I have already described how to create and manage multiple profiles in Firefox. If you haven’t already read it, it may be a useful introduction.
If you have a few Firefox profiles created you will probably find the possibility of running them simultanously really useul. What is more, it enables you installing and using various version of Firefox on one machine – you can easily test and compare Firefox 3 beta to older versions.
Running multiple profiles simultaneously
Obviously, first you need to create at least two profiles. If you don’t know how to do it, I suggest reading profiles guide.
You can normally run Firefox, choosing the profile you need. When you need to run another profile as well, simply run the
/path/to/firefox -P "another profile name" -no-remote
command, where another profile name is the name of the second profile you want to run. Passing the -no-remote switch is what makes it work – normally Firefox insists on running a single copy of program and a single profile at any time.
Windows users can run the command from the command line (Start » Run or Windows + r)
Typing firefox.exe instead of path to firefox should work:
firefox.exe -P "another profile name" -no-remote
I suppose that if you use Linux, you know how to run a command from the terminal.
Run Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 beta on one machine
Yeah, wouldn’t that be great to see what’s new? You can easily compare the new version with you Firefox by opening them at once.
Install Firefox 3 (carefully!):
you have to install the beta version of Firefox 3 into a new directory (for safety choose Custom during installation and make sure you do not overwrite the old Firefox folder).
WARNING: From now on always run profiles with a command including the full path to Firefox – running
firefox.exe -P "main_profile" would update you main profile to Firefox 3 beta and you probably do not want it!
Run Firefox 2 and create a new profile running the command:
/path/to/firefox2 -profilemanager -no-remote
It will be necessary for testing, I called it Firefox 3 beta. Close the Profile Manager window and run the command:
/path/to/firefox3 -P "new profile name" -no-remote
Of course, you need to substitute Firefox 3 beta with the name you gave to your new profile. For me, the path to Firefox 3 under Windows is
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 2\firefox.exe
and I called the new profile Firefox 3 beta so I run Firefox 3 with Windows + r and
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 2\firefox.exe" -P "Firefox 3 beta" -no-remote
command.
You’re done – you should have Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 running simultaneously.
