• Resources
• Glossary
• FAQs
• How-to guides
• Articles

• You are here:
• Home
• Resources
• How-to guides ↓

Mozilla Firefox profiles

Create a new (additional) profile:

1. If running, first shut down Firefox.
   Tip: Use File » Exit, not the x (close) button.
2. Start the firefox Profile Manager:

   Windows XP: Click Start » Run... then type firefox.exe -ProfileManager into the entry box and click OK.

   Windows Vista or 7: Click Start and type firefox.exe -ProfileManager into the search box and press Enter.

   Linux: From the terminal, run firefox -ProfileManager.

   Tip: You can also specify the full path in case it is different to the default, i.e.

   Windows:

   "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager

   Linux:

   ~/firefox -ProfileManager

3. Click Create Profile » Next and then enter a name for the profile.
4. Click Finish and then click Exit.

Create a new shortcut/launcher for the new profile:

This allows for easy access to run multiple firefox profiles.

Windows XP

1. Within Windows Explorer browse to:

   C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\

2. Right-click firefox.exe and select Create Shortcut
3. If required, rename the shortcut and move it to a more accessible place
4. Right-click the shortcut and select Properties
5. In the Target entry box, insert the following:

   "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P <PROFILE> -no-remote

   Note: The above is where <PROFILE> is your profile name.

Ubuntu

1. Create a launcher
2. Within the command entry box, insert the following:

   firefox -P <PROFILE> -no-remote

   Note: The above is where <PROFILE> is your profile name.

Default profile locations:

Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<XXXXX>.default

Windows Vista or 7:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<XXXXX>.default

Linux:

~/.mozilla/firefox/<XXXXX>.default/

Note: The above is where:

<USERNAME> is your user name

<XXXXX> is a unique random set of characters

Go back to the How-to Guides main page.