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Firefox Starts Up On Bing But Opens A New Tab In Google

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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When I open up Firefox it takes a few seconds to load up into Bing (not my default search engine) but when I open a new tab or search something normally in another tab it searches it in Google (default search engine). What's going on? Do I have a virus or something?

When I open up Firefox it takes a few seconds to load up into Bing (not my default search engine) but when I open a new tab or search something normally in another tab it searches it in Google (default search engine). What's going on? Do I have a virus or something?

All Replies (5)

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Type about:addons<enter> in the address bar to open your Add-ons Manager. Hot key; (<Control> [Mac=<Command>] <Shift> A)

In the Add-ons Manager, on the left, select Extensions. Remove “ Bing “ Anything.

Also remove SafeSearch, SearchAssist Incognito, FileConverter Addon, SearchLock, DiscreteSearch, WebSearch, Findwide Search Engine

Now do the same in the computer’s Programs Folder.

Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the Applications folder. Linux: Check your user manual.

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I didn't have any of those add-ons you have listed installed nor do I have them as programs. Do you have any other suggestions?

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FredMcD said

Type about:addons<enter> in the address bar to open your Add-ons Manager. Hot key; (<Control> [Mac=<Command>] <Shift> A) In the Add-ons Manager, on the left, select Extensions. Remove “ Bing “ Anything. Also remove SafeSearch, SearchAssist Incognito, FileConverter Addon, SearchLock, DiscreteSearch, WebSearch, Findwide Search Engine Now do the same in the computer’s Programs Folder. Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the Applications folder. Linux: Check your user manual.

I didn't have any of those add-ons you have listed installed nor do I have them as programs. Do you have any other suggestions?

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Check your home page setting; Type about:preferences#general<enter> in the address bar.

There are two settings;

  • When Firefox Starts

When the browser is started, what do you want to display? Many of us choose Show My Home Page.

  • Home Page

When a new page is opened, what do you want to be displayed?

  1. Use Current Page. Use what ever page(s) are open at that time.
  2. Use Bookmark
  3. Restore To Default. about:home shows a Mozilla home page with tools.

You can use any of these that you wish;

about:home (Firefox default home page), about:newtab (shows the sites most visited), about:blank (a blank page),

or you can enter any webpage or about: page you want.

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This could be an issue caused by AdAware or Web Companion from Lavasoft.

You can look for a file named dsengine.js in these locations. There should only be a file named channel-prefs.js in this location, any other file present is suspicious and you can check its content in a plain text editor (right-click: Open with) to see what file it points to.

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\

You can look for the file that is referenced in the above mentioned .js file in the main Firefox program folder.

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\

Delete the dsengine.js and dsengine.cfg files when present.