Multiple Firefox Versions on Same PC

Question

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

How is thit not programming related? What is you are a web developer and what to test with different versions of Firefox? — Mark, Jul 10 '09 at 20:55
wow, why the down votes? doesn't anyone else develop web apps and need to test them on FF3 and 3.5? — OneNerd, Jul 10 '09 at 20:55
This is a perfectly valid question. It could probably use a little rephrasing to make it more SO friendly, but this is something many web developers might benefit from. — Brandon, Jul 10 '09 at 20:57
I think it is a valid question as well, but I would rephrase it a bit and remove the not-programming-related tag (as that is a reason to close a topic). — Ed S., Jul 10 '09 at 20:58
I retagged it as web-development so hopefully people won't get their underwear all in a twist over it. — MattC, Jul 10 '09 at 21:01
thanks mattc - someone added non-programming-related tag, and the down votes starting piling in. I reworded question as well -- boy things have gotten tough around here :) — OneNerd, Jul 10 '09 at 21:04

score 61 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 10 '09 at 20:56

61

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.

answered Jul 10 '09 at 20:56

TJ L

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This guy also has a good howto: http://blog.empiregpservices.com/post.cfm/running-multiple-versions-of-firefox – Már Örlygsson Mar 26 '11 at 00:41
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older versions of FF are available here: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases – Aaron Longnion Dec 17 '11 at 00:19
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Additional notes: 1) choose a custom install to install in separate directories 2) don't launch after install; close it, and go right click the firefox.exe to create the desktop shortcut – Aaron Longnion Dec 17 '11 at 00:58
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More Additional notes: if the profile manager isn't starting make sure you have first closed down firefox via the "Firefox->Exit" method. http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Managing-profiles – dan Jan 23 '12 at 04:49
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If anyone is wondering where they can find documentation regarding Firefox's command line arguments see [here](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Command_Line_Options?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Command_Line_Options). – Ben Smith Oct 30 '13 at 12:59
Works perfectly with FF 21 and 30. Thanks! – GeriBoss Jul 04 '14 at 08:57
You should also turn off auto-updates (settings->advanced->updates->"never check for updates"), otherwise your old version will update to the newest one. – reallynice Nov 06 '15 at 09:57

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '11 at 23:17

8

You could also try Utilu which automates this process, and also installs the Web developer toolbar and Firebug on each version. Very handy for a test machine.

answered Mar 16 '11 at 23:17

purpletonic

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Good idea but poorly implemented. When you run tell it to open all browsers for a particular URL, it tries to run all 13 versions of Firefox using the same profile name but it can't open 12 of them because the profile is already in use... Would have been wiser to simply run 13 portable versions that aren't connected to eachother in any way... – Jake Wilson Dec 06 '11 at 21:03
Couldn't you get around this limitation by following the advice from @tj111's answer though? – purpletonic Dec 13 '11 at 10:48
Utilu has a launcher type program that comes with it that allows you to put in a single URL and it launches all the Firefox versions for you. But it doesn't appear to allow you to alter the command-line that is used to launch them. So no, I don't think you can use that solution unless you manually launched each version yourself. – Jake Wilson Dec 13 '11 at 17:43

M4N · Answer 3 · 2009-07-10T21:01:21.063

4

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.

edited Jul 10 '09 at 21:01

answered Jul 10 '09 at 20:51

M4N

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 14 '18 at 08:23

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:

Download Firefox 56: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/56.0/. firefox-56.0.tar.bz2 will be downloaded.
Extract the tar.bz2 source file in /opt/firefox56/ using:
```
tar xvjf firefox-56.0.tar.bz2
```
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.

Create a soft link for firefox56

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

Start firefox56 with the newly created profile
```
firefox56 -P firefox56
```

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.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 02 '09 at 22:07

Here's a simple three step process to achieve the same. For people that need a little bit more help getting this up and running with multiple Firefox versions, just check it out. It'll have nice pictures to guide you through the process.

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

1

I have answered this here.

Use multiple versions of FirefoxPortable.

Is there a way to force Firefox to launch in a new process?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

Community

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answered Sep 25 '14 at 13:29

RuntimeException

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Multiple Firefox Versions on Same PC

6 Answers6

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