Install Firefox 4 on Your Windows PC and Restore Current Bookmarks & Settings

Today is the big day for Firefox fans…the new version 4.0 is being released today. Here we’ll take a look at how to install the new version and how to bring your current bookmarks and settings with you.

First we’ll take a look at upgrading your current version, which should be 3.6.15 to version 4.

Upgrade Firefox

1. Head over to the Firefox site and download and install version 4.0. Installation is straight-forward like previous versions following the defaults in the wizard.

2. Depending on what Add-ons you have installed, some of them may not work right away until the developers have time to update them. To verify there are no updates yet, click on the Check Now button.

3. If no updates were found for your Add-ons, Firefox will periodically check and inform you when updates are found…Click Finish.

4. To verify the install was successful and you have the current version click on the Firefox Start Tab >> Help >> About Firefox.

5. Then you should see you have the latest version which is 4.0.

Clean Install

1. If you’d prefer to do a clean install of Firefox, simply delete it with a utility like Revo Uninstaller to make sure you get rid of anything the Windows uninstaller leaves behind. There’s a free and professional version…but if you want to check out the additional features of the Pro version, they offer a free 30 trial.

2. Then go through the Firefox 4 install wizard as normal.

Backup and Restore Bookmarks & Settings

You might not want to deleted bookmarks or other settings you’ve accumulated over time. A great utility to save and transfer those bookmarks and settings is MozBackup. Kick off the MozBackup installation…

2. Select Backup a profile, highlight Mozilla Firefox 3.6.15, then click Next.

3. Highlight your default profile, browse to a location to save it (it saves as a .pcv file) then click Next.

4. If you want to make sure the backup file is secure you have the option to password-protect it if you want.

5. Check or uncheck each of the Firefox components you want to backup or not and click Next.

6. Then wait while your backup is completed.

7. After the backup is created click the Finish button.

8. After you’ve created a backup of Firefox, go through the uninstall process.

9. After you’ve gone through the uninstall process, go through the install as normal.

10. Now that you have your fresh install of Firefox 4, you’ll want to run MozBackup again and restore what you saved previously. Make sure you close out of Firefox 4 first and run MozBackup and this time check Restore a Profile.

11. Browse to the location of the .pcv file you previously saved and click Next to restore it.

12. A dialog box will come up asking if you’re sure you want to restore the profile…click Yes.

13. Wait for the process to complete then click Finish when it’s done.

14. Now you’ll have your brand new version of Firefox along with your original bookmarks and other settings.

15. Again some of your Add-ons might not work, but Firefox will keep an eye out for you when the extensions are updated.

That’s really all there is to it. Have fun with the newest version of Firefox!

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