Comments on: Run Firefox 2.0 and 1.5 side by side

By: derek

derek — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:39:52 +0000

For PC users with IE7 already using VirtualPC to test IE6, would it not be just as handy to install FF 1.5 on the VPC?

By: estrai

estrai — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:35:09 +0000

Hey,
I just did like George said (run with profile manager), except that I used another directory for storing profiles for Firefox 1.5.
So, now I have running both 2.0 and 1.5, and after I picked the directory there’s no need to do it again, it always start without prompting for choosing anything.
It looks very funny while I’m switching programs with alt+tab

By: Tom Taylor

Tom Taylor — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:02:01 +0000

Firefox 3 Alpha has just been released. WOOHOO!

So you mayswell install Firefox 2 as a portable version too: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

And then install FF3 from here: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/?C=M;O=D

Follow the Instructions for ‘Your Platform’ above

By: George

George — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:47:57 +0000

Yes you are right - I can't run versions side by side on Windows using that method. You may have this already but Yousif Al Saif of http://tredosoft.com has recently released an installer that will install standalone versions of IE3 - 6. Really useful for testing sites.

By: milo

milo — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:33:34 +0000

Thanks for the instructions, used it like described and everything works fine.

By: Stuart Colville

Stuart Colville — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:56:33 +0000

@Gand: Great work. I’ve updated the mac instructions above to reflect this newer version.

By: Gand

Gand — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:02:05 +0000

I’ve just release Portable Firefox 2.0r4.0, anyway previous release is also available.
With this last release you can copy your profile saying yes at “Copy local profile” window and select your profile folder. Now Firefox application and profile folder are inside the application bundle.
I think that you can downgrade Portable Firefox r4.0 replacing the included Firefox 2.0 with 1.5.0.7 or what ever version you like; but note that r4.0 need OS X 10.4.
If you wish run multiple version you have to edit script file commenting with # the line with “quitapp” at the end of the file. Remember to back-up your profile folder.

By: sean

sean — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:58:05 +0000

Thanks for the instructions!

By: Stuart Colville

Stuart Colville — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:42:50 +0000

@George: If you just rename the folders in Windows doesn’t that mean that each version will use the same profile? Or can you change that in the profile manager?

By: George

George — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:07:15 +0000

Blast! This is a much more elegant solution than the one I found yesterday…

This was to save the different versions as Firefox-1.0.app, Firefox-1.5.app, Firefox-2.0.app in the Applicaitons folder, create a different profile for each version and then use terminal to launch the profile manager to run standalone versions.

To launch older versions I use the following in Terminal:
Firefox 1
/Applications/Firefox-1.0.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -Profilemanager

Firefox 1.5
/Applications/Firefox-1.5.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -Profilemanager

It works really well but your solution looks easier so I’ll update to that in due course.

On windows I just save versions in different folders and have not had any problems to date.