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How to disable the new drop-down search UI in Firefox 34

In Firefox 34, which is in beta at the moment, Mozilla has introduced a new Search UI. Unlike the previously available search box where you had to explicitly choose a different search provider if you wanted to search with it, the new interface shows you a drop down allowing you to select the search provider while you are typing the search query. As you are typing, the search box now shows a list of installed search providers, allowing you to send a request to another service besides the default one. For instance, you can instantly search with Wikipedia, even if the default search provider is Google.
Personally I like this new option, but some users don't and would like to get rid of the new search UI. Here is how it can be disabled.

This is how the new Search UI in Firefox 34 looks like:
firefox 34 new search ui
To disable it, complete the following simple steps.

  1. Open a new tab and enter the following text in the address bar:
    about:config

    Confirm that you will be careful if a warning message appears for you.

  2. Enter the following text in the filter box:
    browser.search.showOneOffButtons
  3. You will see the browser.search.showOneOffButtons parameter. Just set it to false to disable the new search UI.

That's it. You are done.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

13 thoughts on “How to disable the new drop-down search UI in Firefox 34”

  1. This did NOT work for me. And when I click “Change Search Settings” I can’t find anything about search settings on the popup options box.

  2. Thanks a million. The really dumb thing about this new search UI is the assumption that a small branding icon can replace a text label. This fails totally for anyone who is enough of a power user to want to have, for example, several searches using one search provider, with different options (e.g., searching various Wikipedia languages, or Wikipedia in English but just the Help namespace).

  3. Oh hay there guize! Wouldn’t you love to have a big panel appear in front of stuff suggesting options you already set?! PROGRESSXORZ!!!!!

    What a shit browser this has become.

  4. Kudos – yet another idiotic “feature” that I managed to disable.
    To the developers behind FF/Mozilla – don’t mess with the UI!
    Give us more options to turn cr*p off – if you insist on creating it.

    If you have a lot of time on your hands – address the memory leaks instead – should FF really go above 2GB of memory with 6 tabs open, really?

  5. Thank you ! This works for version 35 as well! I REALLY hated the changes and your advice fixed it to the way that I like! Thank you sooo much!

  6. Hi,Team WinAero,Thank you So Much! This works for Firefox Version 35 as well.Your Advice Just Fixed My Problem.
    I Really Hated The New Search UI In Firefox 35.Now Everything Is O.K.Excellent Works You Guys At WinAero.

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