To the Windows users, Firefox is known for its high level of security that it offers against the native browser of Windows. A large number of users use Firefox for its immunity to spyware, ActiveX, popups and lots more. There are however times when you have to troubleshoot Firefox related issues. Here’s a list of some of the command line options for Firefox.
- -safe-mode: Starts Firefox in safe mode with all extensions, themes, bookmarks, toolbars disabled and default.
- -p: Brings up the Firefox profile manager dialogue to let you choose your profile
- <url>: Opens the <url> with Firefox
- -createprofile <profilename>: Creates a profile with <profilename>
- -createprofile “profilename c:\profilelocation”: Creates the profile “profilename” at location “c:\profilelocation”
- -migration: Starts Firefox with the import wizard.
- -console: Starts Firefox with the debugging console.
- -jsconsole: Starts Firefox with the javascript console
- -search “terms”: Starts Firefox and searches for “terms” using the default search engine
- -setDefaultBrowser: Sets Firefox as the default browser
- -no-remote -P “<profilename>”: Starts Firefox in a different profile than the current instance of Firefox
- -inspector <url>: Starts DOM Inspector with<url>.
- -chrome chrome://inspector/content/inspector.xul: Starts DOM Inspector
- -new-window <url>: Opens Firefox with <url> into a second window
- -new-tab <url>: Opens Firefox with <url> is an extra tab
- -install-global-theme “/path/to/theme”: Installs a theme into the application directory so that it is available in all profiles
- -install-global-extension “/path/to/extension”: Installs an extension into the application directory so that it is available in all profiles
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{ 15 comments on Lesser Known Firefox Command Line Options… read them below or add one }
i really appreciate the way you make difficult concepts easier to understand. I still haven’t figured out how to get my Night Launch Nasa Skin-2 ( the black background behind google) to work, but woityh time, im sure i will. I’m really looking forward to Colorful Tabs: they sound tremendous!!!!
Thank you all for your hard work!!!!!!
Can you tell me if there’s a way to launch Firefox to an URL, and if firefox is already open, prevent it from opening a new tab – - – just point the present browser window to that url?
Bob: just use
firefox.exe http://www.google.comWhat about opening to a certain URL, either in a full-screen mode, or without the address bar, bookmark toolbar, status bar, etc?
This is OS dependent and doesn’t work on OS X
I am trying to do a bit fun.
I know that we can close the tab using CTRL+W key. My first question is
*. Can we change this key and make it ‘C’. If not then it’s Ok.
My second and important question is that.
*. If I have 5 open tabs and I want to close the third one, can i modify d key in such a way that I press CTRL+W and press 3. My third tab should get closed and remaining should stay as they were previously. CTRL+W+5 means fifth tab get closed.(Using command line option or batch file, whatever, anyhow..).(It will be better if we could the key from CTRL+W to ‘C’ or any single key I mean then C+3=third tab close and so on)…
Looking forward for your reply…
Now, what i want to do with a firefox shortcut is login to my site without having to type in my username and password…how is this feasible…of course only I have access to my machine…i figure if i can do this via the command line then i can also do it via a shortcut…how accurate is this? any ideas please?
Using the command line, I can start a new browser and load up a search automatically, BUT, can I then automatically close the browser? Either once the page is loaded or after say a set time, say, 3 seconds later.
best wishes
scotjam
I’ll retry the old Rob question: is there a way to force firefox to load a new URL in an already open window without opening a new window/tab ?
Just running:
firefox http://www.mozilla.org/
opens a new window or tab.
Thanks
That would be point no. 15. in the post.
Shivanand: no in that way a new tab is created. Going on you end up with a big number of tabs opened. I’d like to have a window that is updated by an external command without creating new tabs.
I know this is possible under Unix/Linux with the -remote option, but it’s not portable on other platforms.
i need help with my firefox mail. it is opening like 500 extra tabs upon launch. i am on a mac osx. it started because .mail started launching everytime i started firefox. so i made a error and went into mail prefs and told it to choose firefox upon launch. now i can’t seem to undo it, and cannot use firefox at all.
would love it if you could tell me how to ‘close all tabs’ in firefox. thank you!
You left option for private browsing
It is : firefox -private. Sad thing:Works only on firefox 3.6 and above
Yup. There’s was nothing called private browsing when this post was composed.