Make Google Chrome Show HTTP and WWW parts of URL

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Starting in Chrome 69, the browser features significant changes to the user interface. These include a 'Material Design Refresh' theme with rounded tabs, the removal of the 'Secure' text badge for HTTPS web sites replaced by a Lock icon, and a reworked new tab page. Also, the browser hides the protocol name (HTTP/HTTPS) and the WWW prefix from the URL when the address bar is not focused. If you are unhappy about this behavior, here's how to disable it.Google Chrome BannerGoogle Chrome comes with a number of useful options which are experimental. They are not supposed to be used by regular users but enthusiasts and testers can easily turn them on. These experimental features can significantly improve the user experience of the Chrome browser by enabling additional functionality. To enable or disable an experimental feature, you can use hidden options called 'flags'. Often, flags can be used to revert new features and restore the classic look and feel of the browser for some period of time. For example, there is a special flag which allows restoring the classic New Tab page.

Using a hidden flag, you can restore the classic address bar, so it won't hide WWW and HTTP portions of the URL. Let's see how it can be done.

To change New Tab button position in Google Chrome, do the following.

  1. Open the Google Chrome browser and type the following text into the address bar:
    chrome://flags/#omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-scheme-and-subdomains

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

  2. Set the option named Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Scheme and Trivial Subdomains. Set it to Disabled.
  3. Restart Google Chrome by closing it manually or you can also use the Relaunch button which will appear at the very bottom of the page.
  4. The classic look of the address bar is now restored.

See the following screenshots.

Before:

After:

That's it.

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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.

7 thoughts on “Make Google Chrome Show HTTP and WWW parts of URL”

  1. It looks like the newest update changed the flag name (Chrome 76.x). It is now:

    #omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-scheme

  2. Broken again! The flag in your article is gone from the latest version of Chrome, and now the flag suggested above by Craig is also gone.

    So now it seems there *no* flag to fix this! Might you know of another flag?

    If not, this thread someone suggests using the Chrome extension called Suspicious Site Reporter…

    https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/12174219?hl=en

  3. F U ! Google!
    You are rigging the product for the ones who needs to work and not just watch netflix and consume all day long

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