HowTo Open Edge or Browser to a Fast, Quiet, Custom, Reliable Home Page of Your Own

[bluegrass]

I noticed that you set your Edge settings\theme to dark. That is the only way to fly as far as I'm concerned. As I setup new computers for my clients, I always make that change in Edge for them. On my own computers, I did the registry hack so I could use dark in other places. I also always setup Outlook to have a dark background. It's so much easier on your eyes and easier to read than having bright white blasting at you most of the time. If you can tell me how to get Windows Explorer to be white text on a black background, I would love to hear it. Maybe it comes from an old fan of the "Man In Black".

 

[sharpuser]

Yes - I much prefer 'dark' in my chocolate and my browser workspaces. It is possible to darken Internet Explorer without 3rd party software, but only by using CSS style sheets / formatting.

 

[sharpuser]

Here is a modification which allows access of Windows Update with one click.

 

[pintapinta]

This was fun to test, however I would like to make search box bigger/taller. How to make that happen? Current page:

 

[sharpuser]

Looks good, @pintapinta .

The method being used is a "text" input box. The height is based upon your browser zoom factor, so the height cannot be changed.

 

[pintapinta]

^ I see, changed zoom level in browser to achieve that, thanks!

Only remaining "issue" is that when I open new tab, edge still opens some other page. Quick googling around tells me that it is possible to change only with edge extension called breeze, but that does not seem to be available anymore

 

[sharpuser]

Edge has an option in its settings which allows you only two choices for what to display when opening new tabs, neither of which is a custom page of your own. Like you, my Edge is set to "Show the home button" which I can click after opening a new tab.

 

[sharpuser]

I have created a couple of batch files with Notepad to further this functionality, patterned after a classic DOS technique.

- "RandomEdgeWallpaper.bat" randomly changes the background of Edge from a folder of images.
- "ResetEdgeWallpaper.bat" restores your single favorite image to be your Edge background.

Running the first batch file sets your Edge background to a random image (in this example, the file will be type jpg). Running the second file restores the Edge background to your favorite image (a 'default' of sorts).

1) Carefully type the scripts as shown. Save to a folder of your choice.
2) Modify yellow areas as needed.
3) Enjoy

Tip: To have the batch file run without opening a large DOS window, create a shortcut to the batch file, then set its properties to Run Minimized.

RandomEdgeWallpaper.bat

@echo off & setlocal
:: ---------------------
::
:: Adaptation of DOS script to select a random file from a folder, and copy it to a destination
::
:: Doug Sharp - 2015 for surfaceforums.net
::
:: Specify paths from the user folder downwards.
:: Example:  c:\Users\Doug\Onedrive\ is "\Onedrive\"
::
:: ---------------------
set "ImageDir=\OneDrive\Pictures\Wallpaper Surface\"
set "HomePageDir=\OneDrive\HomePage\"
set SearchFor=*.jpg
::
set "Here=%USERPROFILE%%ImageDir%"
set "There=%USERPROFILE%%HomePageDir%"
@set /a "rdm=%random%"
set /a "rdm=%random%"
::Push to your path.
pushd "%Here%"
::Count all files in your path.
set /a "counter=0"
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir %SearchFor% /b  ^|find "."') do call :sub1
::This function gives a value from 1 to upper bound of files
set /a "rdNum=(%rdm%*%counter%/32767)+1"
::Select a random file
set /a "counter=0"
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir %SearchFor% /b ^|find "."') do set "fileName=%%i" &call :sub2
::Pop back from your path.
popd "%Here%"
goto :eof
:: end of main
:: start of sub1
:sub1
::For each found file set counter + 1.
set /a "counter+=1"
goto :eof
:: end of sub1
:: start of sub2
:sub2
::1st: count again,
::2nd: if counted number equals random number then copy the file.
set /a "counter+=1"
if %counter%==%rdNum% copy /b/v/y "%Here%%fileName%" "%There%MyHomePageBackground.jpg"
goto :eof
exit

ResetEdgeWallpaper.bat

rem @echo off
::
:: ---------------------
set HomePageDir=\OneDrive\HomePage\
set FavoriteImage=MyHomePageBackground_Original.jpg
::
set Here=%USERPROFILE%%HomePageDir%%FavoriteImage%
set There=%USERPROFILE%%HomePageDir%MyHomePageBackground.jpg
::
copy /b/v/y "%Here%" "%There%"
exit

 

[sharpuser]

Another tip:

If you keep your "HomePage" folder on OneDrive, your Home Page and background will be the same on all your Windows 10 computers.

 

[sharpuser]

An update to show how my local Homepage looks lately.
HTML code provided as CODE and screenshot.

<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body { 
background-image: url(MyHomePageBackground.jpg);
no-repeat center center fixed; 
-webkit-background-size: cover;
-moz-background-size: cover;
-o-background-size: cover;
background-size: cover; 
background-repeat: no-repeat; 
}
-->
</style>
<title>Home</title>
</head>
<body>
<table style="width:100%">
<tr>
<td style="width: 259px; vertical-align:top">
<font size="-1">
<!-- Use of this code assumes agreement with the Google Custom Search Terms of Service. -->
<!-- The terms of service are available at http://www.google.com//cse/docs/tos.html -->
<form method="get" action="https://www.google.com/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="31" width="48" height="80"> Search
<br>
<a href="ms-settings:windowsupdate" face="Arial" value="" size="-1" style="text-decoration: none">Windows Update</a>
</form>
</font>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://100widgets.com/js_data.php?id=106"></script>
</td>
<td>
<div align="right">
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://100widgets.com/js_data.php?id=37"></script>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

 

[sharpuser]

Updated Homepage.html to go back to a simple format, and searching with Bing :

 

[sharpuser]

Code provided here, saved as Homepage.html

<!--***********************-->
<!-- My own local Home Page -->
<!--***********************-->
<!-- By Doug Sharp          -->
<!-- January, 2018          -->
<!--***********************-->
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
background-image: url(MyHomePageBackground.jpg);
no-repeat center center fixed;
-webkit-background-size: cover;
-moz-background-size: cover;
-o-background-size: cover;
background-size: cover;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
-->
</style>
<title>Home</title>
</head>
<body>
<table style="width:100%">
<tr>
<td style="width: 259px; vertical-align:top">
<font size="-1">
<!-- Bing search box for convenience -->
<form method="get" action="https://www.bing.com/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="31" width="48" height="80"> Search
<br>
<a href="ms-settings:windowsupdate" face="Arial" value="" size="-1" style="text-decoration: none">Windows Update</a>
</form>
</font>
<!-- <script type="text/javascript" src="http://100widgets.com/js_data.php?id=106"></script> -->
</td>
<td>
<div align="right">
<!-- <script type="text/javascript" src="http://100widgets.com/js_data.php?id=37"></script> -->
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>