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Firefox randomly opening links in new tab as default search engine

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  • 1 inale nkinga
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  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu keylonta

keylonta
keylonta
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Hi, after updating to 44.0.2, now, many times when I click on a link in my email or in search results, when it opens in a new tab, the link does not open; instead, the new tab opens the default search engine I have set in firefox. For example, I have google set as my default search engine, so when I click on a link it opens:

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=18TOVrqACMOra_zli6gD

And if I have the default set to Yahoo then the link opens the Yahoo search engine.

I have tried running firefox in safe mode; tried refreshing it from the download page, tired reinstalling it; nothing fixes the issue. I ended up doing a system restore back a couple of weeks to just before I installed the new version and it fixed the issue but made too many changes to my PC and other programs so I undid the restore and am about to uninstall the new version and downgrade.

Any idea why firefox is randomly opening links as the default search engine? Is this a bug?

Hi, after updating to 44.0.2, now, many times when I click on a link in my email or in search results, when it opens in a new tab, the link does not open; instead, the new tab opens the default search engine I have set in firefox. For example, I have google set as my default search engine, so when I click on a link it opens: https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=18TOVrqACMOra_zli6gD And if I have the default set to Yahoo then the link opens the Yahoo search engine. I have tried running firefox in safe mode; tried refreshing it from the download page, tired reinstalling it; nothing fixes the issue. I ended up doing a system restore back a couple of weeks to just before I installed the new version and it fixed the issue but made too many changes to my PC and other programs so I undid the restore and am about to uninstall the new version and downgrade. Any idea why firefox is randomly opening links as the default search engine? Is this a bug?

All Replies (4)

keylonta
keylonta Umnikazi wombuzo
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Update:

I just clicked on a shortcut link:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en&fid=wdsfMyBook_Essential

and it opened in firefox in a new tab as:

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=H8_OVuaEGYuRaJDVl8AC

Okulungisiwe ngu keylonta

keylonta
keylonta Umnikazi wombuzo
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Just now I click on the following link in my email:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/182035247076

And it opened in firefox as:

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=48DPVoqEBqTi6ASapZJ4

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (3-bar Menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: 3-bar Menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window

There are other things that need attention.

The System Details List shows that you have multiple Flash plugins.

  1. Shockwave Flash 19.0 r0
  2. Shockwave Flash 20.0 r0

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.

You can check the Flash player installation folder for multiple Flash player plugins and remove older version(s) of the plugin (NPSWF32) and possibly (re)install the latest Flash player.

  • (32 bit Windows) C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\
  • (64 bit Windows) C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\
keylonta
keylonta Umnikazi wombuzo
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I've done every single thing mentioned but still have the issue, check it out here are some more:

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=tfTPVtKzBsG7mgX-k4DQAw

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=tPjPVs75H4PlmAXL-rfQCQ

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=g_nPVsnkMuPMmAXU6bnoAg

What a trip, what's with the change after "ei=" in the url, wonder why they differ and what the long url google home page address is for!

Next I'm going to uninstall the latest and downgrade. Can I just transfer the profile folder to keep my setting etc.?

C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Is there something else I could try before attempting to downgrade to fix the issue?

Okulungisiwe ngu keylonta