Talk:Creating a new Firefox profile on Windows

Could someone change the title of this article to : "Creating a New Firefox profile - Quick Start." and maybe advise me on how that is done. Thanks. --Frank Lion 01:35, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I think it's fine as is. It's not really a "Quick Start", it's the complete steps on how to do it.--Np 18:10, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I've made some changes.

1. Copyedit and formatting
2. It's not necessary to know the path of Firefox, running "firefox -P" works.
3. Added a step to shut down Firefox first.
4. Removed instances of "don't press this". I'm thinking that the target audience for this article will do exactly what we say and won't start clicking on other buttons.--Np 18:10, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I added a "Caution" note about the "Choose Folder" option. You can't assume that the target audience won't click it and the potential consequences are so dire that, at the minimum, I thought that a caution with a link to the warnings was in order. Alice Wyman 17:41, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Good edit, np - you've just broken the Firefox Profile Manager of every Firefox zip build user throughout the world! haha...which is why I pathed it. Your intro is a bit short for me, but the essentials are there and I'm not likely to complain about brevity, am I? This article is so short that I think we can put some stuff back. I'm going to edit it again, not to be difficult, but just to demonstrate that it will work and be understood - see what you think. --Frank Lion 19:36, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

On reflection, I don't think we can have 90% of users doing unnecessary steps for the 10% of zip build users. Edited again - also putting in firefox.exe -P and keeping clarification of the ' -P' part, that was causing confusion to some.--Frank Lion 20:41, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

You may want to add some text to the start saying something along the lines of "this assumes you're a regular user using a regular Firefox on regular Windows. If you're not, go to Profile Manager".

Any reason why you want ".exe" in there? I just see it as another thing someone could mess up.--Np 21:42, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Only wanted ".exe" in there for consistency with the Profile Manger article - I agree, removed. Added qualifier line, which made the lower Profile Manager link redundant - removed. Article looks concise and tight now, I think. --Frank Lion 22:54, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Added images

I thought some pictures would help. Go ahead and remove some (or all) of the images if you think it's too much. Alice Wyman 16:35, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

-no-remote

Adding -no-remote will let you open the profile manager without having to close Firefox. —Wulf 08:26, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

You're right. The Command line arguments article entry for "no-remote" only says, Enables Firefox to run with multiple profiles; used with -P. Firefox 2 and later. With Firefox 2 already running, I could open the Profile Manager using firefox -P -no-remote. Using "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P -no-remote also worked. I just added that information to the Opening a new instance of Firefox with another profile article, thanks. Only thing, this article is really aimed at the "basic" Firefox user so I think it should stick to the basics. The Command line arguments article, or maybe the Profile Manager article section for Firefox, might be a good place to mention this information, if you want to do that. Alice 13:25, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Export Bookmarks

Added a suggestion to export bookmarks from old profile, before creating new one. As there is already a strong reminder to not delete any old profiles, this suggestion is not really necessary. However, for users with a minimum customisation level, it does make the process easier to do things in this order..but, more importantly, users have been deleting their old profiles, when they didn't mean to! At least this way, they will still have their bookmarks.

I am open to advice on this addition as I realise that this edit is not strictly necessary.--Frank Lion 23:42, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Seems like a reasonable suggestion to me. Alice 00:49, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Outside remit of this article?

It's occurred to me that users who create a new profile for testing purposes actually face an unseen problem - globally installed 'rogue' extensions. Users assume that if they install no extensions/themes then they are testing on a truly clean profile (except Plugins)...but it might not be. Somewhere, we should advise users to check Tools>Addons>Extensions for rogues, but I'm not sure which article would be best for that and it seems outside the remit of this one. Thoughts? - --Frank Lion 17:53, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Something like this maybe? (but I really don't want this article to get too technical for users) -

... before moving on to the following stages.

If the new profile is being created for troubleshooting purposes then users are advised to not install any extensions or themes to it prior to testing. In addition, an inspection of Firefox Menu > Tools > Addons > Extensions should be made to ensure that no unwanted globally installed extensions are present.

The following assumes a standard....--Frank Lion 18:07, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

I agree that this article shouldn't get cluttered up with technical details, but a short note at the end of the article should be OK ... something like,
Note: If you are creating a new profile for troubleshooting purposes, be aware that some extensions are installed globally (e.g., for all profiles) and you will need to disable those in the Add-ons Manager, if you want a "clean" profile.
.... and then add a "See also" section that links to Uninstalling add-ons #Global extension? You could also add a "See also" link to Standard diagnostic - Firefox#Extension issues or Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox ... and then update those articles with that information. Alice 10:53, 27 January 2013 (UTC)