Hi jonerl,

You should take a look at the Knowledge Base article How to set the home page. Your homepage might have been changed by a particular site. Sites like MSN, Yahoo, etc have been know to ask to become your homepage.

There are steps in that article to reset your homepage preferences to default. I would try that first to clear out any strangeness. If that works, you can try setting your homepage again to your personal preference.

If that doesn't work you should look at the article Preferences not saved.

Finally, your issue may be because you've been hit with some Malware.

Hopefully this helps!

1. Go to the following page (after you read and make notes about the 2 procedures, close/exit Firefox to perform the removal, so you may want to print the instructions or make notes to follow after closing Firefox):
   • http://support.bearshare.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/19/4/uninstall--install
   • scroll down to "If you are having problems uninstalling BearShare, please try the following..." and follow the instructions to be sure that BearShare is completely closed
   • scroll up on that page to "4. I would like to remove the BearShare application from my computer" and follow the instructions to remove BearShare (also Media Bar, if it is there) from your system
2. Start Firefox to perform the remaining steps below
3. Reset your home page (if the BearShare search page is displayed when starting Firefox): http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/How+to+set+the+home+page
   • You can reset to the default by clicking "Restore to default" on Options > General > Startup > Home page. Be sure to set "When Firefox starts" to "Show my home page" on that same panel.
4. Reset your Location Bar search engine (if typing a few words in the URL/Location Bar takes you to BearShare search):
   • type about:config in your Location Bar, like typing a web site address, and press the Enter key
   • ignore warning and choose to continue
   • in Filter, type keyword.URL
   • in lower part of screen, if it is bold and shows "user set", right-click keyword.URL and choose "Reset"
   • in Filter, type bear
   • any items in lower part of screen in bold and showing "user set", with reference to BearShare in the "Value" column, right-click and choose "Reset"
   • close about:config tab
   • See:
     • http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config
     • http://kb.mozillazine.org/Location_Bar_search#Location_Bar_search_.28external_-_search_engine.29
     • http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keyword.url
     • http://www.techrena.net/computers/address-bar-search-provider-firefox/
5. If BearShare is shown in your Search Bar and you want to remove it:
   • https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Search%20bar

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