I-Firefox Community Forum

Added by FF - poor move on FF part. Unlike others, can't be removed any of the "traditiona" about: methods.

Need to have it go - we DO NOT want this used here.

I tried to use Firefox as my search engine but that didn't work so I re-downloaded DuckDuck, but the address bar say "search with google". I use to have DuckDuck but deleted it because I got tired of sites wanting to know my location. How do I get rid of that. I've tried all options in the settings file. I would prefer

( other search engine ) , here ...

rrr1.jpg

Why are only ...

( Enabled ) and ( Not Enabled ) ...

These two choices ...

.........................

Before , can remove ( Search engine ) ...

.

I need to stop google from automatically searching in the address bar so I can use about.config.

No help has worked from the web. Commands suggested by users don't exist or they use circular logic. In other words I can't go to about.config and make changes because I can't get to about.config because google searches it. I have turned off everything and nothing gets rid of the google search. I can go to other searches but that doesn't help.

This is an older iMac. I already use Firefox on "my" side, which is most of the time. I hardly ever use "his" side, but I need to use it to register something under his email. Apple no longer updates our Safari as it's too old; therefore I NEED to use another browser to stay safe. I downloaded Firefox tonight for "his" side--and now I can't even go to the website I need WITHOUT going thru Google (whose nosiness I HATE). 1) SO WHAT SHOULD I DO? Second question: How do I get to his "Currently AT&T" Emails through Firefox?

I set my search engine as DuckDuckgo for privacy some time ago. I deleted Bing and others from the list of browsers as well. I made some effort to set up Firefox and my computer in general as privately oriented as possible without breaking things. I come on Firefox today and see Google has been set as me default search engine again, the other search engines are back in my list and Duckduckgo sitting on the back bench. I seem to be in the battle with Windows as well. I shut off unnecessary data transfer like customer satisfaction BS and they return like a bad rash. I am no tech whiz but I put a lot of work into my privacy only to have it reversed. What do I do?

I need to fix my issue with search, not sure if it is because of VPN or smth. I use Browsec as VPN, just recognized Firefox has its own VPN. Did anyone had same issue? I saw there was an update on July 1, 2026, Until yesterday everything worked fine.

It appears thousands of others have the same issue with NOTHING affecting the search bar handoff to the address bar (changing true/false in about:config does NOTHING, v148.xx). Why not just do away with any search bar and do everything from the address bar? That way enough will be annoyed they'll find an operational browser. Like too many "upgrades," this one went seriously backwards.

First, please explain the relationship among Firefox, Mozilla and DuckDuckGo. Second, how to make Firefox open when compuetr starts. Third, how to make DDGo the search engine. Finally, how to delete email contacts. I have been doing some, but others show a red triangle and say "cannot delete this". Thank you for helping me, someday,soon, I hope , to escape the greedy clutches of MS. Gail

It's frustrating, no matter what you set, the search always jumps to the address field. I enter known addresses in the address field. I SEARCH in the SEARCH FIELD. And I want that in the future too. How do I make it possible, permanently, to be able to search in the search field??? The following doesn't work (anymore).

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

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste handoff and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference to switch the value from true to false

Recent builds have changed the way that the user can direct queries to the various search engines that can be added (i.e. eBay, Wikipedia, IMDB etc) - to a new configuration that is awkward and forces more clicks.

Here is the method that currently allows reverting to the previous approach :

in about:config

Set string "browser.search.widget.new: to false

... and to delay automatic deletion of engines set "browser.search.widget.removeAfterDaysUnused" to thousands

from this Reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1rftet4/comment/o7s1w69/

Posting this for increased visibility for folks encountering the issue and in the hopes that Mozilla will consider not degrading a well-performing interaction pattern

"You can turn it off by entering about:config in the URL bar and switching browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar to false."

That doesn't work anymore. Since the last update, the search went back to the adress bar, doesn't matter if that option is mark as true or false.

Please stop making that the searches go to the adress bar. Nobody likes it.