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<title>Managing Profiles</title>
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<h1 id="managing_profiles">Managing Profiles</h1>
<p>If you use the Internet at home and at work, you may want to have access to
a different set of bookmarks, preferences, address books, email accounts,
Sidebar setup, and so on. Similarly, family members may want to share a copy
of the same browser software but keep their Internet identities separate.</p>
<p>The Profile Manager lets you create different profiles, each with its own
bookmarks, preferences, email settings, and so on. You automatically create a
default profile when you first install your browser software. After you
create one or more additional profiles, you will be asked which you want to
use each time you launch the browser.</p>
<div class="contentsBox">In this section:
<ul>
<li><a href="#creating_a_new_profile">Creating a New Profile</a></li>
<li><a href="#deleting_or_renaming_a_profile">Deleting or Renaming a
Profile</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 id="creating_a_new_profile">Creating a New Profile</h2>
<p>To create a profile:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open the Profile Manager:
<ul>
<li><strong>If &brandShortName; is running</strong>: Open the Tools menu
and select Switch Profile.</li>
<li><strong>If &brandShortName; is closed</strong>:<span class="win">
Open the Start menu and choose Programs, then &brandShortName;, then
Profile Manager.</span><span class="mac"> Hold down the
<kbd>Option</kbd> key while you're starting &brandShortName; from
the Finder or the Dock.</span><span class="unix"> Type the following at
the command line: <kbd>./mozilla -profilemanager</kbd></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Click Create Profile, read the Profile description, and then click
Next.</li>
<li>Enter a profile name. This can be anything you like, such as your real
name or a name that's related to what you use the profile for, such as
<q>School</q>.</li>
<li>Accept the default location for the new profile, or click the Choose
Folder button and navigate to the location you want.</li>
<li>If you have additional Language Packs installed, click
Select Language and choose the language you want.</li>
<li>Click Finish.</li>
</ol>
<p>[<a href="#managing_profiles">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>
<h2 id="deleting_or_renaming_a_profile">Deleting or Renaming a Profile</h2>
<p>You may want to delete profiles that you don't normally use. To delete
or rename an existing profile:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open the Profile Manager:
<ul>
<li><strong>If &brandShortName; is running</strong>: Open the Tools menu
and select Switch Profile. <strong>Note</strong>: You can't delete
the profile that is in use.</li>
<li><strong>If &brandShortName; is closed</strong>:
<span class="win"> Open the Start menu and choose Programs, then
&brandShortName;, then Profile Manager.</span><span class="mac"> Hold
down the <kbd>Option</kbd> key while you're starting
&brandShortName; from the Finder or the Dock.</span><span class="unix">
Type the following at the command line:
<kbd>./mozilla -profilemanager</kbd></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>To delete a profile, select its name and click Delete Profile. In the
confirmation box, choose one of the following options:
<ul>
<li><strong>Delete files</strong>: Deletes the whole profile folder
with its stored data (bookmarks, preferences, email
accounts, and so on). <em>Make sure that you won't need anything
from the profile in the future before you choose this option.</em></li>
<li><strong>Don't delete files</strong>: Removes the profile from
the list of available profiles, but keeps the profile folder. By
choosing this option none of your profile's stored data will be
deleted.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>To rename a profile, select its name, click Rename Profile, and follow the
instructions.</li>
</ol>
<p>[<a href="#managing_profiles">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>
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