I have tried (1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. 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 change from the default (about:newtab) to about:blank. When i double click on the browser.newtab.url it gives me the option to edit the url address. If i delete it or if i replace it with about:blank it just goes back to the url it has set. Status: user set, Type: string, Value: http://search.conduit.com/?ctid=CT3314958&octid=EB_ORIGINAL_CTID&SearchSource=69&CUI=&SSPV=EB_SSPV&Lay=1&UM=2&UP=SP31A63AA1-176A-4724-A794-2FC07C141F7E The last time i had this issue i solved it by deleting and reinstalling firefox. I don't want to do that every time this happens. Ideally I would like to be able to type into the address bar automatically when I open a new tab, without clicking there. That was my previous setting and it seemed to change without reason. It did not come back when i reinstalled firefox.