How to open two instances of Firefox ?

Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
3,343
Reaction score
213
Points
63
Location
Forest Hills, NYC
Your Mac's Specs
15-inch Early 2008; Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 10.7.5
So I was listening to the Opie and Anthony show via the CBS radio player in Firefox, which upon opening, makes its own window. I then closed the other (original window) with all tabs, leaving only the cbs radio player window opened, but realized I forgot to check something and tried to open another FF window.

Only, I couldn't figure out how. :[ The CBS radio player sat in the dock on the right side, and of course I figured that simply hitting the FF icon on the dock would open another FF window, but it only maximized the minimized cbs player. Forgive me for saying this, but that is some of the dumbest behavior I've seen. If I wanted to unminimize the player, I'd either hit its icon from the right side of the dock, or cmd tab it.

So now, how the heck am I supposed to open another instance of FF in this particular scenario ?

Doug
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Click the File menu and click New Window.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
1,760
Reaction score
23
Points
38
Location
Leicester, England
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook, iPod Classic, 8GB 3G iPhone, Time Capsule
Forgive me for saying this, but that is some of the dumbest behavior I've seen. If I wanted to unminimize the player, I'd either hit its icon from the right side of the dock, or cmd tab it.

Yup. How dare they make the open windows of the application appear when you start clicking on the icon...

Cmd+N or File> New Window (like with Windows).
 
OP
Doug b
Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
3,343
Reaction score
213
Points
63
Location
Forest Hills, NYC
Your Mac's Specs
15-inch Early 2008; Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 10.7.5
Click the File menu and click New Window.

Thanks, I had just realized that and was about to correct myself.

Yup. How dare they make the open windows of the application appear when you start clicking on the icon...

Cmd+N or File> New Window (like with Windows).

The sarcasm isn't needed. I realize this isn't windows (though I haven't used it in 3 years) but I just don't think that there need be two icons which do the same thing, as it's misleading. The FF icon (left of taskbar) logically means to me that it's the main program icon, whilst the icon in the taskbar which even looks like the open app denoted by its mimicking picture means to me that I should click that one if I want that app maximized. Does this not make sense to you ?

Doug

Edit: And I know I can also use expose to bring app windows to the forefront, which I did, but it's still not nearly as efficient (IMO) as just alt tabbing. Not a huge deal, but just thought I'd mention it.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
1,760
Reaction score
23
Points
38
Location
Leicester, England
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook, iPod Classic, 8GB 3G iPhone, Time Capsule
Well, if you had one window minimized and one open, then clicked the Firebox icon it would just bring the open one to the front - if there isn't another one it brings up whatever you had open before, if you see what I mean. If there's no windows it opens a new one for you. Doesn't do quite the same thing, but yeah.

All I said was it is a bit like Windows in the sense that the keyboard shortcut is basically the same, as is the other way of opening a new window. The only one that catches me out is Cmd+N in Finder opens a new window, whereas on my old 98 machine it creates a new folder.

As for Expose - whatever works best for you really. Cmd+Tab will switch between applications, sadly not windows.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Thanks, I had just realized that and was about to correct myself.

Cool beans.

The sarcasm isn't needed.

Agreed. This *is* the Switcher forum after all.

I realize this isn't windows (though I haven't used it in 3 years) but I just don't think that there need be two icons which do the same thing, as it's misleading. The FF icon (left of taskbar) logically means to me that it's the main program icon, whilst the icon in the taskbar which even looks like the open app denoted by its mimicking picture means to me that I should click that one if I want that app maximized. Does this not make sense to you ?

I can see how this could be confusing. You are correct, the icon for Firefox in the Dock would be a shortcut to the actually application that resides in your Applications folder. What you see represented on the right side of the dock is the opened and running application in its minimized form. It's a little hard to get used to, but that's the way OS X represents these things. Much like with the Start Menu in windows, you have a 'Quick Links' toolbar with several applications shortcuts, and then just to the right you have your currently running applications represented by boxes on the Start bar.

Anything on the right of the divider is going to be folder shortcuts (if you've placed any there) and currently running, but minimized applications.

Hope this helps.

Edit: And I know I can also use expose to bring app windows to the forefront, which I did, but it's still not nearly as efficient (IMO) as just alt tabbing. Not a huge deal, but just thought I'd mention it.

You can use Command+Tab to cycle through windows, similar to Alt-tabbing.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
1,760
Reaction score
23
Points
38
Location
Leicester, England
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook, iPod Classic, 8GB 3G iPhone, Time Capsule
Sorry, didn't mean to be nasty. Having one of those days...
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2004
Messages
4,744
Reaction score
381
Points
83
Location
USA
Your Mac's Specs
12" Apple PowerBook G4 (1.5GHz)
Three years or no, you're still thinking of Windows.

On the Mac, there is no taskbar. There is no maximize. There are no "instances" of applications.

When you click on an icon in the Dock, it always means exactly the same thing: "Bring this program to the front."

Now, this can mean one of three different things, depending on what, exactly, that program is doing.

1. If the program is not running at all, then the program is first launched (bouncy, bouncy, bouncy...) and then brought to the front.
2. If the program is running, but no documents/windows are opened, then a new document/window is opened and brought to the front.
3. If there are any document windows open already, then those are brought to the front, coming out of the Dock if need be.

In your case, there was a document open, but it was minimized in the dock. When you clicked on the Firefox icon, the computer said, "Oh, snap, this guy wants a Firefox window. I've got one of those around somewhere..." and it pulled the only one it could find out of the Dock.

Or, in Apple's own words....
Clicking in the Dock

Clicking an application icon in the Dock should always result in a window becoming active.
  1. If the application is not open, a new window should open. In a document-based application, the application should open a new, untitled window. In an application that is not document-based, the main application window should open.
  2. When a user clicks an open application’s icon in the Dock, the application becomes active and all open unminimized windows are brought to the front; minimized document windows remain in the Dock. If there are no unminimized windows when the user clicks the Dock icon, the last minimized window should be expanded and made active. If no windows are open, the application should open a new window—a new untitled window for document-based applications, otherwise the main application window.
Control-clicking an application icon in the Dock displays a menu that allows users to perform tasks such as quitting the application, hiding it, or showing its location in the file system. (Users can also press the application icon to get this menu.) You can modify this menu to make features of your application available from your Dock tile. See “Dock Menus” for more information on Dock menus.
Ref
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top