Does this tab open

• in place of your preferred home page
• as a second tab next to your preferred home page
• in a separate new window

For the unwanted page, does it have an address (e.g., address starting with http or https)? if so, could you post the address in a reply? Often knowing the location of the page can point directly to the culprit (e.g., bad add-on).

You can check for problems with preferences.

Delete possible user.js and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in the current Firefox release.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

You can check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties) to make sure that nothing is appended after the path to the Firefox program.

See if I can paste this in: (I asked Firefox to stop all 'ad-ons', and saw this under the 'New Tab'. -SRG

chrome://nspdlsd/content/newtab/newtab.html:

Maybe out of the question, but why do people keep posting links with "Chrome://" in them? If you're using Firefox, there won't be any chrome in the link.

Anyway, if this is what's opening as the new tab, go to about:config, search for the new tab url, double click it and set it to about:newtab.

Hi SuperSluether

No worries about such links with the chrome protocol.

Firefox uses the "chrome://" protocol to access its own internal files and also access files from extensions, so this has nothing to do with Google Chrome.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Chrome

You can paste such a chrome:// protocol and resource:// protocol link in the location/address bar to inspect such a file. In case if an XML file you need to inspect the page source. An example:

• chrome://browser/content/browser.js
• resource:///defaults/pref/firefox.js
• chrome://browser/content/bookmarks/bookmarksPanel.xul (opens the bookmarks sidebar in a tab)

Great, thanks for that URL. In an earlier thread it was associated with a "speed dial" or "search dial" extension: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/990420

Unwanted extensions often are installed at the system level as part of a bundle. Therefore, I suggest starting here:

Open the Windows Control Panel, Uninstall a Program. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This can help in smoking out undisclosed bundle items that snuck in with some software you agreed to install. Take out as much trash as possible here.

Next, in Firefox, open the Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

(1) In the left column, click Plugins. If you find a plugin that you don't recognize or which doesn't sound essential, try setting it to "Never Activate". (The most essential Plugin is Shockwave Flash. You can use most sites without the others.)

(2) In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.

Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Finally, you can "mop up" remaining issues with the scanning/cleaning tools suggested in this support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware.

Success?