Tip: How to Remove the Search Box

Posted: Sunday, June 24, 2007 by El Guru in Firefox, Fx 1.5, Fx 2.0, Tips & Tweaks

I had a very good comment/question from Sarah today about the Firefox 2.0: Removing ‘Go’ Button entry:

How can I remove the Search Box in top RIGHT corner of the FF2.0.0.4 competlely. or atleast reposition it to LEFT side.

I use googe tool bar and which has search box the LEFT side and I am addicted to use the searh box on the LEFT side. At the moment I have TWO serch boxes and I do not want the one on the topRIGHTside.

Moving or even removing the Search Box is really easy. No about:config or userContent.css tweaking need. All you need to do is:

  1. Right-Click on an empty area on the toolbar
  2. Select ‘Customize…’ from the context menu
  3. If you want to move the search box just grab hold of it with the mouse and drag where you want
  4. If you wnt to remove the search box just grab hold of it with the mouse and drag it into the Customize Toolbar window. Note: If you later want to put it back just locate the search box (may be at the bottom) in the Customize Toolbar window and drag back on the toolbar.

This works (far as I know) with all versions of Firefox as well as Flock. I will be adding this the Tweaks Guide shortly. Thanks for the comment and question Sarah!

Comments
  1. […] Moving/Removing Search Box – How to move or remove the search box. […]

  2. Dennis Dimetri says:

    Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
    I have been wanting to do that for ages and didn’t know it was so easy!!!

  3. Meghan says:

    So, I took out the google bar easy enough. is there a way to add a bar in firefox 2.0 in which I can type in a URL? typing in http://www.microsoft.com in the search, so example just does a google search, and I have to then find the site and click through. quite a pain. Using the file menu for open location is even worse. x__x

  4. Chris says:

    Just what i was looking to do. Thanks! :)

  5. Chris C says:

    Awesome! Found this with a Google search, was exactly the answer I was looking for. And easy!

  6. Mark Iliff says:

    Thanks for sharing the insight.

  7. JP says:

    Thank you very much!

    Though I feel that I should have been able to figure
    this one out on my own…

  8. toab says:

    Thanks for posting this. It’s easy to do but not 100% intuitive to find, which makes the article quite useful. Thanks! :)

  9. nick says:

    Yes, very good tip. Thanks.

  10. operauser says:

    pretty sweet… had the exact problem too
    still getting used to ff after years of using opera… opera lags alot on old laptops, firefox doesnt ;)

  11. Thanks, never knew you could do that.

  12. jwoollen says:

    The challenge I’m seeing is, you can’t remove the toolbar altogether. At least one search engine stays. Can you not eliminated the toolbar altogether?

    • jwoollen says:

      The challenge I’m seeing is, you can’t remove the toolbar altogether. At least one search engine stays. Can you not eliminated the toolbar altogether?

      For those interested, I just found the answer. (Thanks to somebody else in a forum.)
      – Right-click the toolbar
      – Click “Customize” at the bottom
      – Drag the Search bar onto the options palette and voila! It is gone.

      I also saw a beautiful search shortcut.
      – Ctrl +L (to bring the focus to the address bar
      – type “g” (w/o quotes) followed by a space and a few keywords.
      “g” brings up the Google engine and your search goes from there. Thanks to whoever put that up.

  13. christooss says:

    This tip is not good. When I restart firefox search bar is back!

    And I can’t move icons to menu bar and MAKE IT STICK there. Any help would be appriciated!!!

  14. leloloowarl says:

    OMG loved reading this blogpost. I added your feed to my reader.

  15. andre says:

    does anyone know how to make the url field to function as a search field at the same time?

  16. Raphael says:

    Muito boa dica…

  17. i like this web.

    Trekking in Nepal

  18. James says:

    Thanks mate too easy.

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