You should reset all browser.proton.* prefs on the about:config page as those Proton prefs are no longer supported (they were there during development stage) and can cause weird issues.

Setting this browser.newtabpage pref to false will prevent the focus from switching from the search bar on the Firefox Home page to the location bar and doesn't do more, so it won't set focus to the search bar on the Firefox Home page. You can press the F6 key to set focus to the webpage and press the Tab key until the search bar gets focus (i.e.you see the cursor).

• browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = false

OK I reset all the proton configs to true I then set browser.newtabpage pref to false and true This does nothing NO change Not to be impolite pressing F6 does nothing and pressing TAB Key does move the cursor but it never stops at the Search Text Box Even if these suggested fixes worked. This is not intelligent User Interface Design I write code in 5 languages and always pay attention to UID and where the cursor ends up as the user navigates pages or does data entry Thanks for the reply but I am still looking for a solution Can I insets some JavaScript or edit the HTML5 code that renders the home page? This seems like a drastic way to manage focus on a commercial application

This is an OK Solution just not a grate one! With this solution I can open DuckDuckGo and you do not need to deal with the Firefox URL search bar. What makes the solution not real great is that you loose the ability to see the Pocket shortcuts. While these little shortcut buttons are nice you can do the same thing with a bookmark folder named "Favorite Shortcuts" a few extra clicks. No big deal the mouse might be asleep anyway.

So what did I do? Go to Settings Select Home and change Homepage and new windows setting. Before you do that navigate to the page you want to use as the NEW HOMEPAGE. In my case it is DuckDuckGo but use this URL https://start.duckduckgo.com/ You will need to do this as the process has more nonsense questions I did not enjoy! Here is a screen shot of the final product.

Here is a note for Mozi//a and Firefox as this product has evolved there is a over abundance of old information on the web on how to FIX various issues. Because it is old a good deal of it is worthless. You need develop a FAQ repository that is maintained by volunteers I get IT your not a BIG money grubing corporation. That said you can do better just think about it

If this were Stackoverflow I might get a few bonus points for this addition. As I stated above this was not a great solution will I hope this addition to my answer make this a better solution. If you had invested time in creating a number of personal Pocket shortcuts here is how to salvage that URL that has all that information. First in the address bar enter about:home Then book mark that page. Next go to your bookmarks and you will see a bookmark named "NewTab" Right Click it and name it what ever you like "Firefox Home Page" works for me. Enjoy I guess there is two ways to do things the correct way and long way around