Multiple Firefox Versions on Same PC

user_76682 0
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I develop various web apps, use CSS and JavaScript extensively, and need to be able to test them on both FF 3 as well as FF 3.5.

But, installing 3.5 overwrites 3.0, so I was wondering if its possible (and if so, how) to run both Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 on the same system, or am i stuck having to use 2 different systems?

I am using Windows XP.

Thanks

firefox installation
6 Answers

Yes. Download and install them in seperate directories. Then, launch each one individually with the -p flag to set up different profiles for each version (or at least one for testing). Then, after you have two seperate profiles, create an icon for each on your desktop. Right click on the icon and select properties.

In the 'target' field, add the following flags. 

c:\Programs\Firefox 3.0\firefox.exe -p Profile1 -no-remote
c:\Programs\Firefox 3.5\firefox.exe -p Profile2

This is assuming you will be using Firefox 3.5 as your main browser and 3.0 for testing. If you want it the other way around switch the -no-remote tag. This allows you to run multiple versions of Firefox side by side. For more information refer to the Mozillazine page on command line arguments.

user_126050

You can use the portable versions of firefox (3.5, older versions). You can install as many versions of firefox side-by-side as you want, but you can only run one version at any time.

Martin_196350

Since Firefox 57, legacy support is withdrawn and so many useful plugins and addons are let out in the newer versions (57 onwards). I have faced the problem of keeping multiple firefox say, Firefox 56 (legacy supported) and the default, current version, which will be updated regularly by Ubuntu (say) by default.

To do that, I follow the these steps:

  1. Download Firefox 56: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/56.0/. firefox-56.0.tar.bz2 will be downloaded.

  2. Extract the tar.bz2 source file in /opt/firefox56/ using: 

    tar xvjf firefox-56.0.tar.bz2

  3. Run the default firefox using the following command.

    firefox -ProfileManager

    Create a new profile, say firefox56, save its data in a folder other than the default.

  4. Create a soft link for firefox56

    sudo ln -s /opt/firefox56/firefox-bin /usr/bin/firefox56

  5. Start firefox56 with the newly created profile 

    firefox56 -P firefox56

  6. Create .desktop file: firefox56.desktop in /usr/share/applications/firefox56.desktop

    [Desktop Entry]
Version=56.0
Name=Firefox 56
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer
Exec=firefox56 %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/firefox56/browser/icons/mozicon128.png
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;x-scheme-handler/chrome;video/webm;application/x-xpinstall;
StartupNotify=true
Actions=new-window;new-private-window;

[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=firefox56 -P firefox56

[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=Open a New Private Window
Exec=firefox56 -P firefox56 -private-window

Done! Find both of your installation in the menu.

user_89509950
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