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stop changing my homepage

  • 7 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I do not EVER want Bing as my homepage or search engine. I am sick to death with having to revert my settings back to the way that i want them. Pease advise me how to stop this from happening PERMANENTLY or I suppose I will have to use a different browser for my sanity's sake.

I do not EVER want Bing as my homepage or search engine. I am sick to death with having to revert my settings back to the way that i want them. Pease advise me how to stop this from happening PERMANENTLY or I suppose I will have to use a different browser for my sanity's sake.

All Replies (7)

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I don't think Bing is ever the default in Firefox under any circumstances.

One possible culprit would be an extension. You can view, disable, and often remove unwanted or unknown 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 side. All extensions are optional -- be especially suspicious of any with "search" in the name. If in doubt, disable.

Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Any improvement?

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I dont have any Add ons or Extensions apparently.. Thanks for your help though!

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What does the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" page show?

Note that these extensions have been reported to change the search engine to Bing.

  • SafeSearch Incognito
  • SearchAssist Incognito
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Extensions Name Version Enabled ID Application Update Service Helper 2.0 true aushelper@mozilla.org Multi-process staged rollout 1.14 true e10srollout@mozilla.org Pocket 1.0.5 true firefox@getpocket.com Shield Recipe Client 1.0.0 true shield-recipe-client@mozilla.org Web Compat 1.0 true webcompat@mozilla.org Graphics

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Extension with @mozilla.org are special extensions that are installed automatically and are part of the Firefox release, so that is OK since there aren't any other hidden extensions.

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If the problem is not an extension, I can think of three ways your setting might be changed:

(1) Your changes are locked out and rolled back by a problem with Firefox's settings files or external software. This article goes through a number of potential issues along these lines: How to fix preferences that won't save.

(2) Firefox performed a Refresh and imported your home page setting from Internet Explorer (but I think your default search engine, if you're in North America, would still be Yahoo).

The tell-tale sign of a Refresh is a folder on your Windows desktop named Old Firefox Data. Do you see anything like that? Does it have freshly updated contents inside?

(3) There is an infection in Firefox's program folder. For that, the general approach is:

Clean Reinstall

We use this name, but it's not about removing your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. It's not essential to uninstall Firefox, but you can if you like, saying No to any request about removing personal data.

It only takes a few minutes.

(A) Download a fresh installer for Firefox to a convenient location. You can choose between:

Regular version for Windows 7-10 https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ Note: only runs Flash, no other legacy plugins "Windows" version is standard 32-bit version, which is generally recommended; to take advantage of more memory, you could switch to the 64-bit version, see: How to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit Firefox

Extended Support Release for Windows XP-10 https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/all/ Note: Windows (32-bit) runs legacy plugins that ran in Firefox 51; 64-bit runs Flash and Silverlight. (If anyone reading this is thinking of switching to the 64-bit version, see: How to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit Firefox)

(B) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).

(C) Using Windows Explorer/My Computer, rename the program folder as follows:

64-bit Windows users with 32-bit Firefox: Rename

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

Other Windows configurations: Rename

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files\OldFirefox

(D) Run the installer you downloaded in step (A). It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Note: Some less used files may exist only in that OldFirefox folder, so I suggest retaining them for a few days in case we need to go looking for something in there.

Any improvement?

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Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.

Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

See also: