How to use Firefox 3 and Firefox 2 on the same system

The beta of Firefox 3 is relatively stable and users are beginning to download and install it on their systems. The problem that they face then is that Firefox 3 accesses the profile of Firefox 2 which means that many add-ons will be deactivated in the process and are re-activated once Firefox 2 is started again.

There are two solutions to work with Firefox 3 and Firefox 2 on the same system. The first is to download and install the portable version of Firefox 3 which does not interfere with the settings of Firefox 2. This method is not complicated at all.

Some users however prefer to install the normal versions of Firefox 3 and Firefox 2. This is understandable as well. A post on the Codefront blog explains how this can be achieved without facing the difficulties of sharing a profile. The solution is to create a new profile for Firefox 3 and tell Firefox 3 to explicitly use that profile when running.

You can use the profile manager to create a new Firefox profile. Do this by starting Firefox 2 with the following parameters:

/path/to/firefox -profilemanager -no-remote

This opens the profile manager with the option to create a new profile. Make sure you click on Don’t ask at startup which has the result that the default profile will be loaded when starting Firefox 2. If you do not check that box you will always be asked which profile you want to load when starting Firefox 2.

After creating the second profile we have to start Firefox 3 with another parameter to make it use that new profile by default. To do that use the command

/path/to/firefox3 -P Profilename -no-remote &

It would be best in my opinion to create a shortcut that uses the parameters.