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new firefox - why does the search bar in centre of screen no longer work’ for ‘Firefox’

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New firefox... the tabs are dreadful - all have the same white background with no border so it is very hard to find a specific tab that you are looking for as they all blur into one. Can I change?

Even worse is that the search bar in the centre of the screen no longer works on firefox - the search is automatically redirected to the address bar - why?? what purpose does this serve? it means I can't use firefox for internet searches.

New firefox... the tabs are dreadful - all have the same white background with no border so it is very hard to find a specific tab that you are looking for as they all blur into one. Can I change? Even worse is that the search bar in the centre of the screen no longer works on firefox - the search is automatically redirected to the address bar - why?? what purpose does this serve? it means I can't use firefox for internet searches.
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All Replies (3)

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You can turn it off by going to about:config and switching browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar to false.

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OK I will try that. What about the searches that I try to type into the central search bar which are typed out in the address bar at the top - why is that happening and can I switch it off?

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fftty said

OK I will try that. What about the searches that I try to type into the central search bar which are typed out in the address bar at the top - why is that happening and can I switch it off?

Actually, that was the preference which controls whether the cursor jumps up to the address bar when you type in the search box on the built-in Firefox Home / new tab page.

You can use an add-on theme to fix the tab bar color issue, or you can roll back the layout change using a temporary preference. You don't need both of these.

Theme

If you prefer the colors of the "Default" theme from Firefox 57-88, someone created an add-on theme that emulates it. You can give it a try here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/photon-colors/

If that color doesn't suit you, the Firefox Color extension lets you create your own theme:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/firefox-color/


Tab Shape / Separation

I can give you a quick short-term workaround, but a more durable solution will require more work.

Temporary Fix

For testing purposes, there is a preference to switch the tab bar and address bar between new style and old style. This is not expected to continue in Firefox 90, but maybe you want to use it for now.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.proton.enabled and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch between true (new style) and false (old style)

Longer Term Community Workaround

This involves setting up a userChrome.css file. I have a rules builder that will get more features throughout the month. By the time the above preference is removed, it should be mature. If you want to take a sneak peek now: