tried waterfox and screwed up my firefox

Ken1 · 19 Sep 2011

MrAlex94 said:

Ken1 said:

MrAlex94

Waterfox uses the same profile Firefox does. It should be obvious the first time you run Waterfox and see that the interface/bookmarks/history has all remained the same.

Well it might be obvious if it starts but if you read my first posting you'll see that it didn't start at all crashed before anything visible turned up on the screen

When you uninstalled Waterfox, if the 'remove preferences/user data' boxed is ticked, then it will remove the profile that both Waterfox and Firefox use, which again should be made obvious from what I said above.

Not very obvious when you have installed it in a totally different location, and also
being a Beta or RC or final release it's at least another flavour of the program you would think it would allow you to run it alongside with you default browser.

You are the first person I've heard of who has had a problem with Waterfox crashing on the first run. Did Waterfox really crash or did you get an error message?

Yes it did crash! and like I said even before anything visible turned up on my screen -- And I guess someone has to be the first one

Anyway, this is just a post to clear up any confusion ..

no confusion, it's all described in my first posting

But it's a good thing that you cleared the confusion about where
the waterfox store it's profiles.

you all have a good one
//Ken1

I know you had a different problem but since this is the #4 link that comes up on Google searches for Waterfox I thought I'd list the above for any people that would come to see this thread.
And it's a bit hard to decipher what the issue is if Waterfox just crashes instantly, since I like to sort out any problems it has

I understand no problems at all :) I was not aware that this posting came up on the first page in google about waterfox, and I never intended to trashtalk waterfox in any way I think it's great that people work so hard on getting the most out of our computer hardware :)

I hope my posting doesn't stop anyone to try waterfox, because the chances that they would experience the same thing seems unlikely, but if this link serves a purpose it might be that "anybody" should create a backup of the %appdata%mozilla folder and check out the profile.ini before they change
or do a major upgrade with a different flavour of firefox :)

hehehe I don't know if this came out alright, but :)
you all have a good one and thank you to all you nice people that are willing to share your knowledge

//Ken1

Schroff87 · 20 Sep 2011

Nobody noticed the irony when "Water"fox screwed up "Fire"fox?

mart44 · 06 Oct 2011

Running two versions of Firefox on the same computer is a bit tricky because they both will use the same Profile by default. If extensions and themes aren't compatible the second browser, they will get disabled and then will need re-enabling for use with the original browser. Also, as discovered, the Profile can get deleted when the second browser is uninstalled.

It is possible to set up an additional Profile for the second browser so that it doesn't grab hold of and use the existing Profile. There are threads over on the Mozilla forums that discuss how to run two versions of Firefox at the same time, each one having its own Profile. People want to do this so they can run the stable version and alpha/beta versions of the browser on the same computer. This is where I got the information from some years ago. It works for me with the current version of Firefox and Waterfox. My own words here but credit to the Mozilla Forums.

Waterfox installs as expected in its own directory. However as the installation finishes, un-tick the box that says 'Launch Waterfox now'. It's important that Waterfox doesn't start and then grab hold of Fx 7.0.1's Profile. So, with the box unticked, click the 'Finish' button.

After doing that, the Firefox Profile Manager needs to be opened so that a separate Profile can be created for Waterfox. To do this, go to 'Start > Run' and type 'firefox.exe -p' into the box and press OK. The Profile Manager should open with an entry called 'Default' in it. This will be the Profile for Fx 7.0.1 that is already installed. It would probably be best rename this to something distinctive ('Fx 7.0.1' maybe). Next, click the 'Create Profile' button and follow the instructions. Give the additional Profile a name when prompted ('Waterfox' perhaps). Carry on and create the new Profile.

What has to be done then is to make sure the browser you choose to open does so using its own Profile. This can be done by unticking the box in the Profile Manager that says 'Don't ask at startup'. The idea is that you want to be asked what Profile to use as the browser starts. Choose the Fx 7.0.1 Profile when starting Fx 7.0.1 and the Waterfox Profile when starting Waterfox. Make sure to choose the right one each time.

It is possible to get both Firefox and Waterfox to open using their own Profiles without having to bring up the Profile Manager every time. You might read of a few different ways but this is how I did it. Open a new text document on the Desktop. Paste the following into it:

@echo off
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p "Fx 7.0.1"
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=0

Save the text file and then rename it to: Firefox.bat

Open another new text document on the Desktop and Paste the following into it:

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

Rename this file to: Waterfox.bat

Now, when you click on either of these .bat files, the browser you choose to open will do so with the correct Profile. It's even possible to have both Firefox and Waterfox open at the same time and using their own Profiles.

From there, the bat files can be put in a folder and stored somewhere in the filing system. Create shortcuts to them on the Desktop. The advantage of this being that you can change the icon in the shortcuts' Properties so that they are those of Firefox and Waterfox.

Note 1: (x 86) will need removing in the first .bat file if the OS is the 32-bit version of Windows 7.
Note 2: There isn't a mistake in the 2nd batch file. Although the browser is Waterfox, the exe is still firefox.exe

When/if uninstallation time comes. Choose not to remove the Profile during the uninstallation procedure. Remove it later via Firefox's Profile Manager.