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Every time I open Firefox it resets my search option in the location bar to Yahoo. How do I make this stop?

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  • 31 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Morbus

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Every time I open Firefox it resets my search option in the location bar to Yahoo. How do I make this stop? I'd prefer that it be Google. I've tried deleting Yahoo in the Manage Search Engine List window but that didn't work.

Every time I open Firefox it resets my search option in the location bar to Yahoo. How do I make this stop? I'd prefer that it be Google. I've tried deleting Yahoo in the Manage Search Engine List window but that didn't work.

All Replies (8)

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Hello Matt.

There is a easy way to do fix that:

- access about:config in your address bar - if Firefox asks you something, say you'll be careful - now, search for "keyword.url" (without the commas) - right click the entry and select "Reset"

That should fix the issue. For future reference, if you want to prevent this kind of problems (and many other kinds of problems), I recommend you throughoutly read all the information presented by programs you install. The most likely scenario is you installed some program that had a ticked box called "set Yahoo as my default search engine" and you didn't notice and just pressed "next". You can simply untick that kind of boxes.

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Hey Morbus,

Thanks! I saw that Keyword.url had been set to search.yahoo.com in the trouble shoot info but had no idea how to change it. However, I did so using your tip and Yahoo still comes up as the default. Then I notice in about:config that a few other things had been changed to Yahoo [specifically, browser.search.param and browser.search.selectEnging] I reset those too, and still Yahoo is the default.

Also, thanks for the advice. My computer literacy extends as far as the drop down menu but I'm usually really good about that kind of thing. And I haven't installed any programs on this computer yet except the Norton suite from Crapcast... and it's been doing this ever since. But I swear I never saw any such ticked box.

Got any other suggestions. What else should I be looking for when I go in about:config? Do I need to change something in Norton? Any help would be appreciated. It's not the end of the world but, it sure is annoying.

Thanks again! Matt

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Yeah, sometimes software just force adverts on you...

In any case, let's try to solve thist: where exactly does yahoo search appear? In the search bar, to the right of the address bar? If that's the case, you can click the yahoo icon in the search bar, and a drop down will open, at the bottom of which there should be an option called "Manager Search Engines". You can go in there and delete, change or remove engines as you like. Hopefully that will do it.

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OMG! thanks.  :) I just wish I had taken the time to learn what's in that file the things I could modify. I might have agreed to be good but I didn't say I wouldn't have fun!!!

Thanks again, shasta

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- access about:config in your address bar

Um I have the same problem,. But I cant find the "About" link or "Config" link to start.

Lil help lol :)

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about:config is a link. Type it in the address bar, and press enter.

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My keyword.url is set to use google but if I mistype a URL, then a comcast link comes up. I searched Windows7x64 registry for comcast (0 results), running Firefox 3.6.6. I hate comcast. How do I get it use google which is what the keyword.url in the about: config is set to (which is what I want). For example, if I mistype the facebook URL, I get the following in the screenshot.