Tip: Run Multiple Firefox Profiles/Versions Simultaneously

Ever tried to start Firefox while is it is running? Doesn’t work, you will get an error saying Firefox is already running. I have seen a trick over at CyberNet involving installing a portable version of Firefox, but that seems to be a lot of work. Plus, I already have several versions of Firefox installed. So I did a little more search and came across the mozillaZine KB article: Command line arguments

The easiest way to take advantage of this is to modify your short-cuts. The short cut should be formatted as such: “Firefox.exe” -p “{PROFILE}” -no-remote (note: substitute the name of your profile for {PROFILE} or omit to launch the profile manger instead). I have setup and can now run/test Firefox 2.0.0.20, Firefox 3.0.7 and Firefox 3.5beta4pre at the same time running on their own profiles.

Notes: this tweak does not apply to does not apply to Mozilla Suite/SeaMonkey 1.x. You can also run multiple profiles of the same version of Firefox as well. This can be helpful when you want to see how something behaves with a clean (no add-ons) profile (or to see how quickly a Firefox with a clean profile restarts).

11 Comments on Tip: Run Multiple Firefox Profiles/Versions Simultaneously

  1. Awesome. Thank-you for the tip! I should have been doing this ages ago… 🙂

  2. When I open firefox browser, I get multiple tabs opening all at once-several… This happened to me – it’s because when you set your home page, you have other tabs open at the same time.

  3. Hello,

    Where should I put this code?

    ““Firefox.exe” -p “{PROFILE}” -no-remote”

    Thanks

  4. Hello,

    Now I figure it out, put the code on the Target of you desktop Shortcut

    “C:Program Files (x86)Old Mozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -P Profile -no-remote

    Thanks!

  5. Looks like the profile manager UI is going away:
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=214675

  6. “C:Program Files (x86)Old Mozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -P Profile -no-remote……are the quotations and the (x86) necessary or could I rename the expiremental browser mike Rochfirefox.exe -P Profile -no-remote, for example if the other version is still regular firefox

  7. If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows the default location is C:Program Files (x86) where as 32-bit version of Windows would just be C:Program Files . I do believe you still need the quotes in the Windows shortcut for the location portion and then add the parameters at the end.

  8. So I have a 32 bit version how do I reformat to name this and put quotations on name “C:Program Filesold firefoxfirefox.exe”-P{profile}-no-remote. I can only change the firefox.exe and such but can not change the whole please be patient with me I am a novice

  9. am I renaming the path?

  10. Your ‘Target should look similar to this:
    “C:Program Files (x86)Old Mozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -P Profile -no-remote

    note in this example Profile is the name of your profile.

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