Ok guys... it looks like the trademark issues may be finally ironed out and I can get a new release of Portable Firefox out the door. I've posted a pre-release of the 1.5.0.4 release and there are a bunch of new things to test. Here are the fixes and new features to check out:
In-Place Upgrades - Portable Firefox now supports the ability to do what I'm calling an "in-place upgrade". This means that you can extract it right over an existing installation of Portable Firefox without losing any of your existing data and it'll Just Work (tm). You'll need an install of Portable Firefox supporting the split App/Data directories so PFF 1.5.0.2 or PFF 1.5.0.3 will work fine.
Live Support - Portable Firefox 1.5.0.4 now has built in support for running from a CD or other read-only medium (aka Portable Firefox Live). You just need to grab the INI from the Other\PortableFirefoxSource and drop it next to PortableFirefox.exe. Edit it and set both WaitForFirefox and RunLocally to true. Just be sure to run PortableFirefox.exe at least once BEFORE setting both these options so that it correctly sets up a default profile. Your firefox, profile and plugins directories will be copied to the local machine's temp directory and Portable Firefox will execute from there. When you exit, all the temp files will be cleaned up.
Improved WaitForFirefox - The code that waits for Firefox will no longer exit prematurely when Firefox restarts itself due to an updated extension or other reason. It also won't leave a directory in TEMP with newasdvsplash.dll anymore when you use this option. Using AllowMultiple Instances will negate this new WaitForFirefox feature, though, as the detection would get confused as to which copy of Firefox is running. This will be improved in a future release.
Partial Upgrade Support Fixed - I've fixed the partial upgrade issue. It turns out Firefox would do a full upgrade if any of its files were missing. I was removing the uninstall directory to save space, but that caused Firefox to do a full upgrade. It's been added back in and now works as expected. (If you're adventurous, you can grab a copy of the Firefox 1.5.0.3 binaries. Just extract it. It'll create a Mozilla Firefox directory. Copy all those files into PortableFirefox\App\firefox (after clearing the directory first) and then start up Portable Firefox. Select Help - Check For Updates and let it update away.)
I think that's about everything. Please get some testing in on this ASAP as I'd like to push this release out for the world 
You can grab the self-extractor here:
Portable Firefox 1.5.0.4 (en-us) Pre-Release
(Please don't mention this release outside these forums as it is for testers only and not intended as a wide-scale release.)
UPDATE: An enhanced launcher has been made available. This version includes the ability to auto-detect a read-only location and prompt to run it locally. So, if you had a drive with a read-only switch, you could temporarily switch it over... say when running from a friend's PC with a virus... and then switch it back later. Just drop it in the PortableFirefox directory and give it a try.
https://portableapps.com/downloads/PortableFirefoxLauncher1202.exe
Thanks!
John
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Testing it out now.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
Thanks, Bruce
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Word of advice: ditch the fade-in effect on the splash screen. It's distracting, and unless you have a super-fast computer (apparantly 2.6 GHz isn't enough), the fade-in lags, making the effect even less attractive. I personally think fading windows are too flashy, anyway.
At any rate, it seems pretty stable. Unfortunately, I can't test auto-update because this is the latest version--there's nothing to update to! Everything else seems to work fine, though, even with an INI.
Edit: Also, RunLocally should imply WaitForFirefox. Otherwise the temp files aren't deleted.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
Regarding Fades - Not sure why the fades are giving you any issue. I've used them on all the apps since the beginning. And this pre-release of Portable Firefox 1.5.0.4 fades in just fine on everything from an old Win2K laptop to my new tiny laptop set for 700MHz low-power mode with integrated graphics to Vista running within VMWare using an emuulated graphics driver. (Win95/98 don't apply, since they don't support alpha so the splash just appears)
Regarding Auto-Update - I added in a copy of the FF 1503 binaries to the main post so you can try it out.
Regarding RunLocally and WaitForFirefox - It's detailed in the readme.txt and the post above that you need to set both, but I was thinking about doing it in code as well (ie assuming).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It's not so much that the fade-in is slow; it just lags, such that its "frame rate" is very low--at least, on my machine--and so appears "jumpy", as opposed to being a smooth fade. It may be because of my crappy Intel onboard video. In any case, I still think fades are distracting and unnecessary, but that's just my opinion.
The reason I never noticed the splash screen issue before was because I never had it turned on. I finally turned it on because I absolutely love the new splash screen.
As for the RunLocally issue... it doesn't make much sense not to wait for Firefox when you run locally, otherwise, as I said, the temp files don't get deleted. I suspect most people don't read the readme (myself included), and are going to be upset when they find that, when they turn RunLocally on, it doesn't delete the temp files. A better solution would just be to override WaitForFirefox to true whenever RunLocally is on, regardless of the actual value of the former. It wouldn't be any more "odd" than checkboxes that turn on automatically when you activate another, dependent checkbox.
Edit: Yeah, give me a copy of FF 1.5.0.3, please. This way I can test out auto-update and everything gets tested.
Edit Again: How about an option in the INI to disable the alpha fade effect? This way everyone's happy.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
Lots of people seem to like the fade, since it does give a bit more polished feel to it. I've actually tested it on a couple crappy intel integrated video boxes and it worked without an issue. I've even tried it on some ancient laptops at net cafes and stuff and it worked there, too. It isn't quite as smooth with lower-end machines... but the effect still looks good. I've never seen it choppy enough that it looked bad... except when I had a bunch of crazy CPU-hogging stuff all running at the same time... and then everytrhing was awful. Personally, I prefer them. Course, you can always disable the splash screens if you don't like em
As for the RunLocally, you're right. I just created an updated the launcher. It will set WaitForFirefox to true if RunLocally is true, even if you have it set otherwise. You can grab it here:
https://portableapps.com/downloads/PortableFirefoxLauncher1201.exe
I posted binaries in the original thread so you can give it a shot.
Thanks again, Bruce.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I love the splash screen, I just don't like the fade. I guess I'll be recompiling the .nsi to remove the effect.
One other suggestion for the launcher... perhaps you can modify it so that it uses an INI that matches the launcher's filename. I'd like to rename the launcher to Portable Firefox.exe, but it doesn't seem "right" if I have a launcher with one filename and an INI with a different one (forgive me, I'm OC at times).
About FF 1.5.0.3, what "original thread?"
Edit: Nevermind. I found it. You should have said "the original post in this thread." I didn't know what you meant by "original thread."
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
The name is just so it doesn't get lost in my downloads directory. You can rename it to PortableFirefox.exe and it'll work just fine.
Being able to turn off the alpha transparency might make for a bit more of a cluttered INI. But I can check it out as a possibility. I like keeping the hardcore portable-appers happy
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
What I meant by renaming was that I could rename it to, say, "maggie.exe" and it would use maggie.ini. I knew very well that I could rename the file, thank you.
Oh, and those are FF 1.5.0.4 binaries you have up there. I extracted them into the PFF directory, deleting the old binaries first, then ran it and the About box says 1.5.0.4, not 1.5.0.3.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
Um, I knew that. BOTH of those things. I knew them. I was just testing you.
I'm considering adding in the ability to rename. But I have to add the NSIS system plugin which bulks up the file size of the launcher a bit.
As for the binaries, I've fixed the ZIP so it really is 1.5.0.3 now.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Auto-update works great.
Just like a local install!
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
Will give it everything I've got over the weekend. I'm sure I won't find much more than Bruce.
~Lurk~ Email
~Lurk~
After reading this thread, it sounds like it good. But I'll give it a shot and test the auto-update.
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Posted in Mozilla PowerSkunk. Other Browsers run in fear!
(Brought to you by Firesomething.)
John, don't forget to add in the updated launcher (the one with the fix for RunLocally) when you release this!
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Lauren She eats everything. It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
And I actually just added another new feature... the ability for it to auto-detect read-only and prompt to adjust accordingly. I think folks with read-only switches on drives will like it. It's linked in the original post now as well.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
You mentioned earlier that you "didn't want to bloat the INI"... I have a way to avoid that. Take a leaf out of my book and separate the INI into sections (I did this with my short-lived user-profile-capable PFF launcher). So, for instance, directories could go under [Directories], launcher settings under [Launcher] or [General], etc. It'll also have the added bonus of making the INI easier to understand (it's pretty hard to sort out currently).
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Lauren She eats everything! It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
Love the new splash.
BTW where's the code for the new launcher, I want to do a few bug checks.
One *possible* bug is:
Shouldn't it be:
Cause I think it doesn't copy over files inside (correct me someone, probably Bruce).
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R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
PortaBlog is now officially out of beta!
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
*.* is the correct syntax. Not sure how it works these days, but in the olden days, a single asterisk would only enumerate files with no extension (e.g. it would list maggie, but not maggie.fat). I'm pretty sure it's the same today.
May be different in Linux, but that's how it is in Windows. *.* is correct.
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Lauren She eats everything! It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
Oh well. Thought I saw it on the NSIS forums somewhere.
I knew it would be you that would correct me.
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R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
PortaBlog is now officially out of beta!
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Gee, now how on Earth would you know that?
(I'm being sarcastic, of course)
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Lauren She eats everything! It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
I think you're thinking of 7-zip, which requires just * to copy files without extensions as well as those with extensions. NSIS and DOS use *.*.
You can grab the source code, too, but I may be making a few changes before release.
Glad you like the splash. I worked through several designs with my designer before arriving at that one. I wanted to add in the portable apps logo without taking anything much away from the main app logo. I also wanted the URL to be noticable so people would know where to get support if they got a copy from somewhere else (magazine cover CD, etc). Combining the two goals yielded what you see.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Trying out the 1202 launcher with FF 1.5.0.3. (Testing right now!) Installed new theme, 8-10 extensions, and updated to FF 1.5.0.4. Update took forever, but worked. I'm thinking it is the slow speed of the Lexar drive that I use for testing... Not worried, I'm tickled pink that it went without a hitch. BTW - Love the new splash!
~Lurk~ Email
~Lurk~
to trow my hat into the ring. I have been testing the new launcher with Firefox 2.0b1
It all works really well although I had to get used to the new directory structure, I've been running truck builds using the Bon Echo Launcher 
However I must ask why there is a white box around the splash screen, it looks a bit silly to me. I'm sure that there is a good reason but I can't work it out. Everything looks great.
Yours
Steve Lamerton
I think the white border adds to it. It would look too plain without the border, I think. At any rate, I like it just the way it is.
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Lauren She eats everything! It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
The white box was added to give the splash screen a bit of depth. Without it, it looked a bit more plain when shown over a dark desktop wallpaper.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I guess I'll change it and recompile
Yours
Steve Lamerton
Just wondering what the new DefaultData folder is for.
Btw, everything is running very smoothly with Firefox 2.0b1 with everything else the same.
When the new portableapps version comes out, and I guess this is applicable for any new version that is a new release from portableapps, as opposed to simply an update from within pff itself.
If I download the portableapps new files.
How do I go about making sure my extensions, bookmarks etc from my old installation are incorporated into the new one?
John has revised the structure so that when you extract it, it leaves your profile with bookmarks, extensions etc.
If you don't have a previous profile, the new launcher copies the default profile from DefaultData to the profile directory.
Correct me if I am wrong.
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R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
PortaBlog is now officially out of beta!
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Really, because I recall it just creating a new profile from scratch before John revised the structure.
Not anymore
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R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
PortaBlog is now officially out of beta!
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
So I can delete that folder?
Vintage!
... you can deleted it, but it's only 214KB.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It would allow Firefox itself to create a new default folder, as it has from the beginning, but this had Firefox' standard defaults (no bookmarks at all, cache enabled, history enabled, etc). So, it's always recreated a profile if there was none... it's just it a bit better now.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Firefox's default profile (the one it creates if none exists) is in [firefox-folder]\defaults\profile. You could always put the portable defaults in there.
Edit: Nevermind. That would probably break auto-update and it'd likely be against Mozilla's trademark policy anyway. Ah, well. I tried.
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Lauren She eats everything! It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
I tried it, and:
1. It breaks auto-update
2. It isn't permitted
3. Firefox doesn't actually copy all the bits over... so even if you setup a prefs.js with the proper settings in that folder, it'll create a new one from scratch (cache enabled, history enabled, etc).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yeah, I realized #1 and #2 right after I posted it (hence the edit); I never would have guessed #3. Go figure.
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Lauren She eats everything! It's like having a goat. A giant, two-Godzillaton goat.
maggie Hey, I resent that remark! I only weigh ONE Godzillaton!
~ Spectacles: Bruce's Story
Weird, huh? Just as well. Keeps my bits seperate from Mozilla's.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That sounded on sus.
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R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
PortaBlog is now officially out of beta!
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I'll give it a spin with the updated launcher!
Vintage!
I'm using it now. Everything seems to be okay.
Vintage!
I'm going to add a warning message to the dialog offering to run it locally if you haven't specifically set it to do so in the INI. I think it's important to let people know there are security implications to copying personal stuff to a local PC. I'm thinking along the lines of:
"Portable Firefox appears to be running from a location that is read-only. Would you like to temporarily copy it to the local hard drive and run it from there?
(Privacy Notice: If you say Yes, your personal data within Portable Firefox will be temporarily copied to a local drive. Although this copy of your data will be deleted when you close Portable Firefox, it may be possible for someone else to access your data later.)"
Any thoughts / suggestions?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It'll save a lot of questions later on
Yours
Steve Lamerton
think so?
Considering the way things go on this forum, you really never know...lol.
Ashes
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thanks a lot for your work
i am doing a work making cds for distribution in valencia (spain) for small city councils on the area. the info is on html for it to be able to run in GNU-LINUX, mac and windows. i found this opportunity a good way to make diffusion of firefox and your version on portable is the perfect solution. but i find that your solution is thinked for a person that changes of computer and i would like, please, that you think also about the cds that are for distribution (in different computers but several times in the same). i mean, that it would be a good idea to give the choice of no deleting the preferences, so each time the person uses the cd doesnt need to say ok to the window with the warning message.
i hope you can understand my bad english
and i put here the transllation on spanish of your text.
"Portable Firefox parece que está arrancando desde un dispositivo de almacenamiento de sólo lectura. ¿Te gustaría copiarlo temporalmente a tu disco duro para arrancarlo desde allí?
(Nota de privacidad: Si dices "Sí", tus datos personales dentro de Portable Firefox serán temporalmente copiados al fichero local. Aunque esta copia de tus datos será borrada cuando cierres Portable Firefox, es posible que alguien más acceda a tus datos después.)"
i need to change a bit this text since the use is different. do you mind?
there is not personal data that it can be used since i put the preferences on firefox. what i will explain is that firefox is the browser selected to present this work and that it needs to put temporal files to run. is it ok?
i will come later to read since i have to give tomorrow the work
sorry to be with so little time but it was yesterday that i discovered your portable edition. thanks again!
when in the message you tell people "it may be possible for someone else to access your data later", maybe you could tell as an example about recomending no remembering passwords because an "expert" could get it later.
if not looks a bit tooooo scarry
or didn't i understand it well?
as i told, i wanted to transllate the note that i found in
FirefoxPortable/Other/FirefoxPortable.nsi
then i burned a cd but when i try it, the message comes in english not in spanish.
how can i transllate it? and the yes and no buttons?
thanks a lot. i hope to be able to use your application
This is a VERY old thread and is really unrelated to what you are trying to post about, so your posts will be lost. Please start a new thread in the forums.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Testting now. Sound good.
EDIT- I love the new launcher. Mabye its just me... but it feels faster and less bloated.
Thanks, I will test this weekend.
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Greetings from Spain.
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Lphant
Hi John
Just downloaded PF 1.5.0.4 and it works perfectly. Better yet, I was able to succesfully update it to 1.5.0.5 using a mar file! Yay!
Are you going to update Portable Thunderbird in the same way to allow for partial updates?
Thank you and keep up the good work!