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How can I use multiple concurrent profiles without breaking Windows' default HTML handler?

  • 3 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by Morbus

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser
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I have two Firefox icons, one with the '-p "MyProfile" -no-remote' options, and one with the '-p "MyGirlfriendsProfile" -no-remote' options. This works great; we both have out separate pages logged in with no conflict. However, when I click a link or HTML file in any other program, Windows tries to launch a new process rather than loading the target in one of the two running ones, and I get the "Firefox is already running..." error. I found the registry key "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\command" which provides the parameters for handling Firefox-associated targets, and tried adding '-P "MyProfile" -no-remote' to it, but that doesn't work.

Is there any way I can get Windows 7 to open links/files in my profile in the process that's already running?

This happened

Every time Firefox opened

== I started using separate profiles

I have two Firefox icons, one with the '-p "MyProfile" -no-remote' options, and one with the '-p "MyGirlfriendsProfile" -no-remote' options. This works great; we both have out separate pages logged in with no conflict. However, when I click a link or HTML file in any other program, Windows tries to launch a new process rather than loading the target in one of the two running ones, and I get the "Firefox is already running..." error. I found the registry key "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\command" which provides the parameters for handling Firefox-associated targets, and tried adding '-P "MyProfile" -no-remote' to it, but that doesn't work. Is there any way I can get Windows 7 to open links/files in my profile in the process that's already running? == This happened == Every time Firefox opened == I started using separate profiles

Chosen solution

You can't send a link from an external program to a Firefox instance that is started with the -no-remote switch. That switch makes that Firefox instance invisible (undetectable) for other programs. A workaround is to drag the link in that Firefox browser window. You only need to use the -no-remote switch if you need to have both profiles open at the same time and I assume that that won't happen in your case unless you leave Firefox open and running all the time.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new_instance_of_Firefox_with_another_profile

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All Replies (3)

Morbus
Morbus
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Hello Pascal.

I don't know if this is a solution for your problem (probably not), but the way I manage my Firefox profiles is I have a shortcut that goes firefox.exe" -profilemanager . When I open it, it opens the inbuilt profile manager, and I work with it.

You may also want to consider the possibility of using different user accounts in your computer to separate each workspace and get rid of these issues from the root. Separate workspaces are, in my experience, the best thing for when a computer is used by more than one person.

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

You can't send a link from an external program to a Firefox instance that is started with the -no-remote switch. That switch makes that Firefox instance invisible (undetectable) for other programs. A workaround is to drag the link in that Firefox browser window. You only need to use the -no-remote switch if you need to have both profiles open at the same time and I assume that that won't happen in your case unless you leave Firefox open and running all the time.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new_instance_of_Firefox_with_another_profile

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser Question owner
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Thanks for the link cor-el.

I simply removed no-remote for the shortcut to my profile of Firefox, making it the default link handler and all is well.

Thanks for the help.