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Let's say, Firefox's instance is running with profile 1. Is it now possible, to start a new Firefox instance with profile 2?

Normally, when Firefox is already running, no new instance is created. Instead, just a new browser window is opened.

Note: By saying "profile", I'm referring to Firefox user profiles.

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try searching. it is the number one question regarding firefox in superuser.com – barraponto Jan 25 '10 at 15:08
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5 Answers

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Here's an article from Lifehacker dealing with this. It's not extremely complicated, I've used this a couple of times.

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Wow! Couldn't imagine that it's so simple and supported out-of-the-box ;) Thanks! – linux_is_for_desktop Sep 15 '09 at 8:14
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up vote 4 down vote

You can do it from the command line:

firefox -no-remote -P profile_name
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First run 'firefox --profilemanager' to set up separate profiles. – postfuturist Oct 30 '09 at 22:23
-P is a shorthand for that – hasen j Oct 31 '09 at 23:25
It isn't really: -P says 'load the named profile' it will only open ProfileManager it the profile you've named doesn't exist. – robertc Jan 25 '10 at 14:11
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up vote 4 down vote

Try MultiFirefox:

MultiFirefox is a small launcher utility that allows you to run multiple versions of Firefox side-by-side. It helps you set up multiple profiles (one or more for each version of Firefox), remembers your last launch preferences for easy launching, has auto-updating built in for when we make improvements, and is 100% open source, MIT licensed.

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Welcome to SU. Please provide more information then just a link. SU is a repository of answers and desciptive answers are encouraged. – Diago Sep 15 '09 at 11:25
It is an external tool, which allows multiple instances of firefox to be started, also with different profiles and different sets of addons. – brandstaetter Sep 15 '09 at 11:27
Thanks brandstaetter looks very interesting. – Yar Sep 15 '09 at 11:33
Also, it is way more comfortable than using the built-in profile manager. Give it a try, a frined uses it all the time: He launches one instance for web developing with loads of add-ons, and one sleek with minimal add-ons for the usual web surfing, without the add-on bloat. – brandstaetter Sep 15 '09 at 11:37
@brandstaetter: I edited your answer a bit to add more info about the app from the authors site. Hope you don't mind! Also, cool little app :) – alex Sep 15 '09 at 12:04
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up vote 3 down vote

Using an unx environement, you can use a command like :

env MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 firefox -P Profile2

Using a windows or Mac OS X env, I don't know how you can do it

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