Firefox has a built-in search bar that usually appears on the main navigation toolbar (on the right end). You can use the Customize feature to remove that box by dragging it into the Customize dialog with other unused controls. This article has more information on that: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.

If this is a different bar, most likely it is generated by an extension. You can review, disable and usually remove unwanted extensions on 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 get rid of it?

Yeah, I looked at the article & some of the others, but they don't tell me how to remove the WHOLE search engine toolbar. Is there a way to remove it completely or am I going to be forced to keep it? Thanks.

Please attach a screenshot. If you are talking about the standard searchbar on Firefox it can be removed, as explained previously, leaving the addressbar. Look at these articles they include screenshots of the searchbar.

• Search bar - add, change and manage search engines on Firefox
• Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars
• Also see How do I create a screenshot of my problem?

Note IIRC in the future there is a possibility the searchbar will be removed and combined with the addressbar.

I'll take a guess...

If you see a search box that is on the tab bar and has an icon at the left similar to a four-color pinwheel, I believe that is caused by the "Default Tab" extension. Please see my earlier post about hunting down and disabling extensions.

Well, it's not that extension because I don't have it (I've looked at the "add-ons manager" page & it's not listed. I guess I might have to live with the search engine toolbar.

As mentioned before a screenshot may help.

We are only fellow Firefox users like yourself and can not see your screen or know what customisations and software you have other than from the information you provide.

Firefox 32 was automatically upgraded yesterday. This upgrade included the Yahoo toolbar. I have no need for this toolbar even though Yahoo is my default search engine. The Yahoo toolbar does not appear in Add-Ons, extensions, or control panel programs list. I do find several references in regedit to the Yahoo toolbar, but I'm not sure which reference in regedit can be edited for this toolbar removal. And if I should remove the reference in regedit, how can I prevent the toolbar from being added again with subsequent Firefox upgrades?

Hi jdeveaux, the official Mozilla distribution of Firefox does not include the Yahoo toolbar, so it's hard to understand how you got it.

The "real" Yahoo toolbar would be listed in your extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. The enabled extensions are listed first, in alphabetical order, followed by disabled extensions.

If you do not have the Yahoo toolbar listed, could you reply with a screen shot showing where it appears?

Also, if you see anything like "Default Tab" or other mystery extensions, try disabling them.

Do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

• Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
  https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.

• Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

• (32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
• (64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"

• It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox

Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.

If you keep having problems then also create a new profile.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

I'd seen the response in this forum indicating that Firefox doesn't include the Yahoo toolbar. However this link, [http://example.com https://downloads.yahoo.com/firefox/?code=108&mktg=sem-ybn-firef-nonbrand&chan=sem&ptnr=ybn&prop=firef&cmp=nonbrand&device=c&kw=+Firefox&query=firefox%252032%2520yahoo%2520toolbar&adid=5377706620&sid=sr3_11458039_ms, ], indicates otherwise. I was careful in explaining that the upgrade from yesterday was performed by an official installation. I had removed the Yahoo Toolbar from add-ons/extensions a few upgrades earlier. This time with Firefox 32, the Yahoo toolbar does not appear in Add-ons/extensions. With each Firefox upgrade, it takes me about 4 hours to "re-customize" my Firefox environment; therefore, I've placed re-installing, re-setting to default values at the bottom of my list.

I suspect the registry is out of synch.

At this point, I'll reconsider another search engine.

Hi jdeveaux, Yahoo has permission to release its own special version of Firefox including its toolbar. That is not the normal release, which is very Google-centric. If you started with the Yahoo version originally, that could explain why it keeps Yahoo-izing itself. I'm not sure of the best way to fix that, but it might require changing some internal settings about where Firefox checks for updates. (Honestly, I'm not prepared to install the Yahoo version to experiment with it!)

Interesting. I just recently upgraded to Windows 7 so I'm still in the struggling stage (after coming from XP). Still not sure how the Firefox upgrades pass off to Yahoo since I receive a notification from Firefox that xyz version is now available. You're indicating that Yahoo is controlling this possibly since Yahoo is my default search engine. I was able to remove Yahoo Toolbar entries from the registry which at the moment has resolved the toolbar issue. However, could very well be the issue will return with the next Firefox upgrade, which I'm at the moment being prompted to install. Thanks for your response. I'll probably go back to Google as my search engine. I had another problem there; too much "stuff" popping up and running around.

Hi jdeveaux, the Yahoo edition of Firefox (downloaded from Yahoo's site instead of Mozilla's site) has more differences than the default search engine. But as I said, I haven't investigated how they do that.