By default, extensions are installed for the current user only, but they can also be installed across multiple profiles and even globally.
Once installed, extensions can be configured by opening the Extensions Manager ("Tools -> Extensions") or by selecting "Extensions" from the the Add-ons Manager in Firefox 2.0 ("Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions") selecting the extension from the list, and then clicking the "Options" button. (If this button is disabled then the extension is not user-configurable.)
Single-user installation
- Firefox: To install an extension in the current user profile, simply click the Install button on Firefox Add-ons or by saving the extension (which has a ".xpi" file extension) to your computer and dragging it into any Firefox window or opening it from the File menu.
- Thunderbird: Download the extension, open Add-ons and click its the Install button.
- Details...
Extensions installed in this way will not appear in any other profiles which currently exist or which are later created.
Multi-user installation
Multi-user installations are useful if more than one person uses your application. You should install and use the Mr Tech Local Install extension to configure your extension installations for multiple users. Alternatively you could simply allow multiple users to use the same profile; you must ensure that the profile folder is accessible to each of them on your system.
Global installation
A global installation will install an extension to the application directory rather than within a profile, so it will be available to all users. To perform a global installation you should not activate the .xpi installer file within your Mozilla application. Instead, download and save it to disk and ensure that you close the application completely.
Then follow one of the following options:
- Restart your Mozilla application with the following command line arguments:
-install-global-extension "
where "extname.xpi" is the name of the installer file.
- Copy the .xpi file into the
\extensions folder. When you start your Mozilla application again, it displays an installation dialog, asking "The following items were found in your Extensions folder. Do you want to install them?"
Depending on the extension, each user may need to configure a globally-installed extension independently.