Mozilla Firefox is a great Internet
browser, applauded by users and critics alike for its
features, performance, usability, customisation and
security. Firefox 1.5 builds on Firefox 1.x by adding an
integrated auto-update system, improved pop-up blocker and
improved standards support, not to mention thousands of bug
fixes. This updated guide will take you through all that
Firefox 1.5 has to offer covering the options menu,
about:config preferences, CSS, extensions and more.
Before we begin make
sure you have the
latest version of the browser running; this guide was
prepared for version 1.5 which was released recently. Also,
if you came here to read undecided whether you should try
Firefox here’s the download link
for Windows, and
other
operating systems, we suggest you at least give it a try
for a week and then decide.
Profiles
Firefox assigns all
configuration data and settings to a profile folder. The
default location of the profile folder varies with OS
used, basically:
Windows XP/2000.
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profilename\
Windows 95/98/Me.
C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profilename\
Linux.
~/.mozilla/firefox/profilename/
Mac OS X.
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/profilename/
To backup a profile
simply copy the relevant Profiles subfolders. By
default only 1 profile is used. Using the Profile
Manager you can manage multiple profiles, this can be
useful for a variety of reasons, e.g. comparing browser
performance, or troubleshooting with default vs.
modified preferences.
Click Start,
Run, type firefox –ProfileManager and click
Ok.
Create Profile.
Clicking this button launches the Create Profile Wizard
which guides you through creating a new profile with
default installation settings. This is useful for
troubleshooting/testing purposes as you may be able to
determine whether site compatibility issues or crashes you
are experiencing are caused by the site itself or a Firefox
option you changed.
Rename Profile.
By clicking on a listed profile then clicking this button
you may rename the profile. You can use this to distinguish
easily between multiple profiles, should you choose to use
them.
Delete Profile.
By clicking on a listed profile then clicking this button
you may delete profiles. Do not do this unless you
are absolutely sure you have retrieved any needed data from
the profile, e.g. bookmarks, and that the profile was not
located in an existing directory as all data will be
deleted from the directory.
Moving/Restoring
Profiles
In the event you need
to move existing profiles or want to restore a backed up
profile take the following steps:
1. Close all Firefox sessions.
2. Move the profile/backup profile
subfolder(s) to the new location, e.g. C:\Documents and
Settings\Username\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\pirnplj3.Default\ to
F:\pirnplj3.Default\.
3. Open the profiles.ini file with
any text editor; this file is located in the directory
before the Profiles folder, e.g. C:\Documents and
Settings\Username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\. It will
appear similar to the beneath:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=Default User
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/pirnplj3.Default
[Profile1]
Name=Default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/v7km716m.Default
Default=1
In the event you have multiple profiles
(as in the above) determine which profile is affected. In
this example it is the first profile listed
(pirnplj3.Default). As the profile has been moved to a
different drive, i.e. it’s not located in the Profiles
subfolder the IsRelative=1 entry needs to be changed
to IsRelative=0 (in the event the profile is to be
located in the existing Profiles directory leave this
set to IsRelative=0). Now change the
Path=Profiles/pirnplj3.Default entry to match the new
folder, in this case F:\pirnplj3.Default. Save the
changes and close the file.
4. Load Firefox, which will now use your
new profile locations if configured correctly.
Now that you
understand how to locate, backup and use profiles we can
begin to configure Firefox itself.
