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How do I get my home page when I press the + sign for a new tab

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by Scribe

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when I ask for a new tab, I am getting previously seen pages. i want my home page to appear each time I press the + button for a new page.

when I ask for a new tab, I am getting previously seen pages. i want my home page to appear each time I press the + button for a new page.

All Replies (4)

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Here's how you can change your new tab page:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste newtab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter your preferred page:

  • Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
  • Blank tab => about:blank
  • Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
  • Any other page => full URL to the page

Press Ctrl+t to open a new tab and verify that it worked. Fixed?


If problems persist, some potential diagnoses and remedies:

If Firefox won't let you edit this setting: you may have something called SearchProtect on your system. This needs to be removed from the Windows Control Panel. If the status says "locked" we will need to help you investigate an "autoconfig" file.

If Firefox lets you save your change but ignores it: one of your extensions may be overriding it. You can review, disable, and/or remove extensions on the add-ons page. Either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then cast a critical eye over the list on the right and disable (or remove) anything unknown.

If the change works during your session, but at the next startup is back to the unwanted page: you might have a user.js file in your personal Firefox settings folder (your Firefox profile folder). This article describes how to track down and remove the file: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Any luck?

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You could middle-click or {Ctrl + Click} the Home button to open your homepage in a new tab, rather than use the + for the new tab page.

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But I was always able to press the + button in the past, and get a new home page. Any way I can do that again?

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Hi, if you want the Firefox home page when you click on '+' as shown in this article - Firefox's default home page has quick links to common features, try this: Type about:config into the address bar, press Enter, accept the warning, scroll down to browser.newtab.url and make sure 'Value' is set to about:home (right click > Modify, to change it if necessary, taking care not to alter anything else). You may then need to restart Firefox.

If you want a page of your choosing, type the address you want - e.g. google.com instead of 'about:home' as detailed above.