You can change this if you don't mind peeking under the covers into Firefox's about:config preferences editor.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the filter box, type or paste newtab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter the desired value:

(i) Page thumbnails (default)

browser.newtab.url = about:newtab

(ii) Blank tab

browser.newtab.url = about:blank

(iii) Built-in Firefox home page

browser.newtab.url = about:home

(iv) Any other page

browser.newtab.url = full URL to the page

Press Ctrl+t to open a new tab and verify that it worked. Fixed?

kinda silly that we have to do this just to keep things like they were before. but, yes it did work. thank you!

Have tried all the suggested options for the newtab. None works!  :-( Somehow AVG Secdure search (which I do NOT use) has managed to hijack the page for a new tab and will not give up its ill-gotten spoils. Grrrrr.

I'm using Firefox 13.0.1. Any other ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Actually I have a different tab issue. Any link in email, bookmark or webpage will not open in a new tab. I have tried every suggestion I can fine and none work.

Need whatever help is available

Hi JayDeeKay, in the lower right corner of the new tab, is there a link labeled "Settings" or "Preferences" or something else? I've read that you can click a link to turn off the new AVG search tab.

Alternately, many add-ons have an Options button here:

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Add-ons > Extensions

If that doesn't help, I've adapted the following from a post in AVG's forums on removing AVG Secure Search. Apparently it gets into several places. Does this work?

(1) Firefox search bar / search box

• Click the small arrow next to the search provider icon and select Manage Search Engines…
• Select the AVG Secure Search and click Remove

(2) If AVG Secure Search has made itself your home page, you can change that here:

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > General

(3) Firefox address bar or home page search

• In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

• In the filter box, type or paste search and pause while the list is filtered

• Right-click browser.search.defaultenginename and choose Reset.

• In the filter box, type or paste keyword and pause while the list is filtered

• Right-click keyword.URL and choose Reset.

• In the filter box, type or paste startup and pause while the list is filtered

• Right-click browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone and choose Reset.

Note #1: You might have to restart Firefox before these changes take full effect.

Note #2: If you have AVG software installed on your computer, it could put these changes back into Firefox, so check your AVG software and make sure you've turned that off.

Hi Jaykeblues, could you start a new question?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new/desktop/d4

After you use the first "Ask This" button, you usually get some support article suggestions. If those don't look helpful, you can access the complete new question form using the "None of these solve my problem" button at the bottom.

jscher2000: Your fix worked great, thanks.

This is totally stupid. Why not have a simple checkbox for this? Why do we have to void Firefox's warranty (didn't know there even was such a thing for a free browser...whatever) just to set a homepage? This SHOULD BE the default setting anyways.

There is an ample History tracking and organizing setup already in Firefox so recent sites should be an OPTION, not the default. Please fix this.

"Keep it simple stupid" <- words to live by.

Have you tried this add-on?

NewTabURL 2.2.3 

http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/newtaburl/?src=search

Hi Lucifer66, Firefox has too many options to fit in the Options dialog! Of course you can set your home page, but changing the new tab from the thumbnail view to another page isn't in the dialog.

In addition to accessing hidden settings through about:config, you can use specific add-ons such as the one mentioned by rexx123456, or you could try a broader tool such as the following (I haven't tried these myself):

• Configuration Mania :: Add-ons for Firefox
• gui:config :: Add-ons for Firefox

Also, of course you're right that there's no warranty to void. Just a way to remind users that you can muck up your Firefox in there.

"Hi Lucifer66, Firefox has too many options to fit in the Options dialog!"

Really? How about putting it here (see image) where it makes the most sense?

Seems like a lot of room in there to me.

Hi Lucifer66, I'm not saying there isn't room for ONE more preference, I'm saying that there isn't room for all the tab-related preferences, much less all the other preferences, and I'm sure you could get many nominations for what should be listed.

Anyway, this isn't the best place to submit feature requests. You can use the "Submit Feedback" feature on the Help menu or you can file a "bug" on the Bugzilla site (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/)

This is not helpful. I use a local file as my home page, and there is way to specify a local file on that parameter. Firefox comes back with an error message. I don't know why Firefox has to make a rash assumption about what the user wants. I don't want to look at a bunch of ugly windows each time I open a tab. What I want to look at is my home page. As far as I'm concerned, Firefox is eliminating features with each new release and making the browser more user-unfriendly. Why do the developers want to alienate their users and drive people away? Why not let the users choose the way that they want the browser to behave? This is the whole problem with Mozilla, developers thinking they know better than the users, when they don't know much of anything other than how to code.

Hi amethyst_igor, local pages work. Make sure you copy the full URL from Firefox's address bar including the file: protocol and forward slashes; a regular Windows path with backslashes cannot be loaded.

As for taking away features, what have you noticed missing? For years, the new tab page was completely blank and you need needed an add-on to change it. At least someone tried to give that page more of a purpose.

If you want to influence the future direction of the browser, get involved with Mozilla and give your input on UI early and often.

I disabled the "New Tab Homepage" Add-On that I added last night and tried your suggestion and found that local files do work. So there isn't a need for the Add-On for the user that is willing to research on Google for this page, and if finding it, modifying Firefox via about:config. It would be nice to have an option in the GUI to control the behavior of the new tab function. Intuitive behavior on the part of Firefox would serve the Home Page every time a "new tab" was clicked, because the Home Page is where Internet browsing begins, and the user is likely to prefer the Home Page. My Home Page offers abbreviated input forms for the major search engines and other links. Firefox's default home page, which offers a single Google search on a bright white background, is a primitive version of this.