Using multiple profiles - Firefox

If you are using multiple Firefox profiles, these tips may be helpful:

General tips for multiple profiles

• When you have multiple Firefox profiles, you can select the profile of your choice when starting Firefox by unchecking the Profile Manager option, "Don't ask at startup". This will always start the Profile Manager when starting Firefox.
• If you select the "Don't ask at startup" option in the Profile Manager when selecting a profile and then start Firefox, that profile will then become the "default" profile and will be used automatically whenever you start Firefox (unless you use a shortcut to a specific profile to start Firefox).
  • The term "default profile" should not be confused with "default browser". "Default browser" is a system setting which determines which web browser is launched when you open an Internet shortcut, HTML file, or link in a mail application like Thunderbird or Outlook Express, when more than one browser is installed on your system. The "default profile" is the last profile selected in the Profile Manager when starting Firefox and is used automatically if the "Don't ask at startup" Profile Manager option is checked.
• Keep in mind that profile names are case-sensitive so you may wish to avoid capitalizing profile names and use all lower-case.
• Avoid renaming a profile in the Profile Manager as it does not change the actual profile folder name in the file system, even though it is changed in the profiles.ini file, which may lead to confusion.
• Install the Open Profile Folder extension, at least in your default profile, to give you quick access to your Firefox profile data. In Firefox 3.6 and above, you can use "Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder" (Windows and Linux) or "Show in Finder" (Mac OS) to open the profile folder for the profile currently in use
• Even though you can have spaces in a profile name it is not a good idea as there are instances where you need to specify a profile name but cannot enclose the profile name in quotes, such as in launchy.xml used by by the "Launchy" extension.
• Use Color Toolbar(s) to identify profile | userstyles.org styling to color code your Firefox browser and dialog windows to identify the profile in use. The style is installed, used and managed with the Stylish extension available at addons.
• (Windows) Create Windows Quick Launch shortcuts
• (Windows) Use the Launchy extension to open current page in another profile with a customized "launchy.xml" file (sample) with -no-remote to start each profile. (Don't use it to launch your default profile, at least not with -no-remote). [1] [2].
• Use a JSON bookmarkbackups file from your default profile to restore to your test profiles, if you need bookmarks, bookmarklets, or keyword shortcuts (details here). (Note: Bookmark backups in JSON format were introduced in Firefox 3)

Using new profiles in secondary Firefox installations

In addition to the major points have already been mentioned above:

• Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile for each secondary Firefox installation; such as a Beta build or an earlier version of Firefox. (See also Creating a new Firefox profile on Windows.) Do not check the "Don't ask at startup" option" in the Profile Manager, to prevent accidental launching of that profile with another Firefox installation.
• Always start the secondary Firefox installation with a shortcut to a specific profile or a command line argument to the profile for that Firefox installation. See Starting your Mozilla application with a specified profile for more information.
  • If you specify a missing or incorrect profile name, you will get the Profile Manager, where you can create a new profile, if necessary; otherwise, check the profiles.ini file for the correct profile name (case-sensitive). See also Recovering a missing profile.
• When you first start a secondary installation of Firefox (e.g., a Beta or other test build) with a newly-created profile, always reply "Do not make Firefox your default browser" if you want to keep your primary installation of Firefox as the default browser.
• (Windows) Create a new shortcut icon for a specific Firefox version by right clicking on the startup icon, then under properties, shortcut, change icon. Won't apply to a specific profile but will help identify the version of Firefox.

Installing a pre-release version of Firefox

Beta versions will install the Firefox application into their own directories but, on Windows, always use custom install anyway, as you would need to do if testing another version of Firefox.

• You will want to create a new profile to be used only with your Beta or other version of Firefox.
• Create the profile with the Profile Manager using the version of Firefox you intend to use with the profile.
• Do not make Firefox your default browser when using this new profile.

Release Candidates are normally installed as a replacement for your existing Firefox application and, by default, will be installed into the default Firefox installation directory location.

See Testing pre-release versions for more information.

Windows Task Manager

Additional columns can be added within the Processes tab of the Windows Task Manager (WTM) by right-clicking on a column header. When working with multiple versions of Firefox at the same time, you will need to know which process to terminate if there is a problem. By including the "Command Line" column you will see the actual command line that was invoked to start each process. Typical problem would be a stuck application not showing on the Windows status bar but still in the WTM Processes tab. Trying to start/restart Firefox in such cases will show a dialog box with the message, Firefox is already running but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart the system.

See also

• Command line arguments
• Profile in use
• Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox
• Opening a new instance of your Mozilla application with another profile (using -no-remote)