Command Line option to launch directly into profile

[TimKönig]

My Idea

I'm happy with the new profile manager. Something that's still missing is the ability to skip the question which profile to use and instead load directly into a profile via a command line option, similar to what the `"C:/.../firefox.exe" -P ProfileName` option was.

Previous Workflow

My workflow with the old profile manager was pretty simple: One profile for work and anything related to me as a person, and one default profile for anything else. When I clicked on any Firefox shortcut or link, it'd open the default profile, regardless of whether there was already another instance opened. This way I don't accidentally show any real life data when sharing or recording my screen. If it was a work related link, I'd have two different shortcuts in my start menu, and be able to one-click launch into my work profile. The link still required drag-and-drop or copy-paste, but that's a small compromise I can always live with, and quite frankly I don't know how else to solve this design-wise without having weird and inconsistent behavior.

New Workflow

My new workflow, with "Choose a profile when Firefox opens" enabled, can depend on the current state Firefox is in. If it's closed it's just about selecting the profile. If it's open, it's about whether or not I want to open the link in that profile. If not, I'll have to switch to the other profile and then drag the link over. It gets even more complex with the "Choose a profile when Firefox opens" option disabled, where the last used profile will be used. This could potentially reveal information, such as bookmarks or pinned tabs (company chat and mailing system in my case), that shouldn't exactly be public.

Potential Solution & Mentions

Since the `-P` parameter is already used (and perhaps `-profile` too), I'd recommend a naming such as `-use_profile "Profile Name"` instead, in order to not deprecate the existing solution with the old profile manager. This has also been requested numerous times in the comments of KimB's post earlier this year:Try out Firefox Profiles in Nightly

According to her, it was added to the ever-growing product backlog, but I am not sure if this was ever discussed internally or even considered a necessity. Frankly, there's already an option for this in the old profile manager. And, as long as this never gets deprecated, it's more of a nice-to-have than a must-have. It could even be paired with a "Create shortcut for this profile" option to make the process of creating a profile specific shortcut on the Desktop even less finicky.

The option to choose a profile on start or use the most recent profile should stay - I can see people finding that incredibly useful.

As for selecting a default profile, that's already been requested:Ability to change default profile in the profile manager

Before I knew this didn't exist, I turned off "Choose a profile when Firefox opens", expecting radials below or in the profile squares to appear, allowing me to select one as default. My second thought was to right-click the profile square, hoping for a "Set as default" option, perhaps with a blue outline or little visual feedback on the profile square to appear once set.

[Jon]

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