hi michael, if your manual changes don't 'stick' after a restart of the browser, please look out for any suspicious extensions (like 3rd-party-toolbars or things you have not installed intentionally) presently installed under the firefox menu ≡ > addons > extensions or the programs section of the windows control panel and remove those entries.

in case this doesn't solve the issue please try this: go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information > profile folder - "show folder", then a new window will open up. in this window look out for a file named user.js (it might be used to overwrite your custom settings). in case it is present , delete or rename this file and restart firefox afterwards.

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I have no add-ons listed, but changing my homepage to google.com followed by renaming/removing user.js file and restarting the browser did the trick.

Thank you Philipp. I appreciate the instant help I received from you.

Mike