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How to change homepage_override values

  • 3 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I would like to know what values I can put in these fields:

pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.current_page;false pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.restore_default;false

browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID;20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone;29.0.1

We had some malware infected the computer and we've got it out but Firefox remains blighted by having a homepage we don't want. And we can't change it. 
The problem is perhaps somewhere in the prefs.js file. And I've got these entries out as likely suspects.
I did make a user.js file as suggested and put in this line as the suggested fix that should override anything in prefs.js:

browser.startup.homepage;https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl

but it didn't work.

Generally what can I safely do with these entries in the .js file? Delete the whole thing? Leave the value at null? Find a default somewhere and enter that?

I would like to know what values I can put in these fields: pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.current_page;false pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.restore_default;false browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID;20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone;29.0.1 We had some malware infected the computer and we've got it out but Firefox remains blighted by having a homepage we don't want. And we can't change it. The problem is perhaps somewhere in the prefs.js file. And I've got these entries out as likely suspects. I did make a user.js file as suggested and put in this line as the suggested fix that should override anything in prefs.js: browser.startup.homepage;https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl but it didn't work. Generally what can I safely do with these entries in the .js file? Delete the whole thing? Leave the value at null? Find a default somewhere and enter that?

All Replies (3)

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Prefs like these are meant to be used in a mozilla.cfg file to lock out specific buttons in the Options/Preferences tabs.

  • pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.current_page
  • pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.restore_default

The browser.startup.homepage_override.* prefs you mentioned are set automatically by Firefox to reflect the currently installed Firefox version.

So just leave them at their default value and if there are problems with prefs then delete the prefs.js file to reset all prefs.

Did you ever previously used a user.js?

There shouldn't be a need to use such a user.js file to initialize preferences.

Note that the syntax in the user.js file is the same as used in prefs.js:

Also make sure that you didn't create a text file user.js.txt with a hidden .txt file extension.

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no i've never used a .js file before.

i created a .js not a text file.

i did it following advice in a thread in some forum regarding firefox users with a browser with the same problem as ours: can't change the startup homepage.

but it didn't work.

further research seemed to indicate there may be a problem with this entries I showed.

i know i shouldn't need to use a user.js. the point is that i apparently do need to. but it doesn't work. so that's a further issue.

the hub of the whole thing is: what could make the browser continually start up with the wrong page when homepage is set (to google, actually)?

i didn't realise the whole prefs.js file could be deleted.

in this instance i'll fix everything by simply deleting it, then, because we've got no configurations we give a damn about.

future times, though, we may have some reason to want to keep the file and that's when it would be valuable to me to know what values I can put on these entries and what is meant by the current values they have.

Like what do these entries do and what specifically do these values make them do?

browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID;20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone;29.0.1

because the threads I looked at seemed to indicate, as i've said, that they were effecting what homepage would come up on startup.

thanks for your input.

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Firefox uses the value of prefs like these two browser.startup.homepage_override.* prefs to determine if the profile needs to be initialized with the Firefox version (mstone and buildID values) that you start or that this version has been the last used version has already been used.

If this only happens when you start Firefox then you can check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties) to make sure that nothing is appended after the path to the Firefox program.