PortableApps.com is proud to announce the release of Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition 43.0. It's the Mozilla Firefox browser bundled with a PortableApps.com launcher as a portable app, so you can take your browser, bookmarks, settings and extensions on the go. And it's open source and completely free. This release updates to the latest version and introduces automatic dual-mode 32-bit and 64-bit operation, ensuring Firefox runs as fast as possible on every PC. It's available for immediate download and bundled on the World's Best Flash Drive: The PortableApps.com Carbide as well as the fast and affordable PortableApps.com Companion.
Mozilla®, Firefox® and the Firefox logo are registered trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation and used under license.
Update automatically or install from the portable app store in the PortableApps.com Platform.
Features
Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured web browser that's easy to use. It has lots of great features including popup-blocking, tabbed-browsing, integrated search, improved privacy features, automatic updating and more. Plus, thanks to the PortableApps.com launcher bundled in the Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your favorite browser along with all your favorite bookmarks and extensions with you wherever you go. Learn more about Mozilla Firefox...
PortableApps.com Installer / PortableApps.com Format
Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition is packaged in a PortableApps.com Installer so it will automatically detect an existing PortableApps.com installation when your drive is plugged in. And it's in PortableApps.com Format, so it automatically works with the PortableApps.com Platform including the Menu and Backup Utility.
Download
Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition is available for immediate download from the Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition homepage. You can get the German release from the German homepage and the other localized releases from the Localization page. Get it today!
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Comments
32-bit and 64-bit in One
With this release, Firefox Portable is now a dual-mode app, meaning that both the 32-bit version of Firefox and the 64-bit version of Firefox are included in the package and the best one used for whatever PC you happen to be using. While this does double the install and download size, the resulting dual mode version of Firefox is about the same size as many of our other browsers. This will allow some intense web apps and games to run more efficiently on 64-bit systems, which is the main reason Mozilla is now making the 64-bit download prominent with this release.
If you'd like to force the 32-bit version to run on a 64-bit machine (for testing, plugin compatibility, etc), you can set the app to only use that with the new AlwaysUse32Bit setting in the INI file detailed in the readme.txt linked from help. You can even remove the Firefox64 directory to save space if you'd like (note that the 32-bit version can't currently be removed). This is also detailed on the Firefox Portable support page: https://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable#32and64
UPDATE: The above applies to use of jPortable in this release as well as other plugins. I'll likely add support for jPortable64 when Firefox Portable is in 64-bit mode in the next release.
We'll be collecting feedback on this new approach over the coming weeks to see if it's working for users as well as thoughts on speed and install size. We'll be considering additional installation preferences in conjunction with the PortableApps.com Platform as well.
Note: Please don't use this thread to ask about other browsers going dual mode as some will require changes to the PA.c Installer. Additionally, most other browsers are the size of Firefox's new dual mode install, so a dual mode version of them will be as big as a full office suite (Chrome dual mode will be 350MB).
Will 32-bit plugins stop working?
And just to make sure, will FirefoxPortable2ndProfile run in 64-bit mode too?
Same
The second profile will continue working as it did previously. Automatic switching will work with it.
Weird
For me all 32-bit plugins in FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins have stopped working immediately after updating to 43.0 . Only locally installed plugins are showing up under Add-ons/Plugins. Trying to force the 32-bit FF-version didn't bring them up again.
Unchanged
The launcher code is unchanged if you set it to AlwaysUse32Bit from earlier versions. I know Firefox now requires signing by default for some add-ons. Some obscure unsigned plugins likely won't work unless you manually turn off signing in about:config.
Keep in mind plugins are deprecated and Firefox will remove support entirely by the end of 2016.
Cont'd
Thanks John, but I tried AlwaysUse32Bit set to true, it didn't bring up any missing plugin (extensions are fine ... except one unsigned - obviously). Even the portable Java installation fails to show up under Plugins. That is what I called weird.
I will reset the FF-installation to a previous state (thx backup) and plan to reinstall/upgrade again. After that I will report again. Cheers, it's after midnight here in Europe, time for bed.
Forums
Please ensure it's the 32-bit version by confirming via Task Manager. If it is, please post a complete write up of the issue with all details (windows version, full path, etc) in the Firefox Support forum so we can try to assist.
Solved
Reinstalled and started in 32-bit (confirmed
) ,,, works as expected, sorry, no idea what was wrong with the first attempt. Thanks for your work.
64bit won't work on old laptop with Windows Vista
Yesterday (17th dec) I updated some of my portable apps while using an old laptop as I was travelling and far from my usuall environment.
Firefox did not start after updating. It showed the first splash and then died quietly. There was nothing lingering along that the task manager could find.
The host system had Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 installed on a dual core 3.06 GHz Lenovo 64 bit ThinkPad W700 with 4GB RAM
I could start the browser manually by running the exe in the App/Firefox directory - so I deleted the Firefox64 folder and the browser started as normal. The app launcher seems to detect the 64bit system but the 64bit version seems to never start. Maybe the system is to old or something else fails.
Fix Coming
(Original comment removed)
It turns out that, like many modern apps, x64 is only supported on Windows 7 and up. I've updated the launcher appropriately and it works in Firefox Portable 43.0.1 which is mirroring to the download servers and will be posted shortly.