You can look at one of these extensions:

• NewTabURL : https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/2221
• New Tab Homepage : https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/777

Please tell me it's just a mistake.

It's would be absolutely ridiculous that new tab now just opens a blank page.

No add-on should ever be needed to make a new tab open the start page.

Don't make the same mistake as they did at Chrome, where even when you have set a startpage, the new tab doesn't use it. It's common sense, that if you set a start page, then OF COURSE that is what you also want when you open a new tab. I don't want to have to use an add-on for that.

Please, change this.

I am also not a fan of the status bar being gone. I want it to show all the time. I can't stand the way it's hidden now, and only appear when hovering over a link or when loading. I realize some people probably like it, but I want the choice to keep it visible.

You can middle click the toolbar Home button at the right end side of the Navigation Toolbar to open the home page in a new tab.

I have just come across this problem and as this is my preferred browser I would like to stick with it unless there are certain things that I cannot do which other browsers can. I also do not want to use add-ons unless it cannot be helped. In the previous reply the clicking the middle mouse button on the homepage icon sounds a good idea, but I'm at college and the mouse does not have a middle button. Is there an alternative? Yes - trying out, I have found that holding down Ctrl key and left-clicking the homepage icon works.

Totally agree with oggologgo - this ought to be default functionality. Couldn't it become an option?

The CTRL + Homepage tip is useful though - for now :)

I still find it amazing Firefox cant do this on it's own. Seems like this has been in every other browser for years. If there was not a working plugin for this I'd have stopped using Firefox because of this alone.

What is against a middle-click on the toolbar Home button?

I usually do not want to open the home page in a new tab, but want to open a new blank tab with Ctrl+T and type or paste the URL or a bookmark keyword of the site that I want to open.

Your mouse should have a "middle button" under the scroll wheel. Try clicking the home button icon with that and it will open a new tab to your home page.

ain't no "middle click" on my laptop

You can use a Ctrl + left-click if the mouse or mouse pad doesn't have a middle button.

Yes, thank you, I found that holding down Ctrl and then clicking on the Homepage icon opened a new tab with my Homepage. But until recently just clicking on a New Tab opened it with my Homepage. Now if I click on a new Tab it opens in a blank window and in oder to get my Homepage I then click on the Homepgae Icon. Why has Firefox removed/changed this? It was so convenient. At the moment then I shall use Ctrl + click on Homepage icon (the house image). Becuase Firefox is so much quicker and friendlier to use than IE I will still stay with Firefox but hope they will eventually restore the ability of a New Tab to immmediately open with my Homepage.

A new tab opens by default as a blank tab (about:blank). If that wasn't the case previously then an extension has changed that behavior.

You can look at this extension:

• NewTabURL : https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/newtaburl/

I don't know why you wouldn't know this but generally clicking both the left and right buttons at the same time is the same as a middle click. could be easier than having to use ctrl and click.

This is a fresh install of Firefox 8 meaning that there are no extensions installed that could be causing this problem, so I surmise that it is in fact the default behavior of the Firefox that has changed. The work-around for this problem is less than ideal, because certain websites, like Google, don't work correctly with the plug-in. For example, the cursor normally activates on the Google search bar, but the NewTabURL plug-in interrupts that functionality. Not cool. This is just one in a growing list of annoyances that I have with Firefox.

'Go to the "ADD ONS BUTTON which is located on the TOOLS of Firefox browser. Then GET ADD ONS, It should be in the category FEATURED ADD ONS. Or you can search for it in this section.