Windows 10 will reach EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. For more information, see this article.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How to deactivate search within address bar?

more options

I am reopening the question from 2020 as the solution described no longer seems to apply. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1284577

I am running Windows 11. Firefox 144.0 (64-bit)

When entering search terms into the search bar in the centre of the page, the information typed appears in the address bar, even after following the fix described in 1284577.

Treating the address bar as the search bar appears to be the default. While the user can additionally deselect the search engine in the address bar, that is an unnecessary and undesired additional step for every search (the primary reason I am using Firefox)

Is there a way to permanently set the default for what I enter into the search bar to remain in the search bar and not to be managed by the address bar? Thanks, Rich

I am reopening the question from 2020 as the solution described no longer seems to apply. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1284577 I am running Windows 11. Firefox 144.0 (64-bit) When entering search terms into the search bar in the centre of the page, the information typed appears in the address bar, even after following the fix described in 1284577. Treating the address bar as the search bar appears to be the default. While the user can additionally deselect the search engine in the address bar, that is an unnecessary and undesired additional step for every search (the primary reason I am using Firefox) Is there a way to permanently set the default for what I enter into the search bar to remain in the search bar and not to be managed by the address bar? Thanks, Rich

Chosen solution

Hello

You can test, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar.

1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox 2 - Enter a search term browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar You can double-click on the preference to set the value to false

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (1)

more options

Chosen Solution

Hello

You can test, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar.

1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox 2 - Enter a search term browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar You can double-click on the preference to set the value to false

Ask a question

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.