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I can't change my Firefox homepage search engine.

  • 12 replies
  • 636 have this problem
  • 19 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I downloaded Bandoo emoticons and it loaded "searchqu" search engine and it is now the one being used on Firefox homepage. I prefer Google which it was . I tried to change it,disable it,uninstall it and I tried uninstalling Bandoo. But I can't get rid of it.It doesn't show up as Searchqu in my computer programs and I can't find it there. It was in my Firefox add-ons which is where I uninstalled it from. How do I get rid of it?

                     Thanks, lige perry
I downloaded Bandoo emoticons and it loaded "searchqu" search engine and it is now the one being used on Firefox homepage. I prefer Google which it was . I tried to change it,disable it,uninstall it and I tried uninstalling Bandoo. But I can't get rid of it.It doesn't show up as Searchqu in my computer programs and I can't find it there. It was in my Firefox add-ons which is where I uninstalled it from. How do I get rid of it? Thanks, lige perry

Chosen solution

Did you check the Home page setting?

Tools > Options > General > Startup: Home page

See How to set the home page


If you need to (re)set the pref keyword.URL then you can open the about:config page via the location bar.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/about%3Aconfig

Read this answer in context 👍 10

All Replies (12)

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Have you tried resetting this preference?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keyword.URL

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I know very little about computers so when I went to the page you suggested I was lost. I really didn't understand how to proceed. I don't want to be a bother but is there a step by step set of directions that an old plumber could muddle through. I worry about doing the wrong thing and corrupting my whole PC. Last year when I bought it I messed up and had to do 2 recovers! Any additional help would be greatly appreciated.

            Thanks, lige perry
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Chosen Solution

Did you check the Home page setting?

Tools > Options > General > Startup: Home page

See How to set the home page


If you need to (re)set the pref keyword.URL then you can open the about:config page via the location bar.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/about%3Aconfig

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Thanks a million! This was driving me nuts!. Now if I can find that same page in IE 8 I'll "scrape" it out of there also!

                            lige perry

p.s. just to clarify, I used the Tools/homepage method.

Modified by ligeperry

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go to tools and go down to options

it will have your home page there back space it and type the homepage you want

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By the way... I think I have finally found a way to be free from searchqu.com.... This will at least be a partial solution. I had disabled it by going to the DOS command line, doing a dir for searchqu and then conduit... and then deleting anything I figured didn't belong... while in SafeMode! Anyway the steps from Windows (XP). 1. Start 2. Control Panel 3. Internet Options 4. General 5. Search........Settings 6. Google - Set as Default 7. Web Search (Searchqu) - Remove and while I was there I got rid of Babylon too! I mention this here because searchqu in the search box brought me here!... if anyone knows of a better location... copy and paste, please. What's important is helping others!

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Unistall it from the Control Panel.

It is register under the name: WINDOWS SEARCHQU TOOLBAR

A tricky name - with the fact that we usually have more than 100 entries to choose from.

A more complete answer in:

http://support.mozilla.com/es/questions/790833#question-reply

Regards C Diez de Sollano

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I downloaded Bandoo a few months ago, great smilies. Had a few problems like MSN crashing etc. Then when I ran Malware it found 8 tracking cookies/adware named Bandoo some in the directory. Anyway had malware remove the adware then all kinds of problems, now I couldn't even send an email it would crash. Like you I tried to use the control panel to delete but the message was it couldn't find the .exe file. Finally I went into C drive and opened the programs file and if you open Bandoo they have an Uninstall there. I used that and it disappeared. Bandoo just takes over I even tried system restore to go back before Bandoo. Even in safe mode Restore wouldnt work. If you look close in the C program Bandoo has a item in there for system restore. I even lost all my previous recovery points. I would not recommend down loading Bandoo to anyone. Maybe it was me but nothing but problems

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I did that yesterday, reset my homepage and when I booted this morning, that stupid Searchqu Toolbar was back and my virus control said a program is trying to change your home page. So I went and redid my homepage. Sure hope this doesn't happen every morning! I'm in a sweepstakes with yahoo, and every time I open as my homepage, and check my mail, I get entered, and this stupid thing is destroying all my entries! grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Thanks to you all for your help.

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I uninstalled that toolbar this morning per your instructions. sometimes these things sneak in attached to an update that you install. Very frustrating!

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You guys don't understand... "about:home" is my homepage but it searches with "Yahoo!". I want it to search with "Google"... Also when I type a search in the address bar it also searches with "Yahoo!". Please help it's annoying.

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Reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref via the right-click context menu to the default on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox to restore the about:home page to its default.

  • Open the about:config page via the location bar
  • Type in the Filter bar: mstone
  • Right-click the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone line and select: Reset
  • Close and restart Firefox

If that didn't help then delete the delete the chromeappsstore.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder and repeat the above.