In a typical day I will use up to 8 different PC's. When I am on these machines I want all of my custom settings to be there for me. Having a user profile on a Windows machine is easy. However, what to do with all the customizations I make to my favorite web browser? MozBackup solves this issue by allowing me to back up all Firefox settings, including extensions (although the program author does not guarantee they'll all transfer successfully) stick them on a flash drive and restore them on a separate machine. I have been able to use this with both Vista and XP.
First launch the MozBackup application which will start an easy to follow wizard and click Next.
Next, choose the Backup a profile option. You will notice MozBackup will locate all of your Mozilla applications including Thunderbird. Highlight the application profile you want to backup and click Next.
Here we select the profile in this example there is only one which is default. Also browse to the location you wish to save the backup file. I selected my flash drive. After everything has been configured click Next.
You will be asked if you want to password protect the file. I choose yes because I know it is going to be staying on my flash drive … my flash drive is already encrypted, but it never hurts to have that extra layer of protection.
Type in your password twice and click OK.
In the next dialogue box we are going to select what details in the Firefox profile to save or not. Keep in mind that if you choose to save the Extensions there is no guarantee they will restore successfully, but I have not yet had an issue with them. When your done configuring the details click Next.
You will then get a progress screen based upon the profile options we set above.
Backup successful! Click Finish and take you're backup settings to the next PC. Or if you want to create a new backup of Mozilla applications check New backup or restore and follow the above steps.
In my next post I will show the restore option.