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Removing seach from URL bar.

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  • Last reply by jackfork

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How do I stop the URL bar being used for searches of any kind. I would like it to be the URL bar and nothing else.

How do I stop the URL bar being used for searches of any kind. I would like it to be the URL bar and nothing else.

Chosen solution

Are you asking because of this new feature of the built-in Firefox Home / new tab page that the search box flips your cursor up into the address bar?

There is a preference for this but it does take a bit of work to find it because of the unusual name:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste handoff and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference to switch the value from true to false

Success?

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.


Of course, you also can disable searching from the address bar, but change the other setting, too, or you won't be able to search at all.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste keyword.enabled and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

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Chosen Solution

Are you asking because of this new feature of the built-in Firefox Home / new tab page that the search box flips your cursor up into the address bar?

There is a preference for this but it does take a bit of work to find it because of the unusual name:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste handoff and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference to switch the value from true to false

Success?

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.


Of course, you also can disable searching from the address bar, but change the other setting, too, or you won't be able to search at all.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste keyword.enabled and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

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Thanks for the quick answer. I found that feature extremely irritating.