You should remove the addon if you didnt install it, you may also be interested in the Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page article.

i removed the one that was already disabled->nothing happened removed the "new tab" that said my homepage was ask.com related->asked to restart mozilla to have changes take effect-> clicked restart-> magic! :) yay! no more ask.com when I open new tabs and no more ask.com search results when i type in the url bar. Thank-you! p.s. after verifying that disabling the add-on solved the problem, i subsequently removed it.

Go to your system's list of installed programs and uninstall external programs (That might be prohibiting you from changing the string value) such as any babylon and search conduit spamware items. I found this helpful myself.

I'm having the same problem, if anyone can help me I would appreciate it

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 26.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:26.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/26.0

Extensions

Name: Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon Version: 0.9.1 Enabled: true ID: adblockpopups@jessehakanen.net

Name: BetterBrowse Version: 1.0.0 Enabled: true ID: firefox@betterbrowse.net

Name: NewTabURL Version: 2.2.3 Enabled: true ID: newtaburl@sogame.cat

Name: NoSquint Version: 2.1.9 Enabled: true ID: nosquint@urandom.ca

Name: Freeze.com NetAssistant Version: 3.6.5 Enabled: false ID: {1266764D-FC4F-4FA7-B63B-884D53B1680F}

Name: Kaspersky URL Advisor Version: 11.0.2.579 Enabled: false ID: linkfilter@kaspersky.ru

Name: Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard Version: 11.0.2.579 Enabled: false ID: virtualKeyboard@kaspersky.ru

Name: Tabs Menu Version: 1.4.8 Enabled: false ID: {dc5d9a10-2736-11da-8cd6-0800200c9a66}

Name: The weDownload Manager Version: 0.93.21 Enabled: false ID: b1ac2ff7-8e51-4bb6-8bf8-87f1d567919a@4bb97481-aead-4c2e-a62b-e25e264651bb.com

Name: Yahoo! Toolbar Version: 3.1.0.20130818030116 Enabled: false ID: {635abd67-4fe9-1b23-4f01-e679fa7484c1}

Important Modified Preferences

accessibility.browsewithcaret: true accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 4 browser.search.param.yahoo-fr: w3i&type=W3i_DS,157,0_0,Search,20130105,19626,0,53,6923 browser.search.useDBForOrder: true browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20131205075310 browser.startup.homepage: www.google.com browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20131205075310 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 26.0 browser.tabs.loadInBackground: false browser.tabs.onTop: false browser.zoom.siteSpecific: false dom.mozApps.used: true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose: false extensions.lastAppVersion: 26.0 gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 gfx.direct3d.prefer_10_1: true keyword.URL: http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=w3i&type=W3i_DS,157,0_0,Search,20130105,19626,0,53,6923&p= network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1390448949 places.history.enabled: false places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.java: 0 plugin.state.np32dsw: 0 plugin.state.npauthz: 0 plugin.state.npctrl: 0 plugin.state.npdeployjava: 0 plugin.state.npitunes: 0 plugin.state.nppandowebplugin: 0 plugin.state.nppdf: 0 plugin.state.npspwrap: 0 plugin.state.npwlpg: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_colorspace: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_command: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_duplex: 1919243018 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_footercenter: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_headercenter: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_headerright: &U print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_in_color: true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_oddpages: true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_orientation: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_paper_name: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_plex_name: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_resolution: 1717987694 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_resolution_name: print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_reversed: false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_to_file: false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2010.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true security.warn_viewing_mixed: false storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1388179358

user.js Preferences

Your profile folder contains a user.js file, which includes preferences that were not created by Firefox.

Graphics

Adapter Description: AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6620G Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64 Adapter RAM: 512 Device ID: 0x9641 Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16571) Driver Date: 9-15-2011 Driver Version: 8.900.7.0 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10 Vendor ID: 0x1002 WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6620G Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d AzureContentBackend: direct2d AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.2 Version in use: 4.10.2

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Version in use: 3.15.3.1

Hi Andew_Jones, do you recognize all those extensions? If you aren't convinced that they are valuable, try disabling them and see whether the problem goes away.

Open the Add-ons page. Either:

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

In the left column, click Extensions. Then, 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 let the default behavior happen?

You might also need to check for a user.js file in your personal Firefox settings folder (your Firefox profile folder). This article describes how to track down and remove the file: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Hi Andew_Jones, the BetterBrowse extension may have been part of a freeware bundle that you didn't realize you were opting into.

Go to the Windows 7 Control Panel, Uninstall a Program, and click the "Installed on" column heading to bring the most recent infections, I mean, installations, to the top. This may help identify the source of the problem as well as letting you remove most of it.

It's probably a good idea to mop up using some supplemental security scans. This article lists programs other Firefox users have found helpful: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware.

If anyone with this problem has the ViewMarks add-on then there is a straight forward answer: Click on the arrow of your Toolbar ViewMarks Icon

- select preferences - then select GUI integration - go to open new empty tabs with this url: - in the selection box tick about:home.

Bingo.