Autoselecting of text in adressbar and searchbar fails, or happens when I press bacspace

Question

I just updated from 32.x to 33.1
I'm on win7-64.
I now have a problem whenever I try to access the adress-bar (the control where you type the URL) and the serach-bar.
It used to be that when the control did not have focus and you clicked in it, the text was autoselected, this means that when you start typing it replaces the previous text. This behaviour was consistent with other mainstream browsers (IE, Chrome, Opera).
After the update whenever I click in the adress-bar (or search-bar) the text is not selected. Sometimes when I move the mouse to the top (not having any mouse-button down) it selects the text.
This is annoying, the only consistent way to select the text now is pressing Ctrl+A.
What is even worse, is the fact that when I click in the adress-bar (and search-bar),(no text ets selected), and I press BackSpace button (I'm at end of text) it then selects the text and deletes the entire text.
Along with the fact that typing in FF 33.1 ismuch, much, much slower than in 32, this makes the browser almost completely useless to me, which is a pity, since I'm using FF as my default browser from version 1.5.
Does anybody know a fix for this (or should I downgrade (how to?))?
Bart

Answer 1

I can assure you these are not intentional changes.
The slowness and the strange mouse responses might be related, but this is the first report I've read about them, so I'm not sure what's going on there.
To quickly determine whether this might be a settings issue, you could try this 3-minute experiment:
'''Create a new Firefox profile'''
A new profile will have your system-installed plugins (e.g., Flash) and extensions (e.g., security suite toolbars), but no themes, other extensions, or other customizations. It also will have completely fresh settings databases and a fresh cache folder.
Exit Firefox and start up in the Profile Manager using Start > search box, or Run (hold down the Windows key and press R):
firefox.exe -P
''Don't delete anything here.''
Any time you want to switch profiles, exit Firefox and return to this dialog.
Go ahead and click the Create Profile button, give it a name like Nov13, and skip the option to change the folder location. Then start Firefox in the new profile you created.
''Until you go back to the Profile Manager and start up in your regular profile, your desktop shortcut should fire up the new profile.''
Does the mouse or keyboard behave any better?
Note: When returning to the Profile Manager, you might be tempted to use the Delete Profile button on your new test profile. But... it's a bit too easy to accidentally delete your "real" profile, so I recommend resisting the temptation. If you do want to clean up later, I suggest making a backup of all your profiles first in case something were to go wrong.
In case old/inconsistent files have accumulated in Firefox's program folder, you can replace the program files without disturbing your settings using this '''Clean Reinstall''' procedure:
(1) Download a fresh installer for Firefox 33 from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.)
(2) If applicable, exit out of Firefox or make sure it is fully terminated in Task Manager.
(3) Rename the folder ''(64-bit Windows folder names)''
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
to
C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox
(4) Run the installer you downloaded in #1. It should automatically connect to your existing settings.
Any improvement with mouse or keyboard??
Note: Some recently installed plugins may exist only in that OldFirefox folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:
* C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox\Plugins
* C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox\browser\plugins