This is Pale Moon's new start page
If you have started or installed the Pale Moon browser recently you may have noticed that it ships with a new default start page.
The start page, or homepage, is the page that gets loaded when you start the browser and have not configured it to load the previous session or start with a blank page without content.
Pale Moon entered a cooperation with start.me, a personal homepage service on the Internet similar to how iGoogle worked and still maintained services like Netvibes work.
If you compare the the new with the old start page you will notice differences but also similarities.
Here is a screenshot of the new default start page in Pale Moon.
And for comparison, here is a screenshot of the previous start page of the browser.
First of all, if you dislike the new start page you have a couple of options. I explain what you can in a bit but first, lets take a look at what the new start page offers.
The start page uses widgets to display contents on the screen. You get a search form at the top that you can use to search Google or DuckDuckGo, and several widgets below that link to resources.
You can modify the resources shown on the page easily. Hit the customize button at the top right corner of the screen.
To edit the contents of a widget, click on the down arrow icon that appears when you hover over it on the start page and select edit.
You can then edit or delete resources individually by hovering over them and selecting the desired option. There you also find an option to add your own resources or new widgets.
Start.me supports a variety of widgets, here is a short list of popular options:
- RSS pulls data from a single RSS feed and display it on the start page.
- Weather displays weather information for one or multiple locations.
- Google Calendar pulls data from Google's calendar service.
- Stock quotes
- Notes
The service supports tabs which means that you can have multiple pages filled with widgets and resources if you like.
You don't need an account to modify the start page. The personal start page is linked to your device via a cookie in this case. The other option that you have is to sign up for an account and if you do that, the information will be linked to the account instead.
Change the start page
The old start page is not available anymore. The location of the original start page has changed. You can still access it @ http://start2.palemoon.org/.
The only options that you have are to set a different page as the start page or switch to session restore instead.
You do that in the following way:
- Click on Pale Moon and select Options > Options.
- Switch to the General tab and enter a new web address or local address (about:home for instance).
- Click ok.
Conclusion
The new start page resembles the old one. The core difference between the old start page and the new is the fact that it is provided and maintained by a third-party company now.
Good news is that you can customize the new start page to your liking and support the Pale Moon project at the same time by doing so.
Since it is possible to switch to another homepage, the switch should not be problematic for most users.
Pale Moon users can join the discussion of the new feature on the Pale Moon forum.
Now You: What's your take on the change?
This actually looks quite useful
what a monstrosity, it looks like my grandma’s internet explorer with 17 toolbars. I tried Failmoon, most of my add-ons said i needed to update my browser.
“failmoon” because it’s a fail amirite grandma?
Nope, just Firefox 4 from Mozilla.
Nasty and bullying tactics
Pale Moon use to be VERY easy to use. Not any more
Too busy for my eyes. I like a minimalistic interface, both in a browser and a desktop environment. Start.me is offering you ads … read their terms and conditions (FAQ).
Same here. I’ve been using other browsers and they, like Pale Moon had become bossy and not caring about the users, so I decided, a few weeks ago to try Pale Moon again, but I am very disappointed. It is now more difficult to use. I’ll just keep on trying other browsers until I can find a more user-friendly browser. Fire Fox is diong the same thing–making their browser more user unfriendly and I don’t like Internet Explorer or Opera browsers.
BAH AND HUMBUG—-A BIG POX ON THE UNCARING BROWSER DEVELOPERS OF MOZILLA (PALE MOON, FIREFOX AND OPERA)!!!!!
The Pale Moon guy really needs to outsource the UI design. He seems to think he’s good at it but he isn’t.
I would think that page design is by start.me and not the Pale Moon dev.
“The old start page is not available anymore. ”
The old startopage is available at
http://start2.palemoon.org/
for people having issues with start.me
Sven thanks so much, I add the information to the article.
Hey folks – thanks for the writeup and comments!
Just wanted to point out that the default design of the new start page is indeed by start.me. Some people may like it, others may not – that’s inherent to any design change.
Also, the new start page is designed primarily for current desktop sizes and average browser window sizes on current resolutions, and the screenshot on this article is a little squashed, making the layout look slightly odd.
But: If you think the layout is not what you’d prefer, then this is exactly WHY I changed over to this service: You can customize it the way you want. Icons too large? No problem, just change the display to small icons (or list, even). Don’t like the background color? Change it. :)
Thanks for your comment on the new start page. Just wanted to point out that you can click on the screenshot to see it in full dimensions.
I meant to say that the size you chose to capture the screen at isn’t really optimal for the new start page – it’s designed for a larger preferred width.
A friend loaded it Tuesday, was confused and called me for help. I assumed that it was a poorly sourced download not only b/c of that unfamiliar & distracting start page but he also received a ‘driver downloader’ crap-bundle installed at the same time. He cannot tell me where he sourced it from but his history suggests it came from FOSSHub. Is ‘opt-in’ crapware also included in this new monetization scheme? I sure hope not.
Both Pale Moon and FOSSHub abhor piggybacking software or installer monetization. It will never be used.
It’s possible the “driver downloader” was downloaded from an advertisement on FOSSHub — they sometimes try to trick users into downloading junkware by sporting a large “download” button on the ad… :( I personally try to block all these kinds of ads from being displayed but it’s a neverending task.
Thanks for the clarification, Moonchild. Developers ultimately gotta do what they gotta do to pay the rent. I hope Pale Moon keeps in mind the reason why it has gained in popularity(trust/simplicity/reliability) as it continues to evolve.
As a helpful friend you could possibly install an Ad Blocker to keep deceived ads like that from appearing on your friends computer eh?
Here’s a suggestion for an ad blocker, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/bluhell-firewall/
I’ve been using it with Palemoon for several months and it works better than Ad Block.
@tuna – I would like to thank Moonchild for defending us although you might want to hear this from us.
We never considered adding bundles or anything else that can be easily identified as adware or even malware. Each day we receive at least several “offers” and I am sure that we are not the only website.
Also, I am sorry to hear this about your friend but each day we are checking all ads that runs on the single ad-block from FossHub. We look for new ads, especially those that advertise for certain keywords “Download”, “Install”, “Soft”, “Program” and a dozen of other terms and we block anything that looks suspect. We are doing this for years and we call it “deceptive advertising”. We never allowed such ads and the same for any “potential” obscure partnership. We want to be seen as one of the safest place on the Internet, a website for those who want to download clean software and the best example here is Pale Moon.
I am truly sorry if somehow your friend got that crap from an ad that we missed. If it’s our fault, we apologize!
I also want to apologize for off topic and thanks to gHacks for allowing us to express our official position.
Earlier comments circa 2012 are so far outdated and resemble trolls.
I have been using PaleMoon (one of the very early members) for years.. I have both Palemoon and Firefox on my research PC.
Palemoon is rock solid where as FF-Australis is still unstable and many features are broken.
I am not a Start-page user by choice … but I concede there are lots of users who do like and use it.
– the new Start-page is customizable which will be a good thing for those who use it.
Recently my research PC crashed and I had to resort to a Linux machine with Firefox on it (by default with Mint Mate)
– a timely reminder of why I prefer Palemoon
As in life — to each his own
… Old[hook on Palemoon forum
I HATE the new start page. I’m now, this VERY second, trying to get instructions on starting with either a blank page or my own home page and I want all new tabs to open to blank tabs as well. This new start page is hideous! I had to re-install Pale Moon as it had begun to freeze up and not work, but once I got it reinstalled and it opened up to this cartoon-like page, I almost cursed! It’s hideous!
I choose Pale Moon when Fire Fox started f**king around with the browser and all the irritating iterations. This has me now using Chrome more and more, I hated Chrome when it came out, but it’s getting cleaner and easier to use and the add-ons are as available, if not more so, then the version 27 of Pale Moon. Now the unheard of pay up and you’ll get the sh*t removed. I’ve started using Opera as well, and find that to be very workable.
Sorry Pale Moon, but it it ain’t broke, why on earth did you fix it? Not long for this browser, just another cock up by over visionary achievers that resulted in the wreckage of Fire Fox and now Pale Moon. Much as I hate to do it I’m making Chrome my default browser.
PALEMOON STARTME “PARTNERSHIP” (SIC) ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!!!! NICE KNOWIN’ YA!!!!!
I am back to firefox
Palemoon start page is cool but I often switch to my favorite startpage centpage.com every now and then. I wish palemoon homepage had the ability to move the different sections and add in more sections like news and technology. Does palemoon have a chome extension or android app ?
I think the new default screen is terrible, one should be able to put what ever they want, so with this im moveing back to firefox.