Firefox 2 and Firefox 3

With the release of firefox 3 you be wondering wheter you can run both versions of firefox at the same time, well some people will tell you you cant but you can.

It all boils down to 2 things, the profile manager and the shortcuts.

This post assumes that you know how to use the advanced installtion of firefox and have firefox version 2 in one folder and firefox version 3 in another (in my case “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 2″ and “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 3″)

Start by making 2 different profiles in the profile manager, to do this make sure firefox is closed and its not running in the background.

Run the profile manager by running the following command…

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 2\firefox.exe” -profilemanager

Remember to change the Firefox directory to where you have installed firefox.

Within the profile manager make a new profile call it whatever you want. In my case just for ease i have called them Firefox2 and Firefox3.

Now I’m not sure if the following shortcut syntax works with Firefox3, but I add it just to keep consistency.

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 2\firefox.exe” -P Firefox2 -no-remote

As with before make sure you change the directory to where you installed your version, and do the same on the firefox3 shortcut but change the profile name.

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe” -P Firefox3 -no-remote

And viola, you can run two versions of FireFox along with your 3rd favourite browser.

As a quick sidenote if you want both firefoxes to have the same bookmarks, history, etc… just copy the contents of the orignal default folder to the new profile you’ve made.

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

The default folder should read something like…

4scygde1.default

Just copy the contents of that folder into your new profile folder.

And yes, I run three screens simultaneously.

Elliot

After spending too long studying psychology and computer science (a BA and a couple of MScs now append his name), Elliot set up WDL in 2002. He enjoys coding web applications, but spends most of his time on more mundane things these days. He’s passionate about WDL and can be found at the office most evenings and weekends catching up on paperwork. If you're interested in working with WDL, chances are it will be Elliot who you deal with first.

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