To change the search engine, it's best to use the drop-down menu at the left side of the search bar. By default you'll have the "g" icon. Does that work?

If Firefox is not actually using the search engine specified on the search bar, you may have installed an extension that has hijacked your search function. Your post didn't include a list of extensions, but you can review them on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then consider anything a potential source of changes. Also, be skeptical of bland names like "Default Tab". If in doubt, disable.

Usually 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.

Does that change the way search works?

On Windows, you have a choice of two menu options:

• Compact 2-column menu accessed with the orange Firefox button
• Classic menu bar

This article describes how to switch if you want to try the other: Display the Firefox button menu instead of the menu toolbar.

Current Firefox versions use the search engine that is selected in the search bar (click the search engine icon to open the drop down list) on the Navigation Toolbar for searching via the location bar and for the search engine on the about:home page.

If you want to use different search engines then you can install the Keyword Search extension to specify with search engine to use for the location bar and which search engine to use for the about:home page via the Options/Preferences windows of this extension, accessible via the about:addons page (Firefox > Add-ons).

• Keyword Search: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/keyword-search/