Published Jan 29, 2026, 12:00 PM EST
Nick Lewis is an editor at How-To Geek. He has been using computers for 20 years — tinkering with everything from the UI to the Windows registry to device firmware. Before How-To Geek, he used Python and C++ as a freelance programmer. In college, Nick made extensive use of Fortran while pursuing a physics degree.
Nick’s love of tinkering with computers extends beyond work. He has been running video game servers from home for more than 10 years using Windows, Ubuntu, or Raspberry Pi OS. He also uses Proxmox to self-host a variety of services, including a Jellyfin Media Server, an Airsonic music server, a handful of game servers, NextCloud, and two Windows virtual machines.
He enjoys DIY projects, especially if they involve technology. He regularly repairs and repurposes old computers and hardware for whatever new project is at hand. He has designed crossovers for homemade speakers all the way from the basic design to the PCB.
Nick enjoys the outdoors. When he isn’t working on a computer or DIY project, he is most likely to be found camping, backpacking, or canoeing.
Every time you open your browser you see the Start Page, and you probably click right past it without giving it much thought. However, it is a great place to put something useful—so I did. Here’s how.
What is a personalized Start Page?
Normally, when you launch your browser, you’re immediately taken to the Start Page.
In most browsers, the Start Page features a collection of links to the websites you visit most frequently, a search bar for a search engine (for example, Chrome defaults to Google), some advertisements, and a small weather indicator. If you’re using Firefox, or any number of its forks, you’ll also have a feed of articles very similar to Google Discover.
It is minimalist, but functional. However, with a little bit of setup, you can make it so much more.
Why use a custom Start Page?
When you use a custom Start Page, you can exchange the minimalist Start Page built into browsers for something more interesting, useful, and personal.
I loaded my Start Page with resources that are relevant to my personal and professional interests, and it positively changed how I use the internet.
Normally, I have relied on algorithmically driven feeds to keep apace with the latest developments in areas that I’m interested in. Unfortunately, that has also led to a lot more doomscrolling than I’d like—one interesting post about something is buried between five ads, three AI engagement bait posts, and a half-dozen other things I don’t care about. It has made the Internet difficult and unpleasant to use.
However, a custom Start Page can change all of that. A custom Start Page allows you to set up a custom RSS feed from websites you like, so you can easily stay up to date on news relevant to you. Depending on which service you use, you can also get feeds from Reddit, your local weather, and more.
In many ways, a custom Start Page feels more like using the internet 15 years ago.
What custom Start Page should you use?
There are two different approaches to custom Start Pages. One is a service hosted by a third party on the web, like Start.me.
Alternatively, you could host your own using a service like Glance.
I started with the online, third-party service originally and didn’t really have any problems with it—everything worked as it should, it was easy to use, and there were a ton of popular resources included that made getting started very simple.
However, for the sake of privacy and control, I’ve switched to a self-hosted option. It has all of the same features as the online option, but you configure it using a text file rather than the user interface. Ultimately, I plan to integrate resources from my own network into my Start Page, which will function even if the Internet is out, allowing it to serve as a network dashboard too. That isn’t an option with the online services.
Should you run a personal start page in Proxmox or bare-metal?
Normally, I recommend running almost everything you can in Proxmox, and it would certainly be easy enough to run Glance that way, since it consumes almost no resources.
However, I have a Raspberry Pi Zero W sitting in a drawer that needs a project instead. It is tiny, low-power, and easy to run off a battery—perfect for a tiny Start Page once I iron out the details.
Glance’s GitHub has instructions detailing the installation steps on most platforms. You can even run it on Windows if you’d like.
Adding new things to your Glance Start Page
Once you have your Start Page up and running, be it on a Raspberry Pi, an old Windows 10 PC acting as a home server, or your Windows desktop, you can start adding new resources.
Glance is configured using a text file named Glance.yml.
If you’re editing Glance.yml on a Windows PC, be sure to edit using something like VSCodium, or even Notepad. Stay clear of programs like Word.
For example, if I wanted to add How-To Geek’s RSS feed to my Startup Page’s RSS feed, I just need to add the URL and title in the Feeds section.
If I wanted to add another subreddit to the page, I’d just need to copy the format from the existing Reddit feeds and fill in the correct subreddit name.
There is a ton you can do with Glance if you’re willing to dig in a bit. Fortunately, the developer has extensively documented the configuration options that are available on the program’s GitHub.
With so many things constantly bombarding me on the internet, building my own Start Page—whether self-hosted or third-party—has helped me make the internet feel a bit more like it is curated by me rather than at me. Given how easy a Start Page is to host, I certainly won’t be going back to the boring line of frequently visited websites any time soon.
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