What command line switch do I use to specify a profile directory? (Brave multiple browser profiles)

With Chrome, I can have multiple profiles by creating a Windows desktop shortcut like so, then naming it how I wish:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --user-data-dir=c:\home\profiles\chrome\<path-to-profile-directory>


With Firefox, I can do the same thing, by creating a Windows desktop shortcut, and naming it how I wish:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -profile c:\home\profiles\firefox\<path-to-profile-directory>


My workflow, is that if I need a new browser profile, for a new project (contract programmer), I create a new browser profile independent of others, dedicated to that project. I have email accounts, (gmail, outlook or company email), portals I login to (bitbucket, github, gitlab), all dedicated to that project, and to have a clean separation is something that is needed.


Nothing short of a command line switch to specify the browser profile directory will do here.

I need a separate profile, different bookmarks, saved passwords (not a good idea), different cookies, browser settings and the works.

Especially the ability to set a test profile, that I can create programatically for use with Selenium testing, setting browser properties like no auto-update, auto download files, and a whole host of other settings that are specific to testing or web crawling.


The pattern is this for the command:

<path to executable> <some-command-line-switch> <path-to-profile-directory>

This is a simple thing, and there will be no adoption by me, and many others until there is a way to specify a profile for various projects, testing, work, personal, multiple uses, etc.

Thank you, this should have been offered from the beginning, if not, then I question the whole architecture.

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