A couple of links that can help with this, Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles and Profile backup - MozillaZine Knowledge Base. The second one includes a link to a free utility that can make this easier.

Just saving the progams folder will not work, the user data is stored elsewhere.

Navigate to C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

In this folder you will see another folder named "xxxxxxxx.default" (or something similar) Copy the contents of this folder onto a memory stick or similar and on your new Windows 7 installation navigate to the Profiles folder and paste the contents of your old "xxxxxxxx.default" into the new folder and replace all files within.

Make sure Firefox is closed when you're doing this. Then start Firefox again and all your settings, addons and history should be there!

Thanks McGurk,

But there is no folder named "AppData" in the path you provided...

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

I am currently in Vista, but will be doing clean install of Windows 7.

Thanks,

numetro

Okay, I used the link that Tony E provided and went to the Help menu and followed those instructions and it then took me to the correct profile folder... closed Firefox through exit, and copied the profile folder... I'm backing all that up to the D drive and to a DVD.

I think that'll work... so I do a re-install in Windows 7 with the original Firefox 3.6 installer and import or replace that profile folder... right?

Thanks,

numetro

Install Firefox, run it once to make it create a profile, then close Firefox and copy the contents of the backed up profile into the new profile folder. AS you are using a different OS, it is best not to copy mimeTypes.rdf

Hi Tony,

Is "mimeTypes.rdf" a file within the profile folder that I should remove before copying the profile folder in Windows 7?

Will the profile folder be in the same place in Windows 7 as it was in Vista?

When I originally tried to follow the path "C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles ", the "AppData" folder was not visible.

Hi Tony,

I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LAST PART OF MY LAST POST... HERE IS THE WHOLE POST AGAIN... _____________________________________

Is "mimeTypes.rdf" a file within the profile folder that I should remove before copying it?

Will the profile folder be in the same place in Windows 7 as it was in Vista?

When I originally tried to follow the path "C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles ", the "AppData" folder was not visible.

numetro

I don't know what is happening to that last paragraph... but you get the idea of my last question.

Thanks,

numetro

When Firefox creates the new profile it will create mimeType.rdf. You can keep that file, just do not copy the version from the backup.

mimeTypes.rdf contains details of what applications Firefox will use to handle different file types, there will be differences in Vista and Windows 7 for this file.

The location you specified for the profile is correct, but you will need to make Windows 7 display hidden files and folders, for how to do that see http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html

You can click Help - Troubleshooting information - Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder to find that folder in either installation.

Thanks guys... got all of it... I'm off to install Windows 7 now for my mom's ailing Vista, clunk, computer... I wish I was doing all of this for my Macs right now... maybe later at home.

numetro