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The latest version of Firefox loads with the Ask page and doesn't retain the selected home page. How do I change this?

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  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I downloaded the latest Firefox version. Upon loading it it doesn't retain the previous Home Page setting and always reverts to the Ask page, which is always indicated as the Home Page. This is annoying. How do I overcome this problem?

I downloaded the latest Firefox version. Upon loading it it doesn't retain the previous Home Page setting and always reverts to the Ask page, which is always indicated as the Home Page. This is annoying. How do I overcome this problem?

All Replies (2)

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  1. Remove Ask Toolbar (if you have it installed):
  2. Reset your home page (if the Ask search page is displayed when starting Firefox): http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/How+to+set+the+home+page
    • You can reset to the default by clicking "Restore to default" on Options > General > Startup > Home page. Be sure to set "When Firefox starts" to "Show my home page" on that same panel.
  3. Reset your Location Bar search engine (if typing a few words in the URL/Location Bar takes you to Ask search):
  4. If Ask is shown in your Search Bar and you want to remove it:


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Not related to your question, but...

You may need to update some plug-ins. Check your plug-ins and update as necessary:

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Reset the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone pref via the right-click context menu to the default on the about:config page and close and restart Firefox to restore the about:home page to its default.

  • Open the about:config page via the location bar
  • Type in the Filter bar: mstone
  • Right-click the browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone line and select: Reset
  • Close and restart Firefox

If that didn't help then delete the delete the chromeappsstore.sqlite file in the Firefox Profile Folder and repeat the above.


You can modify the search engine for the about:home page.

  1. Open the about:home page in a tab
  2. Open the Scratchpad via "Firefox/Tools > Web Developer > Scratchpad" (Shift+F4)
  3. Paste the code in the Scratchpad window
  4. Use "Execute > Run" to run the code
  5. Close and restart Firefox to make the change effective

localStorage["search-engine"]="{\"name\":\"Google\",\"searchUrl\":\"http://www.google.com/search?q=_searchTerms_&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a\"}";