To make sure I understand: when you check your startup setting in the Options dialog, it still says "When Firefox starts: Show my home page", it isn't getting switched to Show a blank page. In other words, the problem isn't that your setting is changing, but it is being ignored when you use your desktop shortcut.

Here are two things to consider:

(1) Hacked shortcut

On the desktop interface, could you right-click your Firefox icon and call up the Properties dialog, Shortcut tab. For a default installation on 64-bit Windows, the "Target" field should be no more and no less than the following:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

If there are parameters after that, delete them and save the change. You should be able to test immediately even without closing Firefox first.

(2) Bad extension

Try disabling ALL nonessential or unrecognized extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or remove).

Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Does that help?

I tried everything that was suggested but nothing worked

What happens when you change firefox to its default state should i try that next?

The Reset feature carries forward some of your settings and dumps some other things. This article has more details: Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings.

If you're not ready for that, could you check for a user.js file? If that file exists, Firefox will read it at startup and use it to override your normal settings. This article describes how to check for that: How to fix preferences that won't save.

I have the same problem and above fix did not work. Starting Firefox brings up blank page. Clicking on homepage icon opens my homepage. But, bookmarks toolbar is blank even though it is checked. Un-checking it, then re-checking it brings up correct toolbar. Also, with Firefox closed, clicking on a link in email brings up the same blank page, not the link. I have to go through same procedure above and once Firefox in opened correctly go back to the email, click the link and get same in a new tab.

Hi Coyotlus, I think what you're describing has affect some other users on Windows 8.1 after upgrading to Firefox 31. If that is your configuration and situation, could you help us track down why this is happening to some users by starting a new question and including your configuration details? What I mean is, during the 3-screen question flow process, the site will push an an extension to you to gather your system information. Please install that.

You can start the new question here:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/fix-problems

Example thread regarding the Windows 8.1 Firefox 31 update not loading home page issue affecting some users: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1012745

Please explain you post a little clearer. Either link sends me back to "question" page. I want answers not questions. Same problem as in original post.

Hi Coyotlus, this is someone else's question. If you insist on posting here instead of starting a new question, here is how you can post your configuration information in this thread:

1. Use ONE of these methods to open the Firefox Troubleshooting Information page:
   • Click the menu button , click on help and select Troubleshooting Information.
   • Type about:support into the Firefox address bar and press the enter key.
2. At the upper left of the Troubleshooting Information page that comes up, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
3. Now, come back to this thread, right-click in the reply box and select Paste from the context menu (or else click inside the reply box and press the Ctrl+V keys) to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.

Usually there isn't any personal information in the data, but please click "Preview Reply" and check before posting.

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 31.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days

All Crash Reports

Extensions

Name: Anti-Banner Version: 14.0.0.4939 Enabled: false ID: anti_banner@kaspersky.com

Name: Dangerous Websites Blocker Version: 14.0.0.4939 Enabled: false ID: content_blocker@kaspersky.com

Name: Kaspersky URL Advisor Version: 14.0.0.4939 Enabled: false ID: url_advisor@kaspersky.com

Name: Safe Money Version: 14.0.0.4939 Enabled: false ID: online_banking@kaspersky.com

Name: Virtual Keyboard Version: 14.0.0.4939 Enabled: false ID: virtual_keyboard@kaspersky.com

Graphics

Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 Adapter Drivers: nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um Adapter RAM: 2048 Device ID: 0x1049 Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.3.9600.17111) Driver Date: 8-29-2013 Driver Version: 9.18.13.2702 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10 Vendor ID: 0x10de WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d AzureContentBackend: direct2d AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Important Modified Preferences

browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 3 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.startup.homepage: http://my.myway.com/index.jsp?speedbarconfigchanged browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20140716183446 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 31.0 browser.tabs.warnOnClose: false dom.mozApps.used: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 31.0 gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1408387206 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_colorspace: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_command: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_duplex: 1515870810 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_footercenter: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_headercenter: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_headerright: &U print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_in_color: true print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_oddpages: true print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_orientation: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_paper_name: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_plex_name: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_resolution: 1515870810 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_resolution_name: print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_reversed: false print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_to_file: false print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_Canon_MG4200_series_Printer_WS.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1406924558

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.6 Version in use: 4.10.6

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.16.2 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.2 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.16.2 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.2 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.16.2 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.2 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.16.2 Version in use: 3.16.2

Experimental Features

You can check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties) to make sure that nothing is appended after the path to the Firefox program.

Try to redo the default browser setting and temporarily set another browser as the default browser.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/How+to+make+Firefox+the+default+browser
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Setting+Firefox+as+the+default+browser+does+not+work

You can check for problems caused by a corrupted localstore.rdf file.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Corrupt_localstore.rdf

You can check for problems with preferences.

Delete a possible user.js file and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in the current Firefox release.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences