Firefox randomly opening links in new tab as default search engine
Hi, after updating to 44.0.2, now, many times when I click on a link in my email or in search results, when it opens in a new tab, the link does not open; instead, the new tab opens the default search engine I have set in firefox. For example, I have google set as my default search engine, so when I click on a link it opens:
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=18TOVrqACMOra_zli6gD
And if I have the default set to Yahoo then the link opens the Yahoo search engine.
I have tried running firefox in safe mode; tried refreshing it from the download page, tired reinstalling it; nothing fixes the issue. I ended up doing a system restore back a couple of weeks to just before I installed the new version and it fixed the issue but made too many changes to my PC and other programs so I undid the restore and am about to uninstall the new version and downgrade.
Any idea why firefox is randomly opening links as the default search engine? Is this a bug?
All Replies (4)
Update:
I just clicked on a shortcut link:
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en&fid=wdsfMyBook_Essential
and it opened in firefox in a new tab as:
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=H8_OVuaEGYuRaJDVl8AC
Modified by keylonta
Just now I click on the following link in my email:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/182035247076
And it opened in firefox as:
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=48DPVoqEBqTi6ASapZJ4
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (3-bar Menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.
- Switch to the DEFAULT theme: 3-bar Menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
- Do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
There are other things that need attention.
The System Details List shows that you have multiple Flash plugins.
- Shockwave Flash 19.0 r0
- Shockwave Flash 20.0 r0
You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.
You can check the Flash player installation folder for multiple Flash player plugins and remove older version(s) of the plugin (NPSWF32) and possibly (re)install the latest Flash player.
- (32 bit Windows) C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\
- (64 bit Windows) C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\
I've done every single thing mentioned but still have the issue, check it out here are some more:
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=tfTPVtKzBsG7mgX-k4DQAw
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=tPjPVs75H4PlmAXL-rfQCQ
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=g_nPVsnkMuPMmAXU6bnoAg
What a trip, what's with the change after "ei=" in the url, wonder why they differ and what the long url google home page address is for!
Next I'm going to uninstall the latest and downgrade. Can I just transfer the profile folder to keep my setting etc.?
C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
Is there something else I could try before attempting to downgrade to fix the issue?
Modified by keylonta