My config: Brave 1.77.101 with Chrome 135.0.7049.115, Windows 10 Home x64 22H2
Under brave://settings/getStarted:
I should be getting a blank page when I load Brave, or when I open a new tab. Instead what I see is:
Brave isn't your default browser "Set as default"
That is NOT a blank page. How do I get Brave to open a new tab to a blank page?
Can you share a screenshot of what exactly the NTP looks like? Testing on my end on both Windows and macOS:
Now I see a blank home and new-tab page. I noticed there was an “X” in the “set as default” internal web page presented by Brave. I clicked on it, and got a blank page. Maybe that got rid of it, but for how long?
Brave interrupting or interfering with my configuration is, to me, advertising to users to switch. I’ve seen this with Firefox where a while back I got some “What’s New” page instead of the one I specified. Brave should not be advertising to bait me to switch to it as the default web browser. The “X” button got rid of it for now, but how long before Brave decides to push it at me again when loading it, but it is not currently the default web browser?
This is an extremely common and effective practice in user retention. Almost all browsers – and a litany of other application types for that matter – leverage it and for good reason. I’m honestly not sure if/when it will ask you again – I can try and find out. That said, I think the solution being to simply click the x again the next time you see it is a very reasonable middle ground.
