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easier file-driven method to set search engine preferences

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I would like to customize search engine preferences via config file; this is similar to what is doable with user.js for most other settings. Since search engine preferences are compressed as search.json.lz4, this become more challenging.

Is there any way to get "no Bing, yes Duck Duck Go" (for example) via a config file?

I would like to customize search engine preferences via config file; this is similar to what is doable with user.js for most other settings. Since search engine preferences are compressed as search.json.lz4, this become more challenging. Is there any way to get "no Bing, yes Duck Duck Go" (for example) via a config file?

All Replies (3)

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You can probably do that by using JavaScript in mozilla.cfg to directly use the SearchService (Services.search)

See also:

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The settings you are interested in are:


/*	comma seperated list of of engines to hide in the search panel.	*/
lockPref( 'browser.search.hiddenOneOffs', 'Google,Yahoo,Bing' )
/*
 *	Set the default search engine to DuckDuckGo
 */
unlockPref( 'browser.search.defaultenginename.US' )
defaultPref( 'browser.search.defaultenginename.US', 'data:text/plain,browser.search.defaultenginename.US=DuckDuckGo' )
clearPref( 'browser.search.defaultenginename.US' )
unlockPref( 'browser.search.order.US.1' )
defaultPref( 'browser.search.order.US.1', 'data:text/plain,browser.search.order.US.1=DuckDuckGo' )
clearPref( 'browser.search.order.US.1' )
unlockPref( 'browser.search.order.US.2' )
defaultPref( 'browser.search.order.US.2', 'data:text/plain,browser.search.order.US.2=DuckDuckGo' )
clearPref( 'browser.search.order.US.2' )
unlockPref( 'browser.search.order.US.3' )
defaultPref( 'browser.search.order.US.3', 'data:text/plain,browser.search.order.US.3=DuckDuckGo' )
clearPref( 'browser.search.order.US.3' )
lockPref( 'browser.search.defaultenginename',	 'DuckDuckGo' )
lockPref( 'browser.search.order.1', 'DuckDuckGo' )
lockPref( 'browser.search.order.2', 'DuckDuckGo' )
lockPref( 'browser.search.order.3', 'DuckDuckGo' )
lockPref( 'keyword.URL', 'https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=!+' )
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Here is an older thread about search engines.

Maybe contact Mike Kaply to see if he has suggestions.