Shortcut to a specific profile
If you created additional profiles for your Mozilla application using the Profile Manager, you normally have to open the Profile Manager each time you want to switch to a different profile. This article explains how to avoid the Profile Manager and start your Mozilla application with the profile of your choice.
The profile must be listed in the Profile Manager and the profile folder must be in the same location as when the profile was originally created, for this to work.
Desktop shortcut
You can create a shortcut to a specific profile on the Windows desktop or other location by modifying the shortcut properties as follows, using Firefox as an example:
- Go to the Firefox installation directory (usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox), right-click the file "firefox.exe", and select the option "Create shortcut".
- Right-click and rename the new shortcut to whatever you like, then right-click the shortcut again and select "Properties".
- In the Shortcut tab window, place the cursor at the end of the path inside the Target box.
- Click once (so that the path is no longer highlighted) then add a space, -P, another space,then the name of the profile enclosed in quotes (the profile name is case-sensitive), like this:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P "Profile Name" - Click OK to exit the Properties window.
- Drag the new shortcut to the desktop or other location.
Run dialog
Using a Firefox profile named default as an example, click the Windows "Start" button, select "Run" and type the following in the "Open:" field, then click 'OK":
firefox.exe -P "default"
Note: On Windows Vista, you can press "Windows key+R" to open the "Run" box if you have not enabled the Run command on the Start menu (details here).
