Why won't my Firefox open with my home page instead of a blank tab?
The browser always opens in a new tab even when I have it set to open in my home page. When I have Firefox set as my default browser it opens in a new blank tab when I click a link in a document or email. The only time I get my home page on opening Firefox, is if the browser is already open and I choose to open a new window. However, when I do that I lose my yahoo toolbar settings for the newly opened window. Yes, I have tried removing cookies, and that does not work. This problem is exasperating, I do not like IE, but I use it because it opens links without my having to keep the browser open all the time.
All Replies (4)
Hi tigerleatoo, I'm not sure I understand your question.
When you launch Firefox using its program icon, you should get your preference from the following tab:
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > General > "When Firefox starts"
So in your case, you should see your home page(s).
When Firefox is completely closed and you launch it using a link in email or a document, Firefox usually will ONLY open that linked page and nothing else. Are you getting a blank tab in addition? Do you want your home page in addition?
Is the problem that you want external links to open a new window when Firefox is already running?
Firefox tries to follow your preference for new tabs vs. new windows for both internal and external links.
In other words, if you have set Firefox to open new windows in a tab here:
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Tabs
Then external links will usually open in an existing window rather than in their own window.
There is a way to split these so they behave differently, but because the steps are detailed, I won't burden you with those unless you need them.
I just want my home page to show when I start Firefox. I have reset it several times in options and I still get a blank tabs page when I start Firefox. Also, if Firefox is set as my default browser, when I click a link in an email all I get is a blank tabs page unless the browser is already open.
If your home page is not correct when you start Firefox directly from its own icon, one possibility is that an add-on is overriding that setting. This article has some suggested steps to troubleshoot add-on issues: Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems.
If links do not load correctly in Firefox, there could be an error in the registry settings used to connect links with Firefox. During the past year at some point, Firefox changed its registry settings. Windows XP provides a handy dialog to review and edit those settings. Let me remind myself of the details and post back on that.
On that second point, Windows needs to pass the URL to Firefox. You can check on whether that is set up correctly here:
My Computer or Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options
On the File Types tab, highlight (NONE) Firefox URL and click Advanced...
Highlight open and click Edit...
The "Application to perform action" line should say:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -osint -url "%1"
Please update yours to match if necessary.