Upgrading to Firefox 2

As I mentioned here and even here, it looks good for Firefox 2 to be released this coming Tuesday (October 24th). Now I am sure many folks are wondering ‘How do I upgrade to Firefox 2?’ Well, like Microsoft and IE7, the auto-update won’t be until sometime in November or may be even December.

Now, if you want it as soon as it comes out, you can download it directly from the Mozilla Firefox Page (note: this link will always link to the most current released version of Firefox). I would recommend you do a couple things you should do to be safe and make the upgrade easier. First, just as a precaution back-up your profile (nothing should go wrong, but just in case, you won’t lose everything). Second, AFTER you have downloaded Firefox 2, uninstall Firefox 1.5 (don’t worry your profile is stored else where so you will still have all your bookmarks, saved preferences, extensions and themes). Note: uninstalling the prior version of Firefox is not mandatory, but will make things simpler.

For those who want to wait until Mozilla offers you an auto-upgrade to Firefox 2, you will need to wait until you upgrade to Firefox 1.5.0.8 (due out sometime in November) first. You can not go directly from Firefox 1.5.0.7 to Firefox 2 via auto-update. The details as to how this will happen are still a little fuzzy, but my understanding is Firefox 1.5.0.8 will offer an upgrade to Firefox 2 when the 2.0.0.1 build is released (November or December).

Oh and for those who can’t wait until Tuesday, Mozilla has a Firefox 2 Preview Release Get a sneak peek at Firefox 2! on the main Firefox site. It is Firefox 2.0 RC3, which will become the final Firefox 2, unless as Asa Dotzler said, “Unless something unexpected happens.” Just to be sure and follow the directions from above as if you were downloading the final release.