The Settings app on Windows 11 recently received a new ‘Home’ page. This page is the default page that the app now opens to, and houses your recommended and most used settings, but not much else. If you know your way around the Settings app, this Home page is mostly irrelevant, and it’s best to remove it.    

There are a couple of ways to remove the Home page from the Settings app. First is using the Registry Editor and second is using the Group Policy Editor. Do consider creating a backup first in either case so that if things go south, you can restore back to the current setup.

Method 1: From the Registry Editor

The Registry Editor lets users from any Windows version remove the Home page from the Settings app. 

SHORT GUIDE

Open Registry Editor (type regedit in RUN box) and navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Next, right-click and select New > String Value. Rename it SettingsPageVisibility. Open it and enter hide:home as ‘Value data’. Click OK to save it.

GIF GUIDE

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
  1. Press Win+R to open the RUN dialog box, type regedit, and hit Enter.
  2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer or copy and paste the same into the registry editor’s address bar, and hit Enter.
  3. With ‘Explorer’ selected in the left pane, right-click on the right and select New and String Value.
  4. Rename the new string SettingsPageVisibility.
  5. Open the string and enter hide:home as ‘Value data’ and click OK.
  6. Close the registry editor and open the Settings app. The ‘Home’ page would have disappeared.

Method 2: From the Group Policy Editor

Windows 11 Pro users can also use the Group Policy Editor to remove the Home page from the Settings app. 

SHORT GUIDE

Open Group Policy Editor from the RUN dialog box or the Start menu. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel. Double-click on Settings Page Visibility, set it to Enabled, type hide:home under Options, and click OK.

GIF GUIDE

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
  1. Press Win+R to open the RUN dialog box, type gpedit.msc, and hit Enter.
  2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel.
  3. Double-click on Settings Page Visibility on the right.
  4. Set it to Enabled.
  5. Under Settings Page Visibility Options, type hide:home.
  6. Click OK.
  7. The Home page would have disappeared from the Settings app.

If you want to bring back the Home page, simply undo the changes made in the methods above. 

How do I get the Home page back in Settings?

Well, reverse the action you did above. If you used the Registry Editor, then simply delete the “SettingsPageVisibility” entry you created earlier.

And if you used the Group Policy Editor for this, then select the Not configured option now.

Microsoft’s habit of adding new pages and options doesn’t always yield the most user-friendly results. Sometimes it’s best to leave alone things that just work. We hope this guide helped return the Windows 11 Settings app to its classic view without the extraneous ‘Home’ tab. Until next time!