Hi,
I've had my browsers set for a "blank page" for years, no "home page" as such.
My desktop for years has been black with a handful of icons down the left side. Since going to Win 10 which gets a bad case of colic every time I try to change a preference, and generally won't do what I want, I left it with the factory default, which is still black with icons down the left, but some kind of a multi-colored feather covers the right third.
Start up takes me to the desktop.
Rick C