hello cstien, you can either try to install the searchreset addon to reset the new tab page or manually change the relevant settings:

enter about:config into the firefox location bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up), search for the preference named browser.newtab.url and double-click & change its value to about:blank (the default would be about:newtab which shows thumbnails & links to your most visited pages).

The first option did not do anything. I manually went in, as suggested, and changed from about:newtab to about:blank and now when I open a new tab i get the mozilla start page, which is better than the spam one. I would like the one with the about:newtab options, but I think that was causing the problem? I hope this solves the problem of not allowing me to stay on other websites and changing to the link I posted above. I will ask again if that part continues to be a problem. thanks in the meantime!

hello, can you try setting the value of browser.newtab.url to "about:newtab" again and then run firefox in safemode once (refer to Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems) and see if the issue is occuring ther too... other users have reported that extensions like toolbars, Datamngr, ilivevid might be causing the issue - please have a look in firefox > addons > extensions and uninstall them or any other suspicious entry in case it shows up.

please also remove any entry in the windows control panel /programs section that refers to searchqu and maybe also use another security software like the free version of malwarebytes to do a full scan of your system.

I had checked the other week in programs, but nothing was there - it was this time! i uninstalled "searchqu" there :) I also removed the extention for datamngr. there is one wxDfast that seems weird. i'll probably remove that one as well. i will make the tab page default to the newtab one again and see if it works without problem.