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Firefox on my wife's laptop has lost the black bar that used to show Maps, Gmail etc. Now at the top of the screen there is a blank bar, triple height, with just the Google search input box. How do I get this back? Or is this a question for Google?

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  • Last reply by DavidAR

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When I open Firefox there is a black bar, sometimes vertical, other times horizontal, across the top, with links to Maps, Gmail etc. When I open Gmail the same links are listed across the top of the screen, right under the Tabs. In my wife's laptop this appears in the Firefox start-up screen, but not in the Gmail screen. At the top of her screen is a super-wide gray bar with just a Google search input box. Is this a Firefox or Google problem?

She has XP Home SP3 and Firefox 9

Thanks for any help.

When I open Firefox there is a black bar, sometimes vertical, other times horizontal, across the top, with links to Maps, Gmail etc. When I open Gmail the same links are listed across the top of the screen, right under the Tabs. In my wife's laptop this appears in the Firefox start-up screen, but not in the Gmail screen. At the top of her screen is a super-wide gray bar with just a Google search input box. Is this a Firefox or Google problem? She has XP Home SP3 and Firefox 9 Thanks for any help.

Chosen solution

Is there still the Google URL in the location bar?

Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache.

  • Press and hold Shift and left-click the Reload button.
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Cmd + Shift + R" (MAC)
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All Replies (4)

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Seçilmiş Həll

Is there still the Google URL in the location bar?

Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache.

  • Press and hold Shift and left-click the Reload button.
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Cmd + Shift + R" (MAC)
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Worked perfectly!!! Now if only I could remember this in a year or two!

Thank you.

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What happened yesterday may have been caused by the SOPA protest action that was joined by a lot of sites yesterday and such an action won't happen that often.


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Thanks again for the insight, clearing the cache did the trick, everything came back to "normal."