After you changed your home page setting in Options, if you test using either:

• home button on the toolbar
• Ctrl+n to launch a new window

Does the change work? But then either/both:

• making the internal change does not fix the desktop shortcut
• the setting changes back when you exit and start Firefox again

I suggest starting with a malware cleanup, since this kind of problem usually beings with a new download being installed, and there may be many parts to the problem. Here's my suggested procedure for tracking down and cleaning up bad add-ons, hijackers, and ad injectors. I know it seems long, but it's not that bad.

(1) 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. Be suspicious of everything you do not recognize/remember, as malware often uses important or innocent sounding names to discourage you from removing it. Take out as much trash as possible here.

(2) Open Firefox's Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
• in the Windows "Run" dialog, type or paste
  firefox.exe "about:addons"

In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".

In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions. Bear in mind that all extensions are optional, none come with Firefox, and you can learn more about them by checking their reviews on the Add-ons site.

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.

Any improvement?

(3) You can search for remaining issues with the scanning/cleaning tools listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. These on-demand scanners are free and take considerable time to run. If they finish quickly and especially if they require payment, you may have a serious infection. I suggest the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.

Success?

For the desktop shortcut:

right-click the icon, choose Properties, then the Shortcut tab. For a default installation on 64-bit Windows, the Target should be no more and no less than the following (including the quotation marks):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

If there is anything after that or it points to a batch file or other intermediary process, please clean it up.

Finally, if you get the wrong home page set in Options at the next startup, consider whether you might have a user.js file that overrides your setting. This article describes how to track down and remove the file: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Note that by default, Windows hides the .js file extension. To work with files as accurately as possible, I suggest showing all extensions. This Microsoft support article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wi.../show-hide-file-name-extensions.

Some utility/security software also can roll back your settings changes, for example, Advanced SystemCare does that.

Here's how you can change your new tab page:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste newtab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter your preferred page:

• Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
• Blank tab => about:blank
• Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
• Any other page => full URL to the page

Press Ctrl+t to open a new tab and verify that it worked. Fixed?

If problems persist, some potential diagnoses and remedies:

If Firefox won't let you edit this setting: you may have something called SearchProtect on your system. This needs to be removed from the Windows Control Panel. If the status says "locked" we will need to help you investigate an "autoconfig" file.

If Firefox lets you save your change but ignores it: probably you didn't get rid of all the problem extensions in the first pass. Please check the Add-ons page again.

If the change works during your session, but at the next startup is back to the unwanted page: check for a user.js file as mentioned previously.

Any luck?