Firefox Community Forum

How to get rid of BING setting on internet/Firefox

Contributor note: See also /questions/1595954 and /questions/1595955.

I set my search engine as DuckDuckgo for privacy some time ago. I deleted Bing and others from the list of browsers as well. I made some effort to set up Firefox and my computer in general as privately oriented as possible without breaking things. I come on Firefox today and see Google has been set as me default search engine again, the other search engines are back in my list and Duckduckgo sitting on the back bench. I seem to be in the battle with Windows as well. I shut off unnecessary data transfer like customer satisfaction BS and they return like a bad rash. I am no tech whiz but I put a lot of work into my privacy only to have it reversed. What do I do?

Every time I attempt to change my search engine from DuckDuckGo I am unsuccessful. The browser simply reverts back to DuckDuckGo. I am running Windows 11 and have installed each and every update that has come along.

Every time I want to search an item or word, you now take me out of the search bar and throw me on to the address bar, which I really have to struggle to read. This has been going on now for quite some time. my question is WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM?? I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO GO TO config TO DO IT MYSELF. FIX IT ON YOUR END NOT MINE! And now as I scroll down, I see you've made some guesses. Then information gives details about the internal workings of your browser, IT'S NOT MY BROWSER, IT'S YOURS. FIX IT

I liked my search box functioning like it did before the last update...can you please revert it back to the way it was please or give us the option to change it back. Why mess with perfection???...thank you. (149.0 64bit currently)

"You can turn it off by entering about:config in the URL bar and switching browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar to false."

That doesn't work anymore. Since the last update, the search went back to the adress bar, doesn't matter if that option is mark as true or false.

Please stop making that the searches go to the adress bar. Nobody likes it.

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Why is the address bar now a search? This is annoying. How can I change this? I have already change about:config settings to false and nothing changes.

Thank you Rafal

Hallo Ich Spreche kein Englisch nur Deutsch - Ich habe seit einiger Zeit ein Problem, wenn ich einen meuen Tapp öffne komme ich wie gewohnt auf die FireFox Seite mit dem Google Suchfeld, wenn ich zum Beispiel in das Suchfeld Monstera eintipe Lande ich immer auf der Yahoo Seite. . Siehe nachfolgenden Link: https://de.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Monstera&hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-syn_launcham¶m2=9dUI1n2R0BLDxNuWfiP4aSFOTltNdSPoIx38%2BUf%2FiXrvPdoGmStdlfwLFZYDvqkAfvapUGDUlfVlBewW80EIyUr%2FsL%2B6E7sphFDlHyc9MgKJkZdnv%2BHAlYnNmFYhvoP666n25XuOWv2sNdW8LTl0ed79U3FBxDdDwESS2zTq7MplmsM64d5ifOY1gGVSACrO7oUVwz0Q6xN0p0HcFuihGvHl6o1wvCWTRhetcVW5mTc%3D¶m3=HpCyCT2cXaKG4CVDR00rqgObRQahimQNt2d5ZCR7Jy3IZoD3T11qaq2nywASZYgKs7Nov2iksjjR3%2F2QWiII6Us00JMQsgWelCh2xqUG22J0U1jSZgy29Nx6hJbvJxhO09UrrPrifdWwZ%2FK6RGUiPErlOzWN1cnTdWlcb0giNPrORW3TU4942RitciCf1Ex2C%2FU510yVW%2BSczbZLYlOESKcxP97Z8OMm14rdAu%2FgEAfm5r74rG9U9ShM2YpG9AR4mVsOA2d22%2FdQcBQQJbYxSA%3D%3D&type=f2%3A%3B.6850610d4680680b2811f3dcdca6be379af%3B5.ac48522a20946644e52a8ef8e64166f19c0ca9cd289925759ba5c0534a4ff17f5111f70ddaee787ec4b4d80 - Leider bin ich mit der Suche mit Yahoo nicht zufrieden, ich habe die Einstellungen von FireFox, mehrfach kontroliert, aber nichts gefunden weshalb ich immer bei Yahoo lande. - Ich bedanke mich schon im voraus für ihre hilfe. mit freundlichen Grüßem Albert Schankula

I've been using 2 search bars for quite some time.

I use the top bar for URLs and the bar mid screen for ad-hoc searches.

(I know I can use the top bar for both but I'm long since retired, quite set in my ways and would rather not have to change unless absolutely necessary😉)

I was able to restore the mid screen search bar functionality using an about:config setting from memory when I first noticed the search bar consolidation a few years back.

It's been working fine until the latest update.

Latest update lets me activate the mid screen bar with a mouse click but any attempt to then enter anything causes focus to move to the top bar so text input on the mid screen bar is no longer possible.

I've tested this on 2 Win 11 desktops and 1 Win 10 desktop and see the same 'issue' arising after the update.

Has that functionality been removed entirely with the latest update or is there an about:config setting that can restore it?

I would like the web search feature back, what is the point of having it available to look at but it does not work? The box is there... why is there not an option for me to continue to use it? You have done this in the past but there was a work around. What work around I found through AI does not work:

"To restore the search box in Firefox 148.0, type "about:config" in the address bar, accept the risk, and search for "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar." Set this preference to false to enable the search box again."

This is disappointing, maddening too. I have used your product for many years.

2026-02-17

for about 8 years now, on and off, on hundreds of OS-es, clean installs of firefox etc. sometimes - not always - typing into the firefox search bar and pressing enter does nothing

i have bit-warden, u-block-origin and stylus installed (but they shouldn't be running on the 'new-tab-page' - is my firefox sync-profile containing some firefox-breaking-errors? (latest Win-11)