Firefoxin'.

December 7, 2007 11:41 PM

Is it possible to run multiple instances of Firefox with different profiles?

I have a Firefox profile for normal browsing and a separate one that I use for web development and similar tasks, mainly because the extensions I use for one profile aren't always needed for the other and it keeps things running more quickly. Is there a way that I can launch my development profile while I'm using the browsing profile? I've seen some people say that running firefox -p "Profile Name" from the Run box (Windows Vista, btw) should do it, but that hasn't worked for me. Thanks!

posted by phaded to computers & internet (10 answers total)

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile
posted by jpdoane at 12:17 AM on December 8, 2007

There's nothing in there about running two different profiles concurrently, though...which I suppose I should have put in my question. Ugh, good work self.
posted by phaded at 12:21 AM on December 8, 2007

That link you posted does not answer his question.

There is no official Mozilla hack or anything to achieve this, but I do remember a Lifehacker post about running multiple identical process in the same windows user environment. You would have to create another Windows User Account. Goes something like this:

- Logging in with your original account, you would launch one instance of Firefox.

- Then you would right click on the firefox.exe and Run As.

- Choose to run with your second profile and you now have two instances of the same program.

You are going to have to keep 'Don't ask at startup' unchecked. (firefox.exe -p) so that when you launch firefox.exe via 'Run As' you get a prompt for your second profile. I am sure if you search around a bit you can figure out a way stick this into a batch file (something like this).



Lifehacker post ended up being a link to this makeuseof.com post.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 12:38 AM on December 8, 2007

This may be case sensitive, try -P instead of -p. Or try using the older -no-remote flag (in addition to -p), like this.
posted by anaelith at 1:06 AM on December 8, 2007

on linux, i set the MOZ_NO_REMOTE environment variable to different things before starteding firefox

export MOZ_NO_REMOTE=0
firefox -P work 2>/dev/null &
export MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
firefox -P personal 2>/dev/null &

i suppose i should try this no-remote business :-P
posted by maulik at 3:04 AM on December 8, 2007

Could you do this in Mac OSX- Leopard? It has a new thing called Spaces which looks like you'd be running different instances of the applications.
posted by Gungho at 5:16 AM on December 8, 2007

Here's a more detailed explanation, which seems tailored to your exact question. Or is this the exact thing you tried?
posted by O9scar at 8:00 AM on December 8, 2007

The -no-remote flag is the answer to this question. See my earlier AskMe answer to this effect. The way maulik describes is what you needed to do in Firefox 1.x, but anything 2.0 or above supports the flag.
posted by Partial Law at 8:13 AM on December 8, 2007

-no-remote is the winner. Thanks again, hive mind.
posted by phaded at 9:15 AM on December 8, 2007

Sorry - I didn't read your question closely enough.
posted by jpdoane at 2:54 PM on December 8, 2007