In recent versions, Google Chrome permanently pinned a small “Puzzle Piece” icon to the top-right corner of the browser, right next to your address bar. Clicking this icon opens the Extensions menu, allowing you to view and manage all your installed add-ons like ad blockers or password managers.
While Google implemented this to clean up the browser toolbar, many minimalist users hate having permanent icons forced onto their screen—especially if they only use one or two extensions that they prefer to pin directly to the toolbar anyway. Using a hidden developer flag, you can completely disable this puzzle piece menu.
How to Remove the Extensions Puzzle Piece in Chrome
You must dive into Chrome’s hidden “Experiments” menu to disable the new extensions toolbar layout.
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Click inside the address bar at the top of the screen.
- Type the following exact command and press Enter:
chrome://flags/#extensions-on-chrome-urls(On some versions, you may need to search for#extensions-toolbar-menu) - If your specific version of Chrome still supports the legacy toolbar flag, you will see it highlighted in yellow.
- Click the drop-down menu on the right side of the highlighted setting (which currently says “Default”).
- Select Disabled from the drop-down list.
- A large blue Relaunch button will appear at the bottom right of the window. Click it to restart Chrome.
Note: Google frequently removes legacy UI flags as Chrome updates. If the flag is missing from your browser, Google has hard-coded the puzzle piece into the UI for your specific version, and it can no longer be removed without downgrading your browser version.