” to view further options.
- Click on the dropdown below “Language & content” and select your preferred language.
Now, Edge will refresh automatically and load the new tab page in the selected language.
3. Try Edge Add-on for Changing New Tab Page
This is one of the simple and workable solutions though it needs third-party add-ons. Microsoft introduced add-ons for Edge browser as a beta option. Go to the add-ons page and search for “new tab page” items. You can install any of the available add-ons to have custom new tab page. For example, you can use a blank page or assign URL for new tab page with custom themes.
4. Disable News Feed in New Tab Page
If news feed is the only thing annoying you in the new tab page, then you can disable it from the page layout settings.
- Simply click on the gear icon and select “Custom” page layout option.
- Click on “Content” and select “Content off” option to disable the news feed on new tab page.
5. Check Edge Language and Clear Browser History
The next thing you can try is to check the language of Edge and reset if required.
- Open edge://settings/ shortcut URL in the address bar and navigate to “Languages” section.
- Click on “Add Languages” button to add your preferred language.
- Again, click on the three dots and select “Move to the Top” option to use that language as your preferred language.
After settings your language, go to edge://settings/clearBrowserData URL in the address bar. Select “All Time” as “Time Range” and click on “Clear Now” button to delete all your previous browsing history.
Now, check the new tab page loads with your preferred language.
6. Stop App Access to Location Services
Sometimes sharing the location services in Edge can create such a problem. You can disable it from the settings to check if that helps.
6.1. Disable Location Services in Windows
- Go to Windows Settings app by pressing “Win + I” shortcut keys.
- Click on “Privacy & security” option from the sidebar and then select “Location” option under “App permissions” section.
- You can disable “Location services” option to completely disable it on your computer. Alternatively, only disable “Let apps access your location” or “Let desktop apps access your location” option.
6.2. Disable Location Services for Edge in Mac
- Click the Apple logo and go to “System Preferences…”.
- Go to “Security & Privacy” section and then click on “Privacy” tab.
- Click on the padlock showing on lower left corner and unlock the screen for editing with your admin password.
- Now, uncheck “Microsoft Edge” and click the padlock to save your changes.
7. Personalize Web Experience and Preload New Tab Page
You can disable these two options and check the new page loads with your preferred language.
- Go to edge://settings/privacy in Edge address bar.
- Scroll down on the settings page and disable the slider under “Personalize your web experience” section.
- After that click on “Start, home, and new tabs” section on the sidebar. Scroll down on the right pane and disable “Preload the new tab page for a faster content” option under “New Tab Page” section.
8. Repair, Reset or Reinstall Edge
You can try to repair, reset or reinstall Edge as last options if none of the above options worked for you.
- Reset – go to edge://settings/reset URL in the address bar and click on “Restore settings to their default values” option.
- Reinstall (only in Mac) – you can simply drag and move Microsoft Edge app from “Applications” folder to “Trash” to delete the app. You can download and reinstall the app again.
- Repair (only in Window) – you can also repair Edge in Windows to fix the language issue. Go to “Windows Settings > Apps > Apps & features” section. Search to filter Microsoft Edge app and click on the three dots showing against the app. Now, select “Modify” option and click “Repair” button on the pop-up. Follow further onscreen instructions to repair Edge browser.
Note: Make sure you are not in any organizational network where Group Policy is maintained. Otherwise, you will see most of the above settings are greyed out and not available for editing.
Final Words
Though some of the above suggested options work to change new tab page language in Microsoft Edge, the automatic updates running in background can reset the browser back to its original state. You can disable automatic update or redo the steps again to change the language. This will be super annoying and hope Microsoft will soon allow changing the language from the settings page. otherwise, the best solution is to use an add-on to have a custom new tab page to overcome this problem.
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