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Search hijack by conduit (/questions/968030/)

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by John99

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about:config does not allow changes to browser.newtab.url

about:config does not allow changes to browser.newtab.url

Chosen solution

You can open the about:config page via the location bar and search for prefs that refer to conduit and reset related user set (bold) prefs via the right-click context menu to the default value.

Your System Details list shows that you have a user.js file in the profile folder to initialize prefs each time Firefox starts.

The user.js file is only present if you or other software has created this file and normally it wouldn't be there. You can check its content with a plain text editor (right-click: Open with) if you didn't create this file yourself.

The user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session.

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.

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

See also:

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode. Then open about:config. about:config is not a locked file. It could be the work of one of your add-ons, or even add / mal-ware. Look thru your add-ons list and make sure you know what each one is there for. Also, Windows > Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Go thru the list and use a web search to check any that you don't know what they are.

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Chosen Solution

You can open the about:config page via the location bar and search for prefs that refer to conduit and reset related user set (bold) prefs via the right-click context menu to the default value.

Your System Details list shows that you have a user.js file in the profile folder to initialize prefs each time Firefox starts.

The user.js file is only present if you or other software has created this file and normally it wouldn't be there. You can check its content with a plain text editor (right-click: Open with) if you didn't create this file yourself.

The user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session.

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.

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

See also:

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Perhaps if you explain what you are trying to do and what the problem is it will help us. Presumably you have posted after looking at

I do not notice any conduit plugin listed.

I do notice a file user.js exists. Presumably you did not create that yourself. It is a file that does not exist by default. It is in your profile, and the profile may be found by looking at the troubleshooting information page. That has an option to open the profile folder. Key in about:support in the location bar to get to that page.

The user.js file is quite probably affecting your preferences and part of your problem. The file content is likely to be only a few lines and is plain text, please copy and paste that into your reply.