Run Multiple Instances of Firefox Portable

to Several Good Reasons for Using Portable Firefox

What is This all About?

The post Run Multiple Instances of Firefox Portable provided some excellent reasons for using different versions of Firefox portable to meet your varying needs. For example you could have versions with lots of add-ons or versions with add-ons that meet particular requirements, or you could set up versions for dealing with mail or RSS feeds or managing sessions for favourite sites.

The main problem was that Firefox Portable can only run a single instance (that is only one version of the portable program) at a time. So you could not have a Firefox Window and multiple tabs for say your email running at the same time as another version dedicated to RSS feed or favourite sites. (Note you can run multiple windows each with its own tabs but these will have the same add-ons, bookmarks and layout)

However a very simple change using a text editor, such as notebook, and moving a file from one folder to another can allow you to run multiple different versions  (instances) of Firefox Portable at the same time! i.e. different main Firefox executable files and the associated portable package of profile, bookmarks, add-ons, etc.

Update – N.B Since starting this tip I have found that there is information out on other blogs so this is not original

What Do You Need to Do?

Firstly you need a version of Firefox Portable- if you don’t have it you can download it here:

portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

In my main PC I have already downloaded both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 portable versions.

(I still use Firefox 2 for one particular add-on  that has not been upgraded for use with Firefox 3)

Here is an example folder setup on a PC:

(Click on Screenshots to enlarge where necessary)

(For anyone not familiar with the freeware I use to extend Windows Explorer the above shows toolbars and tabs from QTTabBar and QTAddressBar

- see: QuizoApps: QTTabBar )

In order to run multiple instances a simple change needs to be made to the FirefoxPortable.ini file and it then need to be moved to the first level directory of the Firefox Portable folders. This is quite easy to do as will be explained using screenshots below.

Changing the Preferences File

First you need to locate the preferences file. It is named FirefoxPortable.ini (NOT FirefoxPortableSettings.ini) and is found in the Other/Source folder in the Firefox Portable folder structure:

In this example the path is – C:\FirefoxPortable3\Other\Source

Another way to find it is to use Search in Windows Explorer, here I have searched for all preference or ini files (*.ini) so you can see there are several ini files in the Firefox Portable folders:

Having located the correct file double clicking on it will open it in Notepad (or you can use your favourite plain text editor).

You now need to locate the line

AllowMultipleInstances=false

and change false to true

Now save the file:

Finally you need to copy or move the file to the top level folder which in this example is FirefoxPortable3:

Now do the same for other FirefoxPortable folders you are using for different setups (you just need to copy the ini file you have already changed) and you are now ready to run multiple Firefox Portable version (setups/instances) at the same time.

In the above example the lower version in the screenshot is identical to the top except for the Brief plug-in having been disabled. (I do this because Brief can significantly slow Firefox at start-up).

ProReviewer Summary

I find this a very useful tip so that I can use different setups at the same time. Particularly using a fast cut down version to quickly access sites I need to lookup while still having a full version with all the add-ons available. It is also useful if you have more than one Google Mail account you want to view at the same time.

What Other Post are Relevant?

TIP – Use Firefox Portable for Multiple Profiles and Backups

Brief 1.1 – Firefox Add-on – Simple BUT Very Effective RSS Reader

Backup – Identify Where the Data Is – Find the Location of Your Information on a Windows Based PC?

Firefox Add-on – Statusbars – Get Your Statusbars Organized

Firefox Beta 3 – Use Extension List Dumper Add-on to Find Compatible Extensions

Firefox Add-ons – 5 Things “Clear Private Data” is Useful For

See the Firefox Add-ons Category for even more Tips and Reviews -

Firefox Add-ons

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What is This all About?

Making it easy to use Firefox with different settings for different users and/or different purposes as well as being able to quickly and easily create Firefox backups.

A standard installation of Firefox keeps the programs and data (your profile with all the settings, cookies, cache, etc) in separate areas of your hard drive. Normally (unless you have specified a different location at installation or in your OS Setup) Firefox programs will be installed under C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/ and the data will be stored under your Microsoft “Documents and Settings” area with a path like – C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\.

With a Firefox Portable installation you can have all your Firefox programs and data under a set of folders such as:

• C:\Firefox_Main
• C:\Firefox_Small
• C:\Firefox_Blogging

Or you could have:

• C:\FirefoxPortable\

containing

• • Firefox_Main
  • Firefox_Small
  • Firefox_Blogging

and C; can be substituted for any other drive including memory sticks/flash drive and network drives.

Not only is this easy to quickly backup everything using standard backup software or by simply copying the folder structure using standard copy and paste, but it is completely portable using a portable hard drive or USB flash memory.

Update: Following a comment from Ray (see comments below) I should make it clear that the idea is to use multiple copies of Portable Firefox each with it’s own settings instead of creating multiple individual profiles within Portable Firefox.

This is how have Firefox set up on my main PC and I transfer this complete or in part to other PC’s at home and work on a removable hard drive or flash memory.

(Click on Screenshots to enlarge where necessary)

You could even run Firefox over an Internet connection using remote connection software like Logmein or even Windows Home Server, although unless you have a fast broadband connection this could be very slow and you would be better pulling (downloading) the installation to the local machine.

What Do I Do?

Well, I have already said some of the things that can be done based on what I am already doing. The next screenshot shows the files and folders under my Firefox Portable folder:

Here you can see that not only do I have several different versions of Firefox Portable set up for different uses but I also have:

1. Zip Backup versions at various points
2. Data (Slogger and Scrapbook separate from Firefox)*
3. A Copy of the Add-in XPI files

*This needs to be used with care, if you are going to run either Slogger or Scrapbook (or similar) add-ins from more than 1 Firefox version you need to set up separate folders for each version to avoid index problems and conflicts. The advantage of doing this is that you can copy over a version without all the legacy saved pages in Slogger or Scrapbook and start again.

Why Might You Care?

So you can set up multiple versions of Firefox for:

1. Different uses
2. Different users
3. Test Versions
4. Portability
5. Backups

Backups can easily be made by using standard backup utilities or copying methods at the folder or system level and then moved to another computer with ease. You can easily keep copies of known “working” versions before you install new add-ins, make changers to the toolbars or install an upgrade.

ProReviewer Summary

I find Firefox Portable meets all my needs and more so I haven’t used a non-portable install of Firefox for the past couple of years. The ease of backup , the fact that you can save versions at various points as you make changes or install add-ins and the whole “portability” across multiple computers, users and uses makes it a “no-brainer” for me.

What Other Post are Relevant?

Brief 1.1 – Firefox Add-on – Simple BUT Very Effective RSS Reader

Backup – Identify Where the Data Is – Find the Location of Your Information on a Windows Based PC?

TeraCopy – High Speed Copy and Move Files

Firefox Add-on – Statusbars – Get Your Statusbars Organized

Firefox Beta 3 – Use Extension List Dumper Add-on to Find Compatible Extensions

TIP – Format a USB Flash Drive for Speed or File Size – What’s Best and How to Overcome Some Problems

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