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The textbox for setting a start page is grayed out, and I cannot change the start page.

  • 2 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by sigshane

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When I go to Options form, the textbox for "Mozilla Firefox Start page" is grayed out, and unchangeable. If I navigate to a page, then set that as my start page, closing and restarting Firefox reverts back to the Firefox/Google startpage - my home page setting is not being saved.

I have tried resetting Firefox, restarting with add-ons disabled, even deleting and recreating a new profile, but it still does this.

When I go to Options form, the textbox for "Mozilla Firefox Start page" is grayed out, and unchangeable. If I navigate to a page, then set that as my start page, closing and restarting Firefox reverts back to the Firefox/Google startpage - my home page setting is not being saved. I have tried resetting Firefox, restarting with add-ons disabled, even deleting and recreating a new profile, but it still does this.

Modified by sigshane

Chosen solution

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!

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All Replies (2)

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Chosen Solution

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!

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Well, I lack the sufficient administrator privileges to uninstall the current install of Firefox, but - oddly enough - not to install a new copy to another folder.

So I installed the software, and viola - it worked!

Thanks!