this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Firefox

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Firefox's Profiles get a huge upgrade with easier Profile Creation, Switching and Customization (windowsreport.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

This is excellent news. This is one of the biggest features that I've wanted out of Firefox for years, and one of the reasons I've kept Chromium as a secondary browser all this time.

I do remember seeing a community-made GitHub project that added a profile switcher to Firefox, which looked pretty good, but it also required installing an executable somewhere on the system, which I'm not exactly keen on.

I think Zen Browser has a built-in profile switcher, but it also changes a bunch of core UI elements... I just want Firefox with a profile switcher, lol.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible

That's the one feature I really want from Firefox profiles!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I feel like this hasn't been said enough: Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

And multi-account containers are not enough for me.

What's your point? They are great and serve a purpose, but they are not the same.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

oh don't mind me, I'm just word-for-word mindlessly parroting what others have said below

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible

Bullocks. I run 2 or 3 profiles at the same time. For over 2 years now. Just easier now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah but you have to do it with separate launch arguments.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Or always start with profilemanager. But indeed, also a launch argument.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Or open about:profiles (which you can put conveniently in your bookmark bar).

[–] JubilantJaguar 3 points 2 days ago

Rookie numbers! 4 here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Hopefully it's not an actual regression in the latest version, because that'd be terrible.

[–] Landless2029 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible

Bullshit. I've been multiboxing Firefox for years.

You need to run firefox.exe -p to open profile manager and then create all the profiles you want. Then create shortcuts to each new profile. firefox.exe -p ProfileName

This allows you to run a personal profile, work profile and porn profile simultaneously without crossing streams.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Under Linux you can also start a throwaway profile by running firefox -P $(mktemp -d) (note the capital P for path)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It already just works, just go to about:profiles and launch as another profile. There's also have container tabs, so no need for a separate profile when you only need isolation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Would be nice if they just added a profile manager with a button though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I just have about:profile as the first on my bookmark toolbar. You can also make a shortcut to firefox --ProfileManager in your OS.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 day ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 day ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's unfortunate, I was hoping for a 'workspaces' like feature as in Opera. I run FF and Opera simultaneaously to segregate my tabs. It would be really nice if we could get something like that extended to profiles, so I could just run FF

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do you mean containers? At least it sounds like it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

The last time I looked at containers I think it was an add-on, but I don't think (and please correct me if I'm wrong), it filtered or made active the current viewable tabs.

In Opera there's an icon list on the left and depending on which one is selected those are the only tabs displayed, and/or made active. I'll take another look at FF containers.

Someone mentioned 'about:profiles' above, I think that may be closer to what I'm looking for, maybe that combined with containers can reduce my foot print to just Firefox, thanks for the suggestion

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I think you might be looking for tab groups? Which, incidentally, are also coming.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Cool. I've been thinking they should just make that available somewhere for quite a while now, since about:profiles was already pretty usable, it was just impossible to find for normal users. But that they're improving the user experience at the same time is quite welcome, too.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How is it better than about:profile?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Because it's integrated into the GUI similar to how pretty much every other browser does it, of course .

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Anyone else get an obvious malware popup in this link? On iOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Having uBlock Origin everywhere has spoiled me I guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

Yeah, it’s the thing I miss most about Android haha

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah this website is shit

[–] AtariDump 1 points 2 days ago

I did not, no.