The protocol (http://) has been removed from the URL in the location bar for http:// pages only. https:// pages will still have the protocol. This may be confusing to some users. There's also a known bug where if you copy the URL after selecting it from the awesome bar dropdown (but before loading the page) it won't include the http:// part.

Users can revert to the old behavior by setting browser.urlbar.trimURLs to false in about:config

1. type about:config in the Location/URL/Address bar and press the Enter key
2. if you see a warning, accept it (promise to be careful)
3. Filter = browser.urlbar.trimURLs
4. double-click on the pref in the lower panel to toggle it to "false" OR right-click on the pref in the lower panel and choose "Toggle" to toggle it to "false"
5. close the about:config tab

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Does not relate to your question, but...

You have multiple old Java Console extensions that Java did not clean-up during updates. You need Java Console only if you do Java programming/development or debug Java applets on web pages. You can see them in Add-ons > Extensions, but you can not remove them from there. Removing them will not affect the functioning of Java on websites. You can manually remove them, if you do not do Java development work to avoid future, possible problems/conflicts:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Java#Multiple_Java_Console_extensions

Your old Java Console extensions:

• Java Console 6.0.24 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0024-ABCDEFFEDCBA}

Not related to your question, but...

You may need to update some plug-ins. Check your plug-ins and update as necessary:

• Plug-in check: https://www-trunk.stage.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/
• Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in: Installing (or Updating) the Shockwave plugin with Firefox
• Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape: Installing/Updating Adobe Reader in Firefox
• Shockwave Flash (Adobe Flash or Flash): Updating Flash in Firefox
• Next Generation Java Plug-in for Mozilla browsers: Installing or Updating Java in Firefox

Thankfully, after some trial-and-error experiments I discovered the solution:

1. Go to about.config
2. Set browser.urlbar.trimURLs to false
3. Restart Firefox

Now an editorial comment: I think it's fine that new versions offer optional new "features" even if of dubious value like this one, but they should be "opt-in" not "opt-out". That is, users should be informed of them so they can enable them only if they want to. They should not be automatically imposed on unsuspecting users who then have to go to great trouble to figure out how to restore the behavior they have come to trust and depend on.

Thank you, SafeBrowser, Setting browser.urlbar.trimURLs to false restored the old, desired behavior. I hope you saw my "editorial comment" following my independent discovery of this fix, in the post following yours.

Thanks for the link with instructions on removing the old Java Console plugins. I had wondered how to do that.

Regarding the plug-in version checker: I don't use Adobe Reader because I have the full Acrobat Pro product, ver 9.4.6. I am happy with it and don't want to pay for version 10.x How can I get Plug-In Checker to understand that and stop telling me to install the newest Adobe Reader?

    - Rich

I was so happy to find a fix for this. I often copy/paste links and some are not live without the http:// Ex: en.wikipedia.org I don't think omitting it by default was a good idea AT ALL.