Portable firefox and profile manager?

Firefox is also non-portable, but it was able to be made portable. The profile manager really can't, though? That's very strange. I mean, being open source, couldn't the profile manager be altered to look in ..\..\data\profiles (which would contain one or more profile_name folders)? Then again, I'm not a programmer... but it seems like, other than being able to create, rename, and delete profiles, it just looks in a set location (%APPDATA\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles ?) and lists the profiles, so it'd be my guess it could be told to look elsewhere...?

Still, it isn't particularly hard to manage multiple profiles in Portable Firefox. It can be a PITA if you swap back and forth a lot. Since your entire profile is contained in that Profile folder, I just drop other profiles in the Data folder alongside it and rename them to profile_Name. When I want to use one, I rename "profile" to "profile_something" and the one I want to use to "profile". Start Firefox, and it's using the other profile. That easy.

The other way is to simply have 2 copies of Portable Firefox, like we do at home. We have JFirefoxPortable and NFirefoxPortable folders under PortableApps. This works fine, except when a new version comes out, I must run the installer twice. Not a big deal. And much easier than swapping. Furthermore, each of us having our own Firefox shortcut on the desktop means one or two fewer clicks than when we installed Firefox and used the profile manager. Even on the quick launch toolbar, I just made a folder called Firefox and copied the shortcuts to it. It doesn't open like a menu, so the folder must be manually closed after we open our Firefox, but that's a minor setback. We could use the PA Platform, but we don't. (That would make sense though. I use it at work and all.)

Perhaps somebody, if it ever became an issue (e.g. PortableApps gets really big and people request it a lot), could make an extension for Firefox Portable only that would work as a portable profile manager. I'm sure PA's agreement with Mozilla wouldn't let PA bundle the extension, but nothing should stop them from putting it on the Applications page.

Hi shermsinc
That's true, Andrea's link seems not to be valid any more.

Here's his original script :

@REM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@REM
@REM ==COPY THIS FILE INTO THE FIREFOXPORTABLE-FOLDER==
@REM
@REM Portable Profiles 0.1d
@REM (c) 2009 Andreas Seitz
@REM Released under Creative Commons Licence 3.0 (by-sa)
@REM
@REM http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/
@REM Es ist Ihnen gestattet:
@REM * das Werk vervielfältigen, verbreiten und öffentlich zugänglich machen
@REM * Abwandlungen bzw. Bearbeitungen des Inhaltes anfertigen
@REM
@REM Zu den folgenden Bedingungen:
@REM * Namensnennung. Sie müssen den Namen des Autors/Rechteinhabers in der von ihm festgelegten Weise nennen.
@REM * Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen. Wenn Sie den lizenzierten Inhalt bearbeiten oder in anderer Weise umgestalten, verändern oder als Grundlage für ein andere Inhalte verwenden, dürfen Sie die neu entstandenen Inhalte nur unter Verwendung von Lizenzbedingungen weitergeben, die mit denen dieses Lizenzvertrages identisch, vergleichbar oder kompatibel sind.
@REM
@REM Dies ist lediglich eine nicht-rechtskräftige Zusammenfassung
@REM
@REM
@REM http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
@REM You are free:
@REM * to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
@REM * to Remix — to adapt the work
@REM
@REM Under the following conditions:
@REM * Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
@REM * Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license.
@REM
@REM This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license)
@REM
@REM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@REM
@if NOT EXIST "Data/allprofiles" mkdir "Data/allprofiles"
@if NOT EXIST "FirefoxPortable.exe" goto FALSCHERORDNER
@cls
@echo.
@echo P O R T A B L E P R O F I L E S v.0.1d
@echo ===========================================
@echo ende = Abbrechen/Cancel
@echo nix = zuletzt gewaehltes Profil/most recently used profile
@echo fuer ein neues Profil einfach nicht-vorhandenen Namen waehlen
@echo in order to create a new profile just type a not-yet-existing name
@echo.
@echo Bereits vorhandene Profile/Existing Profiles:
@echo ---------------------------------------------
@dir "Data/allprofiles" /b/a:d
@echo ---------------------------------------------
@echo.
@set/p auswahl=Auswahl/Choice:
@if %errorlevel% == 1 set auswahl=nix
@if %auswahl% == nix GOTO weiter
@if %auswahl% == ende GOTO ende
@del/F/S/Q "Data/profile"
@if %auswahl% == neu GOTO weiter
@xcopy "Data/allprofiles/%auswahl%" "Data/profile" /E/V

:weiter
@firefoxportable.exe
@if %auswahl% == nix GOTO ende
@if NOT EXIST "Data/allprofiles/%auswahl%" mkdir "Data/allprofiles/%auswahl%"
@del/F/S/Q "Data/allprofiles/%auswahl%"
@xcopy "Data/profile" "Data/allprofiles/%auswahl%" /E/V
@goto ende

:FALSCHERORDNER
@echo Portable Profiles (portprof.bat) is not located in the firefoxportable-folder. Please move it there.
@echo.
@echo Portable Profiles (portprof.bat) befindet sich nicht im Verzeichnis von Firefox Portable. Bitte verschieben Sie ihn dorthin.
@echo.
@echo.
@echo.
@echo Problem: Couldn't find FirefoxPortable.exe
@echo.
@echo Problem: Konnte FirefoxPortable.exe nicht finden
@echo.
@echo.
@echo.
@pause

:ende

Change it as I suggested if you want.
Copy it into a portprof.txt text file, then rename it as .bat

Then, to restore your 3 profiles, I think you just need to create 3 new profiles using the .bat
Once it's done, just copy your original profiles files into the newly created folders (under "Data/allprofiles/), replacing existing files.
Don't forget to update the plugins directory as well.

You may have to update your addons.