For a new window, Firefox never focuses the address bar, so in order to change that, I think you would need to find an add-on with that feature.

For a new tab (Ctrl+t or the "+" button on the tab bar), Firefox will focus the address bar initially, and it should stay focused/selected with the default page (about:newtab) or a blank page or a static web page.

However, if you use a page like the Google home page that relocates the insertion point into the page (in the case of Google, into the search box), then that will override the default behavior. Or if your new tab page is already controlled by an add-on, then all bets are off.

For reference if needed:

Here's how you can change your new tab page:

(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 search box above the list, type or paste newtab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter your preferred page:

• Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
• Blank tab => about:blank
• Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
• Any other page => full URL to the page

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

If problems persist, some potential diagnoses and remedies:

If Firefox won't let you edit this setting: you may have something called SearchProtect on your system. This needs to be removed from the Windows Control Panel.

If Firefox lets you save your change but ignores it: one of your extensions may be overriding it. You can review, disable, and/or remove 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. Then cast a critical eye over the list on the right and disable (or remove) anything unknown.

If the change works during your session, but at the next startup is back to the unwanted page: you might have a user.js file in your personal Firefox settings folder (your Firefox profile folder). This article describes how to track down and remove the file: How to fix preferences that won't save.

In the meantime, you could use one of these shortcut to focus the address bar:

• Ctrl+L
• Alt+D
• F6 (a second press may be required if the focus was not on the document before the first press)