How to set a custom page to replace the default Firefox New Tab page

Question

I am using Firefox 40, and I don't really like the New Tab page, so I would really like to set it to the DuckDuckGo homepage, how can this be achieved so that when I click the New Tab button I get the DuckDuckGo homepage?

I have already done some research into this, but this is all that I found. And I am not looking for a way of customizing the look of the default New Tab page, so not pinning the tiles, nor rearranging them etc, no, instead I am looking to replace the New Tab page with another page. And I could not find any information on achieving this.

Information Update:

I have recently upgraded to Firefox 41, and the solution here no longer works for I cannot see the browser.newtab.url option. Has it moved or something or is this simply no longer achievable?

Answer 1

In Firefox 41 browser.newtab.url preference is missing in about:config.

Firefox 40 or versions prior to it allowed users to replace the New Tab Page with a custom web page or site like Google.com by changing the browser.newtab.url preference value in about:config to a desired URL.

From firefox 41 onwards you have to use the New Tab Override (browser.newtab.url replacement) to make changes to the New Tab.

1. Download and install the add-on.

2. Visit add-ons manager, click on its ‘Options’, enter the URL in place of about:newtab for which you want the new tab to open.

3. Click ‘OK’ - then press Ctrl+T to open the new tab page to see if it is loading the site you’ve set above in the extension’s options.

PLEASE refer here

Answer 2

Please note that this answer only works for Firefox version 40 and below.

---

From https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1013039

In case you need more of a step-by-step:

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.