To revert to Google as your preferred search engine, please do the following.

• In the location bar, type about:config and hit Enter.
  
  
• In the filter at the top, type: keyword.URL
  
  
• Double click it and remove whatever's in there and replace it with http://www.google.com/search?q=
  

The URL to add in "keyword.URL" becomes a link in this post, so right click it and choose "Copy Link Location" to copy it to the Windows clipboard. Then hit CTRL+V to paste it. Saves you having to type the whole thing.

To reset your home page, do the following.

• Go to the site you want to set as your homepage.
  
  
• Click the orange Firefox button and go to Options | Options | General.
  
  
• Make sure it says "Show My Homepage" in the first dropdown menu.
  
  
• Click the button called "Use Current Pages" to set the homepage to the one you have on the screen.
  

N.B. Check in Add-ons | Extensions for the Ask Toolbar. Remove if found.

What is the "location bar"????? Where is it?

where is the "location bar"???

The location bar is where you type in a web adress (URL).

I tried this fix several times, and it always reverts back to Yahoo as the default search engine. On reloading FireFox the keyword.URL reverts back to what it was in about:config. Is there some trick to saving the value permanently?

Try uninstalling the Ask Toolbar. See: How to uninstall the Ask Toolbar

Hi Xircal -- Actually, it was Yahoo that was coming up as the default and couldn't be changed. I deleted Yahoo from the search engine list with "manage Search Engines", restarted FireFox and it seems to have worked. Thank you!! -- Jim

@ DrJim, sorry, I didn't notice you were a different user to the person who posted the original question hence my reference to the "Ask Toolbar".

Xircal - being that you're now my favorite "fixit" man - do you have anything in your bag of tricks that will allow me to put a "Save As" button on the toolbar? Posted this question, but so far no replies.

Tall order. Depends on what you're trying to save. CTRL+S is the standard Windows command for saving a file and you can use it to save a Web page too.

Unfortunately, I'm off on vacation for a month from today and my flight departs in about 6 hrs time. So I won't be able to respond again until I get back which will be about mid-July.

Maybe one of the other guys might know of a fix.

Enjoy your vacation!! Maybe someone will post an answer in the interim. Thanks for your help.

hey anyone can help me i tried what Xircal said,"how to set my required url as my home page". after copying url into keyword.url what i should do??????????

To make a URL be your home page, simply click Tools/Options/General and specify the page you want in the "home page" field.

I used the solution from Xircal to change my default engine from Yahoo to Google. Well, the change took, as I saw it in the list as being user set. However, it reverts to Yahoo when I restart Firefox. I looked back in about:fig , and the the previous Yahoo is back again! It seems as though it never saved the update to Google.

The common name for a "location bar" is "address bar".

Try the solution above from me.

Hi, I tried to folow this instruction and to be honest in the keyword url. there is the google search engine... but any time I try to search this is what appear: http://it.ask.com/web?l=dis&o=102823&qsrc=2873&gct=sb&q=how%20to%20remove%20ask%20search%20engine so do you have another way to definitely remove this ask search engine?? pleaseeee thanks. Mike Italy

Hi Mike: Try clicking the little down arrow located at the left side of the search box. Then select "Manage Search Engines". Select the Engine you do not want and click Remove. (You can always add it back if you need it). Close the window and click on the little arrow at the left of the search box again. Select "Google" or whatever engine you want to be the default. Next time you restart FireFox, your choice will be the default search engine.

I had similar problems with the Ask engine showing up all the time , when I really like to use Google, so in review of the commentary here and the responds, I did learn that by going to the ( Manage search engine bar) at the far left side of your httpps:// address bar, one can control the search engine one wants to use and remove the ones you dislike. It has work fine for me and now I Google every where or even at times I Bing around. :) hope you all can fine the solution to your tech problems. sincerely yours the Surfer.:)

For those still having a problem with ask.com (original questions) and with the questions about Yahoo search asked later, did you see the footnotes about uninstalling their /dis/respectable extensions first.

Yahoo Toolbar messes up Location Bar Search

Remove the Yahoo Toolbar or ask.com toolbar

1. "Ctrl+Shift+A" (Add-ons Manager)
2. Select Puzzle piece on left-side for Extensions List
3. Find "Yahoo Toolbar" (or ask.com toolbar) and click on "Uninstall" button, and restart Firefox.

Then to fix the default search engine used at the Location Bar, change the value of keyword.URL in about:config to one of the values shown in Location Bar search at MozillaZine.

• Google Search (Google search results page)
  http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=

1. type in about:config into the location bar (in a new tab)
2. if the warning message nonsense comes up un-check the box before dismissing the dialog message
3. filter on keyword
4. right-click on keyword.URL and choose "modify" then paste in the Google search engine string of your choice.
5. filter on .search. (if these variables point to yahoo, change them as well)
6. right-click on browser.search.defaulturl and again choose "modify" then paste in the Google search engine string of your choice.
7. right-click on yahoo.ytff.search.popup_src and again choose "modify" then paste in the Google search engine string of your choice.

More information on configuration variables available in about:config entries and for users not familiar with the process there is about:config (How to change).

Avoiding the problems: Many software installations contain additional baggage known as crapware. They Yahoo Toolbar is packaged with Java picture

Problematic Extensions (includes both ask.com toolbar & Yahoo Toolbar)

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions

(site when down may be down for 4 hours at a time, it is usually up though)

Added steps 5-7 to the above based on Q839427

The "Location Bar" is the term used in all Firefox support documentation for the what is known in other applications and by developers as address bar, perhaps because the keyboard shortcut is "Ctrl+L" .

A more complete list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts can be seen here and is a comparison with other browsers as well.