Stick with NEW TAB REDIRECT (Chrome extension - allow extensions from other stores in Edge). This extension DOES NOT DO ANYTHING WHEN YOU CLICK ITS ICON in the Edge toolbar? Once enabled/activated it merely redirects any new tab to google.com (not when you click the icon even), so it just swaps one DEVIL for a WORSE DEVIL. Seriously, it should let you enter any URL you want, but if not, at least lock it into edge://settings/help so that Edge is always checking for updates on launch. YO, MARCUS!!!!

No way to specify url for redirect.

Appreciate this gets me away from that hot mess of a default Edge page. However -- how do I set it to a new default home page? It now redirects to Google, but not sure how to change it.