Is is just me or is it taking longer these days to fire up Firefox? I am noticing a much longer wait after switching on the computer and especially going into the browser for the first time. Is Firefox 3 slower?

It does take quite a long time to start up. Make sure you are defragged and empty the cache once in a while. The number of extensions installed might also make a difference to the start up time. Apart from looking into those aspects, I don't think there's too much you can do.

A new Profile might help. The Profiles folder doesn't ever get renewed automatically. It has to be done manually. The Profiles folder can give troubles sometimes, especially if it's the original one that has been kept for upgrade after upgrade.

I personally create a new Profile each time a major upgrade is released. This might not make a difference to the start up time ..but it could do.

So, idiots guide to doing it, how would I create a new profile and I will keep this on file and do it when I update also. I still think Firefox 3 is slower somehow as I didn't notice this with the previous version.

I find Firefox quite slow to load when the computer is first turned on but perhaps a bit faster when starting the browser up for the 2nd or 3rd time. I have the time, so don't worry about it personally

I'm lucky regarding the Profiles question. Mozilla have written a comprehensive and illustrated guide already (link below). The only thing I would add is not to delete your existing Profile. Create an additional one just for test purposes. It can always be removed again if it doesn't help matters (or just keep it for future tests). If it does help, install your extensions into it, import the bookmarks from the old Profile and generally build it to requirements. Once Firefox is running just how you want it to with the new Profile, then you can remove the old one.

It's not a difficult process once you've done it a few times. Since you haven't, be prepared for things possibly getting a bit worrisome.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles