Would be nice I think to try some proxy handling at the "local" level.
It seems that the extra QC applied here really makes a difference (except for Opera of course 
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you can get portable tor browser with all it needs to work out of the box from :
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I much prefer the QC that PA provides, so thanks anyway but I'll pass for now.
is the same as here, it is just the portable firefox from this site, nothing more or less.
The tor system itself is done by the tor org, so it is directly from the authors, you can not have anything more direct. The tor is so as it is, doing any changes to it makes no sense since then it will not remain compatible with the tor network. So it has to be the original and updated from the original, therefore you can not have any more advanced source of tor subsystem then from the tor org itself, they operate the network and know therefore what you need at your side to be able to participate.
So if you want have some simple to install tor system, to be at the latest state of update etc, you have to get the collection of files from the tor org.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
The Tor Browser package contains an unsupported copy of Firefox Portable with quite a few changes to the profile and settings that I wouldn't recommend. I don't think they have Mozilla's permission to retain the Firefox logo either, which is also unfortunate. And the app isn't in PA.c Format so it won't work with the PA.c Updater, Backup or platform installer. Plus, I'm unsure how well upgrades will work.
It would be fairly trivial to adjust the package and do a bit of custom code to get it in PA.c Format, better support upgrades, have all the Data in a single directory and even alter the browser naming to have things kosher but I'm unsure if the Tor folks would be interested.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
well, they dont work the ususal way, the only way I found is grab the recent package and use it, delete the old one.
The structure of the whole asembly does change often it seems to me, the versions of tor itself do change often too and this and that version does not work with this and that vidalia, then some combinations need other config for the proxy etc.
On linux, where all bits come separate anyway, I had some hard times to find the right match of versions to make all work and everytime one of the components gets updated, half of the things stops work.
Therefore I like the 'bundle' since this is matched and simply tested so it works on the network and does not at least mess there around.
As far as browser, if they have some kind of older one, I did often copy paste normal ffportable, did work so far fine with no problems. Earlier it was simpler, one could change some entries in some scripts, now one has to rename the executable of the firefox, well they call it differently now at least, the icon is still same.
All has to be somehow restricted in functionality, but otherwise it would not make any sense if everybody could install all sorts of plugins and extensions which bypass the tor after all.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
As has been pointed out here by the lead author of pa.com the tor "browser" is a tardy and untoward mess, hence the reason I don't use it but I understand why it exists and the concept is great but like many things, it's QC is less than ideal, let alone acceptable.
It is complete and utter rubbish and the only people who can bring quality control to open source software, are the people @ pa.com
you can use your browser with tor, no problem.
tor is only one, so there is no problem, you have to get the valid version from tor.org, otherwise you can not join the network. The tor has to be always current version, otherwise you will be dropped out of the network soon after you try to connect.
Then you can get the proxy, which for windows the polipo might be the choice , privoxy might work, but if you want use the gui vidalia, then better take polipo.
And yes , vidalia might be the nice thing to use, but is not absolutely essential.
But note, that those are separate products and are not part of the tor, so they have to be maintained and updated separately, since there is so far no software existing which will take care of all the tasks around tor.
So far I have not heard about browsers having a proxy included, so all is kind of assembly of number of different products working together.
To make things easy, for firefox the torbutton can be downloaded from mozilla repository. This will help you to disable many functions in firefox so your tor work is safe.
You can use other browsers too, just set the proxy setting for using the polipo, disable all plugins and extensions communicating over network, thats all. If other browsers have similar addons I dont know for sure, but they might be somewhere in the pipeline.
That all browsers used for tor have to be crippled to minimum functionality is given by the tor system itself, if usual functionality would preserved, tor would be bypassed and the whole thing will be useless.
There used to be one 'convenience' package including opera, but it was not enough crippled after all, and it used to work with only one particular version of tor, after updating any single component it failed. This shows that maintaining a tor browser can be be tricky task, you have to maintain 3 or 4 different products and check them for compatibility not only to each other , but to the actual network too, which is defined by the tor org itself. I assume, that this is the reason, why nobody produced some rugged, compact and easy to handle software to be used on tor network.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I don't have an issue using firefox.
In fact I don't use FF for anything at all and only bother to download TOR when I want to use it (ff that is) so unless these guys can get their act together and provide a quality product...
a) I won't be using firefox
and
b) I will not use TOR
Simple in my mind, stay with what works, eg. seamonkey, iron, maxthon and to a lesser extent Opera.
How about integrating the TOR browser into the PortableApps platform's upgrade system? Who shall I ask about it? The TOR developers or you?
You'd need to ask the Tor developers. I don't think they have any interest in supporting a standardized portable format like PortableApps.com Format even though Tor browser is based on our work.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well... I don't know much about open source licensing but because your work is (as far as I know) is a GPL license they don't have to ask you to use your work, but as TOR is a BSD license you have to ask them to use their work, right?
Of course, they're allowed to. I was just saying that they seem oddly attached to their unique directory setup and layout rather than using something more standardized and popular.
The BSD allows you to use work more freely. But Tor is trademarked and they won't let others use said trademark. It's a bit of an odd situation as they were bundling Firefox in violation of Mozilla's trademark guidelines without permission. At least they were the last time I'd checked into it. I think they were trying to resolve that with Mozilla, so they may have by now.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks for info.
Good man
AdvOR or AdvTOR(?) (http://sourceforge.net/projects/advtor/) is a great find! Any drawbacks of using this? It's just so easy, so simple. So maybe we can add this to the official list of PortableApps?
Update: just checking out AdvOR, works pretty neatly. I configured to use it with IronPortable, however, Iron don't want to open .onion links if I put them straight into the address bar. However, it opens them if the .onion site is linked from somewhere on the web. Strange.
those links? They should in fact be solved only by the special DNS network operated by the Tor.org.
Otherwise personally I tested that anion router, but to me it looks that it has far more ways to bypass Tor circuit then anything else. It attempts to do the right thing, to divert all traffic over the Tor, but this is often not possible as there are too many ways to bypass it.
As the real testing is very difficult, one has to set up kind of sandbox complete Tor circuit, I was trying to read what ever is circulating in the web as analysis of the source at least. Mostly looks not very promising.
I think that the complexity of todays software and browsers will finally lead to end of such services as Tor.
The only half way reliable use is still the to take the most updated self contained browser from Tor.org as this is so prepared that no addons which could potentially cause problems will be forced disabled.
Even here it is still not all 100% perfect.
The real Tor operation might be today possible more reliably with the separate live bootable operating system media , Tails they call it.
To try to guide simply any Browser or any traffic over Tor seems to be extremely difficult to achieve if not impossible. And any smallest leakage makes the whole attempt useless.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Does this stuff worth a dime http://www.dnsleaktest.com in this regard? No leak here.
clearly, when operating this from normal browser which runs via Tor, this should show nothing and probably would do so.
All that leakage problem of the tor.org is rather connected to all other things then the browser itself. It is more about chasing all sorts of separate software living in todays computers and the devs of such things invent all kinds of new ways to connect or send some infos to somewhere. Starting with all possible plugins, but all kind of other items trying to call home for what ever reason, trying all kinds of tricks to bypass even all those useless 'outbound firewalls'.
This seems to be one of the main reasons why the Tor software itself is changing so often and so all the servers have to change as well so often. Also it is the reason why Tor.org stopped almost by force the use of the torbutton on firefox as people did use it on normal, for every day work configured browser.
To make things just half way useful for most people, they just distribute the tweaked firefox for it, which will at least prevent you from using some plugins and extensions directly initiated by the browser.
What else runs on the clients computer is difficult to asses and probably never will be completely known and captured.
This is then the reason why there is a life operating system with Tor included offered, as this gives higher level of certainty what actually communicate with what from that particular machine.
Even this is apparently getting more difficult to handle in recent times, as no more operating system is needed on a computer today to achieve communication with outside world.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
If it helps, if you go to my SkyDrive, which all my PortableApps releases go to, whether I post them to the site or not, I made both Tor and Tor Browser portable.
Thanks CODYQX4,
Nice collection!
However, with the TOR case I just stay with AdvOR. Much better than the original client.