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.

Of course, 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 -

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.