Hi Wally, let's separate those two features: (1) Home page Normally, Firefox comes set to use the Firefox Home page, which has a search box for your default search engine. You can change this to a page on the web using the Custom URLs selection. That change should be retained between sessions. Some general references: * Relevant section of the Settings page: [[How to set the home page]] * Issue of add-ons modifying your setting: [[An extension changed my New Tab page or home page]] * Issue of Firefox not starting up with the settings from your previous session: [[How to fix preferences that won't save]] (2) Default search engine While Firefox comes configured to use Google as the default search engine in most places, your change should stick. This is saved in a separate settings file from the home page address. ''Users have observed that if they go to the Shortcuts box further down the Settings > Search panel and remove ALL search engines, then Firefox will restore them all later. You can un-check some search engines rather than removing them to work around this.'' General reference: [[Change your default search settings in Firefox]]