Browser appearance and new tab view
Theme
By default, Yandex Browser elements (tabs, SmartBox etc) are displayed on a light background. To select a dark or color theme:
- Tap .
- Go to Interface.
- In the Color theme section, select the appropriate theme.
Side panel
By default, the side panel is pinned to the left border of the browser. Use sidebar to:
- open Yandex services in one click;
- view notifications;
- save your notes, ideas, and other important information in the browser;
- play or pause audio;
- launch Alice.

- Tap .
- Go to Interface.
- Under Side panel, enable Show side panel on pages.
- Tap .
- Go to Interface.
- Under Side panel, enable Show side panel on pages and select the desired option:
- Always. The panel is displayed on all tabs.
- When hovering over left border. The panel appears when you hover your mouse cursor over the left border on open tabs. The panel is pinned on a new tab.
- Without pinning. The panel appears only when you hover your cursor over the left border.
If you want the side panel to be always displayed in the browser:
Browser background
You can use the following media as a background:
- Photos from the Background gallery, your computer, or any website.
- Videos or dynamic photo collections from the Background gallery.
To select a browser background:
- Open a new tab.
- Click Backgrounds gallery under the Tableau to the right.
- Select a photo or video from an album.
- Click Use this background.
- For one album. Select the desired album in the Backgrounds gallery and click Alternate these backgrounds.
- For all albums. In the Backgrounds gallery, click Alternate in the All backgrounds section.

- Open a new tab.
- Under the Tableau on the right, click.
- Select an image.
- Click Open.

- Open a new tab.
- Click the
icon under the Tableau on the right.
- On the background preview, click
.
- Tap .
- Click Tools.
- In the Power saving mode section, disable the Disable video playing when battery is low option.
- Tap .
- Go to Interface.
- In the New tab section, disable the Use high-resolution animated background option.
Animated backgrounds look great, but they can run down your battery. To avoid this:

When your battery is low, animation turns off automatically. If you want to continue playing animation regardless of how low your battery is:

Animations play back in high resolution by default. If this is slowing down Yandex Browser:

Widgets on a new tab
Elements on a new tab provide quick access to information most often viewed in the browser. On a new tab, you can:
- Find whatever you need on the internet.
- Learn the news and weather forecasts.
- Find out if anything happened in your neighborhood.
- View traffic and and see what's on TV.
- Read Yandex Zen.
You can customize the number and contents of the elements. To configure new tab:
- Tap .
- Go to Interface.
- Under New tab, configure the necessary elements:
- Click Right-side notifications settings.
- Select the desired widgets.
- Click Ad settings.
- In the Home page and new Yandex Browser tab, disable the Show ads option.
Right-side notificationsWidgets for Yandex Zen, Yandex.Local, Yandex.Weather, Yandex.Traffic, accident alerts, EMERCOM notifications, and others are available in Yandex Browser to the right of the Tableau. To select the widgets you want to see:
Widgets for news, weather, and trafficWidgets for services that users view most often are displayed under the Tableau. If you don't want to see them, disable Show news, weather, and traffic in new tabs.
Ad bannerWhen you open a new tab, an ad banner is displayed under the Tableau. To turn it off:
Yandex Zen recommendations feedThe Yandex Zen recommendations feed is a personal collection of news, articles, videos, blog posts, and so on. If you don't want to see it, disable Show Yandex Zen recommendations feed.
Problems with the browser appearance
- Open a new tab.
- Click the
icon under the Tableau on the right.
- On the background preview, click
.
- Click.
- Open Video adapters. A list of video cards appears.
- Right-click the name of your video card.
- In the context menu, select Update drivers.
- Tap .
- Go to System.
- Go to the Performance section. If the Use hardware acceleration if possible option is on, turn it off. If the Use hardware acceleration if possible option is off, turn it on.
- Restart the browser to apply these changes.
- Temporarily disable all extensions:.
- If your animation re-appears, try going through your extensions one at a time to find the blocking one.
- Disable the problematic extension. You may want to let the developers know about the problem.
- Clear your cache so that the browser doesn't load a copy of the page that was rendered earlier and contains the blocked animation.
- Open the file search field in Windows.
Copy
[%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Yandex\YandexBrowser\User Data\Default\] (without the square brackets)
and paste it into the file search box.
- Press Enter.
Background animation may not work due to the following:
Update the driver for each video card that is installed on your computer:
Try turning the hardware accelerator on or off:
If these recommendations don't help, contact our support staff using the feedback form. Describe the situation in detail, and attach a screenshot if possible.
Try deleting the File System folder in the browser profile directory and then check whether the problem persists. To open the browser profile directory:
Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10