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Disable Material Design in Google Chrome

Starting with version 52, Google Chrome is using the Material Design UI enabled by default. While some users like this change, other would like to disable it as they do not like the appearance at all. They want to revert it to the good old look of the browser. Here is how to do that.

To change the appearance of Google Chrome back to the non-Material Design UI, do the following.

  1. Open the Google Chrome browser and type the following text into the address bar:
    chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md

    This will open the flags page directly with the relevant setting.

  2. The setting is called "Material Design in the browser's top chrome". It allows you to pick the desired interface appearance from a drop down list. See the following screenshot:
    Google Chrome interface dropdown
  3. Once you change this setting, re-launch the browser as prompted.relaunch

That's it. The default look of the browser UI:
Google Chrome default ui
Material:
Google Chrome materialui
Non-Material:
Google Chrome non-materialui
Hybrid Material:
Google Chrome material hybrid
Which user interface look do you prefer? Tell us in the comments.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

11 thoughts on “Disable Material Design in Google Chrome”

  1. Sergey, you should make a tutorial how to fix the themes changing the win 10 buttons into windows 7 buttons from chrome

  2. The only difference I can see is the hamburger menu goes to 3 dots. I can’t see any other differences other than that.

  3. My settings:
    #top-chrome-md = Material design
    #secondary-ui-md = on
    #enable-material-design-user-manager = on
    #enable-extension-action-redesign = on
    #enable-md-policy-page = on
    #enable-md-feedback = on
    #enable-md-history = on
    #enable-md-extensions = on
    #enable-grouped-history = on

  4. Thanks so much for this tip. I can’t stand the “pencil line button icon look”. To me it is so irritating ugly that it is a deal breaker and is the reason that I still use Windows 7 and refuse to use 10. If Google knew how many people despise that look they would not try to copy the look of “edge” which to me is the worst looking browser ever concocted by a twisted human mind. The “pencil line button icon look” to me also looks so amateurish in that they were too lazy or too unskilled to make a decent looking button icon. I hate it so much that I have “nails on a chalkboard disdain” for it. Again, I can not thank you enough for this tip.

  5. They change the #top-chrome-md option in Chrome v55. The dropdown options are Default, Normal, and Touch. Meaning you can no longer disable the ugly material design in Chrome 55

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