You can still bring back the Homepage icon, using Customize toolbar.

Thank you Ihave now restored the homepage icon.

if there is anyone who can now help me restore my ability to use the web search box rather than the address bar, the web search bar is the search box under the address bar, it is in the middle of the otherwise blank home page, this search box appears when you check the web search box in the settings HOME tab.

I have always done my searches this way and would like to be able to again but when I place my cursor in the web search box and start to type the cursor moves up to the address bar and types my search in there.

I have attached an image of the search box as it appears on the home page.

Thank you.

Ah, OK, now I understand this issue. Enter about:config in the URL bar and set browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = false.

Again thank you, I have now done this and my web search is now activated and I can return to searching as I did before the Firefox update.

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = false

Did not work for me.

Hi David, TyDraniu's post was marked as the solution by the person who asked the original question (Pensiontech). Your issue may have similar symptoms, but it is likely a different cause/solution. For better help, it would be best to use https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new where volunteers can get more details about your setup.

Because this thread is solved and more people might start using it for their own questions, I'm going to lock it.