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multiple instances of an app

yodar - August 10, 2009 - 2:31pm

my normal mode is to be running 2 instances of firefox, with the 2nd one started in sandboxie. i use the 2nd one for random surfing/searching and also clicked links in emails open in it.

when i try to open a 2nd ffportable in the sandbox, i get a message telling me to shut down the other instance.

is this really a limitation of ffportable vs regular?


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Firefox

Firefox itself disallows multiple instances running. We have a switch available for Firefox Portable that will let you run multiple instances, but it will leave some files behind on each PC you run it on (since the launcher can't stick around to properly clean up). Details and a sample INI you can edit to enable it are in the Other\Source directory. The readme.txt explains it. Copy FirefoxPortable.ini from there to the FirefoxPortable directory and edit it so that AllowMultipleInstances=true

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

multiple instances of an app

ok, that works. thanks.

i don't understand why you say "Firefox itself disallows multiple instances running". i have been running with 2 instances [one in a sandbox] for years without any special tricks.

It Does

If you have a copy of Firefox already running and try to launch Firefox Portable without setting the special environment variable we use, Firefox will just pass itself off to the already running instance. Say you have Firefox 3.5 installed and running and fire up a copy of Firefox 3.0, it will run for just a second, bring the copy of Firefox 3.5 to the foreground and exit. Firefox is designed this way. Sandboxing changes the way this works a bit and interferes with that process, though.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!