The Extensions Toolbar Menu
Google Chrome has historically displayed all active extensions directly on the main toolbar next to the address bar. To clean up the interface, Google introduced the “Extensions Menu Access Control” (often tied to the puzzle piece icon). This feature consolidates all extensions into a single dropdown menu and adds granular controls, allowing you to restrict which websites specific extensions are allowed to read or alter data on.
While this provides excellent security and keeps the toolbar tidy, it introduces extra clicks for users who heavily rely on their extensions. If you use a password manager, an ad-blocker, and a web developer tool constantly, having to open a secondary menu to interact with them slows down your workflow. If you prefer the old-school behavior where every extension icon you pin stays permanently visible on the main toolbar without the overarching access control menu getting in the way, you can disable this feature.
How to Turn Off the Extensions Menu
You can revert to the classic extension behavior via the experimental flags menu.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click inside the main address bar at the top of the browser.
- Type
chrome://flagsand press Enter. - A page titled “Experiments” will load.
- In the search bar at the top, type Extensions Menu Access Control (or simply “Extensions Menu”).
- The specific flag will appear highlighted in yellow. Next to it is a dropdown menu.
- Change the dropdown menu setting from “Default” or “Enabled” to Disabled.
- Click the blue Relaunch button at the bottom of the screen.
Upon restarting, Chrome will remove the consolidated puzzle-piece menu system (depending on your exact version), reverting to the older, flatter extension management style where pinned icons behave more traditionally.