How do I block the sponsered ads that show up on the blank page?
I have Firefox set to not remember any history and to delete cookies on close. When I restart Firefox the blank page is filled with advertising.
Chosen solution
Just click the gear icon in the top-right and change from 'enhanced' to 'classic' or 'blank.'
Read this answer in context 2Additional System Details
Installed Plug-ins
- Adobe® Acrobat® Plug-in for Web Browsers, Version 11.0.10
- A plugin to detect whether the Adobe Application Manager is installed on this machine.
- Provides information about the default web browser
- Displays Java applet content, or a placeholder if Java is not installed.
- LastPass Plugin
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
- Microsoft Office for Mac SharePoint Browser Plug-in
- Shockwave Flash 17.0 r0
Application
- Firefox 36.0.1
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.10; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0
- Support URL: https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/36.0.1/Darwin/en-US/
Extensions
- LastPass 3.1.92 (support@lastpass.com)
- Video DownloadHelper 5.0.1 ({b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d})
- Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF 2.0 (web2pdfextension@web2pdf.adobedotcom) (Inactive)
Javascript
- incrementalGCEnabled: True
Graphics
- adapterDescription:
- adapterDeviceID: 0x 46
- adapterDrivers:
- adapterRAM:
- adapterVendorID: 0x8086
- driverDate:
- driverVersion:
- info: {u'AzureCanvasBackend': u'quartz', u'AzureFallbackCanvasBackend': u'none', u'AzureContentBackend': u'quartz', u'AzureSkiaAccelerated': 0}
- numAcceleratedWindows: 1
- numTotalWindows: 1
- webglRenderer: NVIDIA Corporation -- NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M OpenGL Engine
- windowLayerManagerRemote: True
- windowLayerManagerType: OpenGL
Modified Preferences
Misc
- User JS: No
- Accessibility: No
What do you mean by the blank page -- do you mean in the Preferences dialog you chose the startup option of a blank page? If that doesn't sound familiar, see: Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings
That page really should be blank! What if you change your startup option to use a home page, and for your home page specify
about:blank
(the built-in blank page)
Any difference? You can test by launching a new window (Command+n).
If about:blank also is not really blank, my next suggestion would be to test in Firefox's Safe Mode. That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode.
You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
- Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
Not all add-ons are disabled: Flash and other plugins still run
After Firefox shuts down, a small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).
Any difference?
Question owner
The page comes up when a new tab is selected. This article describes the offensive advertising: http://www.cnet.com/news/mozilla-to-sell-new-tab-page-ads-in-firefox/
Chosen Solution
Just click the gear icon in the top-right and change from 'enhanced' to 'classic' or 'blank.'
Question owner
Delete the ads, set the gear icon to blank, give it a restart. So far so good. I am so overloaded with the advertising thrown at me from every angle. It just pissed me off and was about ready to dump Firefox (I like Firefox).
Thanks for the help!
Helpful Reply
Do you mean the directory tiles on the about:newtab page?
If you want to remove the sponsored directory links on the about:newtab page then use these steps:
Set the browser.newtabpage.directory.source pref to an empty string on the about:config page.
- browser.newtabpage.directory.source = <empty>
Delete the directoryLinks.json file in the parent location of the disk cache to remove the currently stored directory links.
- delete directoryLinks.json
See the about:cache page for the location of the disk cache and go one level up.
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
The "AppData" folder in Windows Vista and later Window 7+ versions and the "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K are hidden folders.
Question owner
Thanks for the last set of instructions. it confirms the Mozilia is adapting nasty advertise practices, most users would just deal with it. Shame on Mozilla.
Note that you can drag a bookmark or history item and drop them in a tile on the about:newtab page to pin them and have your own favorites sites showing.
See also this article about the New Tab page (about:newtab):
Question owner
Thanks for the fast and timely responses, very helpful.