It sounds like you have a third party program that has taken over your search engine, home page, and/or the default new tab page. Fortunately, this can be remedied easily: # At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP), and then click Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager tab will open. # In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions panel. # Select the toolbar you wish to remove. # Click the remove button. # Click "Restart now" if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart. After Firefox restarts, install the [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/ Search Reset Tool]. This will remove the rest of the traces of this program from your Firefox. If that doesnt work download [http://download.cnet.com/AdwCleaner/3000-7786_4-75851221.html ADWCleaner] and remove any detected items. For further information, please read [[Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page]]. Did this fix the problem? Let us know!

You can try to delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default value. *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences