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Why does my firefox start page icon have a long flaming tail all the way around the globe?

  • 7 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 32 views
  • Last reply by James

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My firefox icon changes immediately to an icon with a long flaming tail that circles the globe. This is one of 3 or 4 quotes that show up under the icon: "Click here to sign up and post a message to your social network in honor of our 10th anniversary later this month! " I have clicked on the house icon for Mozilla Firefox start page. It worked a couple times, but no more. I have reset firefox twice. I have restarted with add-ons turned off.

A couple of weeks a ago there was another icon that lasted for a couple weeks. I stopped using Firefox at that time except for browsing the web.

I don't see any pictures of the icon on the web.

Thank you for any help, Dianebl5

My firefox icon changes immediately to an icon with a long flaming tail that circles the globe. This is one of 3 or 4 quotes that show up under the icon: "Click here to sign up and post a message to your social network in honor of our 10th anniversary later this month! " I have clicked on the house icon for Mozilla Firefox start page. It worked a couple times, but no more. I have reset firefox twice. I have restarted with add-ons turned off. A couple of weeks a ago there was another icon that lasted for a couple weeks. I stopped using Firefox at that time except for browsing the web. I don't see any pictures of the icon on the web. Thank you for any help, Dianebl5

Chosen solution

If you prefer not to see the snippets on the about:home page or otherwise experience problems with a snippet then you can set the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref to an empty string on the about:config page. Delete the storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home folder in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed ("3-bar" Firefox menu button > Exit/Quit) to remove snippets stored in IndexedDB and make Firefox use a default snippet set. You can reset the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref via the right-click context menu to the default value to re-enable the snippets and make Firefox recreate the moz-safe-about+home folder. You need to close and restart Firefox after changing the value of the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref.

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)

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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All Replies (7)

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That's a promo which Mozilla is currently running on the default homepage. A couple of weeks ago it was for Humble Bundle games. In May and early June it was for the Olympic games.

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If you find the rotating artwork annoying, you have a few options:

  • Use a different page as your home page, such as your preferred search engine
  • Customize Firefox to hide the rotating artwork
  • Customize Firefox to block the download of new artwork

The latter two have several steps, so please post back if you want to try those.

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Chosen Solution

If you prefer not to see the snippets on the about:home page or otherwise experience problems with a snippet then you can set the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref to an empty string on the about:config page. Delete the storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home folder in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed ("3-bar" Firefox menu button > Exit/Quit) to remove snippets stored in IndexedDB and make Firefox use a default snippet set. You can reset the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref via the right-click context menu to the default value to re-enable the snippets and make Firefox recreate the moz-safe-about+home folder. You need to close and restart Firefox after changing the value of the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref.

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)

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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this is image of my icon

Modified by Diane

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This is image of the previous different icon from a couple of weeks ago

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I must say that the changing of the icon without being notified is nerve wracking to say the least. One can easily believe that their computer has been compromised. There is enough of it going on.

I really am concerned about going into the inner workings and making a mistake and messing up, and not being able to get it corrected.

Dianebl5

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The about:home is in Firefox. You can either do as cor-el suggested or change you homepage or even make it blank.

The icon before was related to the Mozilla Humblebundle games promotion.

I would say for most people if they are bothered by a new icon it is simply because it may use some cpu versus thinking there was some hijack of the internal page.

The about:home is one of many about: urls as can be seen at about:about

Modified by James