I keep getting email about IE7 and how this website looks in this web browser. Well to make it publically known I am not at all interested in IE7 and it is way too soon to be concerned with it. There are a number of other reasons for this like how would I run both IE6 and IE7 on my development PC? I would have to use some type of switcher. My experience with such things has been bad or worse. They always seem to screw up something in Windows because of the tight integration of IE and Windows.

When I get IE7 email I sometimes ask if they have tried Firefox2 Release Candidate 1. In all of the IE7 hype developers (the ones that are sending me email) tend to forget that Firefox is in constant development that Firefox 1.5 is not the only version. Firefox2 Release Candidate 1 is readily available for download. Unlike its predecessors FireFox development does not sit and wait for the entire internet to complain about bugs and shortcomings before they start building a better version. I have a question. If Firefox 2 is a better browser with more features than IE7 will you install IE7 or just jump from Firefox 1.5.x to Firefox 2.0.x?

I like many others am unconcerned with web browser holy wars and make my choices based on need and statistics not on hype. I am however interested and concerned with the way websites look in Firefox 2 Beta because it does not require me to have a particular Windows OS installed. Normally to be able to check the differences on a live site would mean replacing my Firefox 1.5 instance with the FF2 Beta. This is not what I want to do , I want to be able to switch back and forth between them. The following methods are the ones I discovered while surfing for information. The main part of this tutorial comes from a post contributed by Vectorspace on Aug Sat 26th 2006 on Mozilla.org.

The simple method

The simplest way is to just run two seperate versions using the same profile. This satisfies the needs of most since the profile contains the websites that they would be checking.

Set MOZ_NO_REMOTE to 1 in the environment variables.

Create desktop shortcuts and name them accordingly the paths to use are as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p default
"C:\Program Files\Deer_Park\firefox.exe" -p BetaTest

Both work with their different profiles and both can be running at the same time. The flaw is that MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 means all new firefox.exe processes will want a separate profile, including links from external applications and when you double-click a Firefox shortcut. It will also affect other Mozilla aps, like Thunderbird. This makes this method fast to implement but not the best for a development PC where any number of applications or programs may call the firefox.exe

Complicated method

Normally when you try to run a second firefox.exe process, it just gets redirected to a new window/tab in the existing firefox.exe process. MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 means that when you run a second firefox.exe process, it stays a separate process and needs a separate profile. A mentioned previouly there is the complication that MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 means all new firefox.exe processes will want a separate profile, including links from external applications and when you double-click a Firefox shortcut. It will also affect other Mozilla applications, like Thunderbird. If you set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 in Windows Environment Variables, then it is always on.

The batch file method means that the variable is only 1 when you want a new firefox.exe process to start - links from external applications and the like will be redirected to the most recently started profile, instead of bringing up Profile Manager.

I have a full solution to running a release and a beta using the batch file method - I use it and it does work:

First, remove MOZ_NO_REMOTE from Windows Environment Variables and restart windows (to ensure that it is gone)

I installed FF2 Beta to a different location (C:\Program Files\Firefox 2 Beta\) from 1.5 (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\).

I used Profile Manager to create a separate profile for FF2 Beta. The profile was called "Beta2" I did not start the profile.

Then, I modified the target in Firefox 1.5's shortcut to read this:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p "default"

That shortcut now starts FF 1.5 with the profile named default.

And I modified FF2 Beta's shortcut target to read this:

"C:\Program Files\Firefox 2 Beta\firefox.exe" -p "Beta2"

That shortcut now starts FF2 Beta with the profile named 'Beta2'.

Copy this text into a batch file, running it will start FF2 Beta even if Firefox 1.5 is already running:
Code:

@echo off
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
start "" "C:\Program Files\Firefox 2 Beta\firefox.exe" -p "Beta2"
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=0

And a version to start FF 1.5 even if FF 2 Beta is already running:
Code:

@echo off
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
start "" "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p "default"
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=0

If you want batch files to start Profile Manager for one of the builds, just remove the profile name from the above examples. With this method you can run more then two instances at the same time - I have had two 1.5 profiles and a FF2 Beta profile running simultaneously using this method.

Save the file with a *.bat extension and create a shortcut to your desktop. You can Right-Click the shortcut and rename it to whatever you want.
Change the path to your particular firefox.exe and the Profile name as appropriate for your installation.
When you double-click the Batch file desktop shortcut, it will start Firefox with the appropriate Profile even if a version/Profile of Firefox is already running.

The are some issues that need to be solved when using this mthod. When you just run firefox.exe (like an external application will do) it will start whichever is your default browser, but it will start with whichever profile was last run from profile manager. So, make sure that FF 1.5's profile is the one selected in profile manager. or you might get FF1.5 started with the FF2 Beta profile. Just start FF1.5's profile manager and start it's profile, and that profile will be selected in profile manager as the default.
This is assuming that FF1.5 is your default browser, If FF2 Beta is, make sure that the Beta2 profile is the default.

You can start Firefox by just typing firefox.exe into Start>Run, or by typing start firefox.exe into a command prompt - no path.

If you install FF1.5 first and FF2 Beta second, FF2 Beta will take over this so that it will start FF2 Beta instead of FF1.5. You need the version that is started by this to be the same version that is set as the default browser, otherwise again you will get one version using the other's profile. The simple solution would be to just reinstall 1.5.

Alternatively, there is a registry entry you can change to set this back if you wish:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > App Paths > firefox.exe. In that location, change the values of the (Default) and Path keys to match your original Firefox installation instead of FF2 Beta. If you are not familiar with editing the registry then do not try.

Happy Publishing!

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