A few days ago I found that for some reason, my browser’s default search engine had changed. I am a regular Firefox user with Google as my default search engine, but apparently it had been switched to Yahoo. I could not for the life of me figure out what caused the switch, so I started investigating.
Checking through my installed programs list, I scanned to see if I inadvertently installed Yahoo search bar since I run a fair amount of freeware which occasionally comes bundled with add-ons like ASK or Yahoo tool bar. I also checked my Firefox add-ons manager (Ctrl+Shift+A or Tools > Add-ons) for anything suspicious. And guess what… nothing.
I was just about to give up trying to figure out how to remove yahoo as the default search engine in Firefox until I remembered that Firefox has a handy config tool that allows you to edit all sorts of features within its interface. This config tool can be accessed using the “about:config” protocol directly in the address bar to modify your browser’s user preferences using the built in GUI editor. In this case, I ran through the list of entries and after a little research, it appeared that the “keyword.URL” string was the one I needed to modify.
So here are the steps you’ll need to take in order to remove Yahoo as the default search engine in Firefox and restore it to back to Google:
- Open Firefox and in the address bar type out “about:config” (without quotes).
- You’ll get to a screen that looks like this. Although this is an important notice, don’t worry. We’re not going to do anything harmful to the browser. Click on the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button to proceed.
- You’ll now see a screen displaying the full list of config entries. Here is where we will search for our “keyword.URL” string.
- Type out “keyword.URL” in the search field. You’ll notice that the search field quickly filters out the rest of the entries.
- Right click on “keyword.URL” under the Preference Name column and choose “Modify”.
- You’ll now be presented with a popup that allows you to edit your keyword.url string value.
- Replace the current string value with Google’s keyword url string:
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q= - When you’re done, hit OK and restart your browser. You should now be able to make direct searches through your address bar using Google as your default search engine.
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Most concise and easy to follow help Ive ever found. Thank you.
Instead of all that trouble why don’t you just use yahoo?
Because Yahoo is for people who still think AOL is the internet 😉
Thank you so much!
Glad I could help!
Please, please do not ever delete this post. I have it bookmarked and return here at least twice a month every time Yahoo hijacks my settings. Thank you!
Absolutely 🙂 Glad the information helps!
I followed your instructions, but yahoo! searches still come up. I even made sure I set google search as my default search engine and still the same.
after you type in about: config, don’t scroll down to Keyword.URL right away, slowly scroll down and you will see a couple of “browser: yahoo” change all of them to google, mater of fact, just slowly scroll down the whole list, and if you see yahoo, modify it to google. If it is a string, replace yahoo string with google (there are 2 if i remember correctly, 1 is the Keyword URL, the other is the Search Reset). then restart your firefox. It works for me, hope it works for you too.
I followed the instructions and found when i typed “keyword.url” that I got two results. One was titled ‘search.url” or something similar. It also referenced Yahoo as a search engine so I modified that in a similar way. Fingers crossed!!
this was very helpfull, but ctl-e was still bringing up that dang yahoo.
instead in the search bar of about:config, just search yahoo. i had many results.
several yahoo.search.param entries.
i just changed all the values to google.
Thanks for the heads up!
There’s an extra step (I think they are finding new ways to keep this impossible to change).
When I downloaded Firefox it had by default and add.on called “Searchme” or something like that, and its job is making Yahoo your default browser again and making the user unable to change the search engine string in “keyword.url” so before starting all this process you must go to Tools > Add-ons and remove that “Searchme” add on, so you can make this succesfull process. Thanks man, I was getting crazy until I read this.
Hi Juan, thank you for the heads up. I think this will be helpful to many readers. Cheers.
Me too I had to get rid of “Searchme” in firefox../tools/extensions, in order to get rid of this nasty Yahoo invasion…. I couldn’t even scroll down your page for more than 2 seconds before being switched to a yahoo search …
Thank’s everyone !
I unstalled both Windows Internet Explorer and Chrome as I use both of them. I re-installed them and Yahoo Browser and Search Engine were gone. What a relief! When downloading a program, be sure to read the fine print in the Terms and Conditions as that’s how some programs get on your computer. Hope this helps.
My culprit was a malware called “Search Protection” that did a ninja install my hard drive. The nasty Yahoo! infestation kept changing my Firefox default searches to Yahoo. Followed everything in this blog post, even changed all the Yahoo string and deactivating suspicious add-on plugins, but it was futile.
The solution was to find the local installation for this trojan and manually deleting it or using the uninstall file in its directory. The trojan was installed on my local user directory (accessed via Windows key + X => Select “Run” => type in “%APPDATA%” then press enter). Search for any suspicious malware folders with the name search.
Thanks very, very much!
Brilliant. I spent half a day trying to exterminate Yahoo, then just a few minutes when I found your advice. Thank you.
i follow all steps but still that damn yahoo appears . pls help me