In the search bar to the right of your address bar, click the drop-down arrow and click Manage Search Engines. Click on Google and drag it to the top of the list, then click OK.

Open a new window or tab. In the address bar, type about:config. If a warning screen comes up, press the Be Careful button. This is where Firefox finds information it needs to run. At the top of the screen is a search bar. Enter browser.newtab.url and press enter. browser.newtab.url tells Firefox what to show when a new tab is opened. If you want, right click and select Modify. You can change the setting to;

about:home (Firefox default home page), about:newtab (shows the sites most visited), about:blank (a blank page),

or you can enter any web page you want.

The same instructions are used for the new window setting, listed as browser.startup.homepage.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved