Change Mozilla Firefox's default search engine back to Google

How to change Mozilla Firefox's default search engine from Bing,ask or something else back to Google?


When you first download FIrefox, the place where you type the web address could also double up as a quick search engine. Just type in a phrase, click "enter," and you'd come up with Google searches.

After downloading and installing applications like the new Windows Live Messenger,Bittorrent client etc , the search engine turns to change from Google to something else like Bing,ask etc. which most users dont like.



The answer lies in Mozilla's configuration page

* To access the configuration you should open a new tab/window and type about:config into the address bar.

* You may then receive a warning that you could void warranty and screw things up if you set any values improperly but just click ok. (its not a big deal as you can choose to reset all to default which means Firefox will revert to its initial installation state).

* The value you want to change is "keyword.URL"

* The page is alphabetical so scroll down or type in the search box "keyword.URL".  Find this value then right click on it and select reset from the drop down menu. It's status should go from "user set" to "default" and you'll notice that before resetting it was some sort of redirect URL for Bing but the default is Google.

* Installing some apps may have changed more than just this particular value (though I understand keyword.URL seems to be the one giving you trouble specifically). You may want to check the "browser.search.*" keys as well. Bold faced keys have been altered from the defaults and quite probably set to Bing,Ask etc and you can reset these to change them back to Google.

If its setting google as search engine in the search bar, follow these steps:

* Go the top right corner of your screen where there's a search box.

* Click on the downfacing arrow at the left corner of the search box.

* Go down to Search Providers and click Google.

* Thats enough for now, you can also remove other search engines permanently by entering the manage search engines option given there.

* In the manage search engine list , click on the search engine you want to remove and click remove button on the right side.

Enjoy happy browsing :)

Battlefield 3 Sound Problem Fix

Lot of people complain that while playing Battle field 3 the sound just stops or it gives a noisy output . Occasionally, on any game mode, the sound of enemies and vehicles will just cut out. It's like you're walking around in your own little soundproof bubble. You can't hear when you are getting hit.



 The fix to this problem is  to follow these provided all of your drivers, etc. are up to date and it is working fine.

1) If you are also using Teamspeak while playing BF3, in Teamspeak go to "Settings \ Pugins and UN-check Volume Control"... Done... this should FIX it. If it does NOT... Still LEAVE it UN-checked.

2) Now go to the Windows Volume Control on the task bar while the game is running (lower right hand corner of your screen) ,right click and Open Volume Mixer. Go to the right side and Stretch the volume control out to the right because some of the things it controls might not be showing.The BF3 should be given there. Adjust your games volumes there by increasing it for your game if it is muted.

3)

Go to C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Battlef­ield 3\settings

Open PROF_SAVE_profile (With notepad)

Change: 'GstAudio.AudioQuality' from 0 to 1 (or higher).


For most of the users ,the third choice seems to be the solution.
Enjoy BF3 :)

Windows 8 shows Black Screen With Blinking Cursor at logon Fixed

Its realy annoying when you see a Black Screen With Blinking Cursor only at almost every bootup in windows 8. Restarting the system solves the problem temporarily, but why do so when you can solve this permanently :)


This problem is caused by the hybrid shutdown and fast startup power options rather than the graphic driver incompatibility as debated over the net.
The "KB 2756559" hotfix update ms released to apparently fix the problem does not do any good.


I can only suggest you hold off installing updates unless they are critical or from your hardware manufacturers as some users mentioned they got this problem after installing updates from MS.

Just try turning off Fast Start in Windows 8 as this have solved my problem.

To turn it off,

* open start screen and enter "Power Options". Click "Settings" tab in the right side and select, Change "what the power buttons do" from the left side.

* most probably, the Shutdown settings options are greyed out, In that case, scroll back up the window and click the "Change settings that are currently unavailabl"e option to be able to change them. Click Save changes button at the bottom to confirm the selection.

* Once the System Settings window is open, scroll down to the Shutdown settings section and uncheck the "Turn on fast startup" option.

* From now on, Fast Startup will be disabled and Windows will start as normal.

 While the implication of turning off Fast Startup might manifest in shape of longer boot times, it may not matter to most with high-end machines.

I think this would solve the problem, if it doesnt please feel free leave your comment below . Enjoy :)