The Lingering Session
Google Chrome is built to preserve your workflow, especially if the browser crashes or is accidentally closed. By default, if you have a window open with multiple tabs, and you close the browser using the red ‘X’, Chrome remembers that entire state. The next time you click the Chrome icon to start a fresh search, the browser may automatically reopen the entire closed window, reloading all the tabs from your previous session. If you share a computer, or if you simply prefer starting with a clean slate every time you browse, this automatic restoration is both a privacy concern and a nuisance.
Starting Fresh Every Time
To ensure a clean, blank browser upon launch and stop Google Chrome from automatically reopening your previously closed windows and tabs, you must change the startup behavior settings.
Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the Chrome browser and select Settings. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, look down toward the bottom and click on On startup. In the main settings panel, you will see three distinct radio buttons governing how Chrome behaves when launched. If Chrome is restoring old windows, the option “Continue where you left off” is currently selected. To fix this, click the radio button next to Open the New Tab page. Once this is selected, Chrome will always launch a single, completely blank tab, regardless of what was open when you last closed the application.