how do I turn off searching from the address bar. Setting keyword.enabled to false is not working.
I never want to search from the address bar. I've been able to turn off this horrible annoying feature in the past by setting "keyword.enabled" to false but this no longer seems to work. Is there any way to fix this so that searching from the address bar never happens with any search engine?
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If you set keyword.enabled to false, then what Firefox normally does is check whether your address bar entry is a valid server name (first DNS lookup) and, if not, it will try fixup (e.g., www.+what you typed+.com) (second DNS lookup).
If you get search results, particularly if you get results from some site other than your preferred search engine, there are two possible explanations:
(1) DNS provider hijack.
There are some service providers that do not answer the DNS lookups honestly and instead will divert you to their own page of search results. In that situation, there sometimes is a link on the page to opt out, either right there, or behind an explanation (why do I get this page?) or a settings link. You may have to look around. Or if your service provider won't let you opt out, you might need to switch to using OpenDNS or Google Public DNS.
You probably should also check your connection setting it case that has been modified:
"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > Network mini-tab > "Settings" button
Try "No proxy" here to see whether that helps.
(2) Bad add-on.
Some extensions will divert honest DNS misses to their preferred search site. Here's what I suggest for cleaning out bad add-ons:
(A) Open the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This can help in smoking out undisclosed bundle items that snuck in with some software you agreed to install. Take out as much trash as possible here.
(B) Then, in Firefox, open the Add-ons page using either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.
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.
(C) Search for remaining issues with the scanning/cleaning tools listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. Note that the tools are free and take considerable time to run. If they seem to finish quickly and then ask for payment, you might have a Fake AV infection. Please use the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.
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