Are you a person who likes to struggle with baffling computer software? Switching between Windows, Mac, and Linux definitely involves a lot of head-scratching, and "why can't I...", so that's something to consider.

Anyway, I suggest not rushing into Windows 10; the free upgrade offer is good until next Summer, I believe.

These articles describe how to change your home page:

• Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings
• How to set the home page

If you click the Home button or press Ctrl+n to launch a new window, does the change work?

If problems persist, some potential diagnoses and remedies:

If Firefox won't let you edit this setting: you may have something called SearchProtect on your system. This needs to be removed from the Windows Control Panel.

If Firefox lets you save your change but ignores it: one of your extensions may be overriding it. You can review, disable, and/or remove 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 and disable (or remove) anything unknown.

If the change works during your session, but at the next startup is back to the unwanted page: you might have a user.js file in your personal Firefox settings folder (your Firefox profile folder). That is an optional settings file which Firefox seeks out at startup and uses to override your saved preferences from the previous session. Unless you created that file yourself, it may contains settings from an add-on or external software. You can check and remove the file using the steps in this article: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Note: by default, Windows hides the .js extension. To work with files as accurately as possible, I suggest showing all file extensions. This Microsoft support article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wi.../show-hide-file-name-extensions.

Any luck?

Off topic for this forum.

Linux with an X, not an s. It's different than Windows - but "better" is a personal opinion. Most users swear at Linux due to all the best "bells & whistles" being command line driven. If you prefer Windows over DOS from the 1980's and early 90's, I don't think Linux would be for you.

First thing to do is to "qualify" for alternative programs that you would use to replace Excel, and other programs that are important to you. Libre Office or Open Office are suitable replacements for Word / Excel. https://openoffice.apache.org/ https://www.libreoffice.org/ Been using them for over 10 years; Libre Office most recently. Libre Office was 'forked' from Open Office sometime after Oracle bought out Sun Systems in Jan 2010, and Oracle was leaning toward leaving the Open Office to wilt and die - and shutting down the revenue generating part of the operation. It pissed off many hundreds of open source developers who had spent almost a decade working on Open Office to make it a worthy competitor to Word / Excel. Ultimately the Apache Software Org took over Open Office - but the indecision and disrespect shown to the 'open source community' by Oracle hurt Open Office as a 'brand' very badly and may have set it back many years - IMO. Most of the most productive volunteers set up Libre Office.

Then select a Linux distro - http://distrowatch.com/ - (or 2) to test and try to acclimate your self to a new operating system. Many Linux distros offer Live CD / DVD that can be downloaded and 'burned' which allow you to "audition" them prior to installing the new operating system. (It's read-only when running "live" so nothing else can be installed and nothing will be saved.)

Quite honestly though, if you struggle to update Firefox and don't know that Help > About Firefox will trigger a manual check for updates AND also automatically install the Firefox update - Linux is way beyond your computer skill set - IMO.

Linux is not a total replacement to recent Windows versions. How well it works for you depends on your needs.

You could dual boot between Windows 7 and a Linux distro. This way you can use Windows 7 either as a backup (if you switch) or for things you cannot do on Linux.

Many of the Linux distros do have a LiveCD but some are bigger that a CD now requiring a DVD or a prepared usb flash drive to boot from. These can be slow to start up but once running it can be smooth and a easy way to see if you like that desktop environment and package manager and can help to check hardware compatibility even.

For lower spec hardware I recommend say XFCE or MATE over Gnome 3 and KDE. Even on my i5-4690k and 2x8GB I find myself using XFCE the most.

PC gaming is possible on Linux as there is a Linux version of Steam app and many games are Linux compatible with a growing list whether it be a indie or AAA games.

Thank you so much for responding! Obviously I am not very computer literate, but I appreciate you very much and will learn.