I've posted a pre-release of 1.5.0.7 for testers. Despite this being an incremental upgrade of Firefox, the portable version is seeing a number of changes. If we could get some folks giving these another once-over before they're released to the world, that would be great...
- Unicode Command Lines - As posted in the FFP launcher thread, this release now supports unicode paths passed on the commandline.
- Win 95/98 Live Support - There was an issue affecting Live mode under Win 9x that has been fixed.
- Alternate Directory Structures Dropped - All alternate directory structures have been dropped. This allows for a more simplified launcher and increases startup time a bit. You can always use an INI to setup your own structure. the readme.txt is now linked to right in the help file.
- Intelligent Start - The launcher now keeps track of what path you're launching from. That way, if you launch a second time from the same location... or move to another PC that happens to give you the same drive letter... the launcher won't re-process the chrome.rdf (if any) and it won't make Firefox rebuild the compreg.dat file. The result is much faster startups when the path doesn't change. One note on this new ability... you'll need to delete the FirefoxPortable\Data\settings\FirefoxPortableSettings.ini file if you copy your own local profile into Firefox Portable (or just set the only parameter in it to blank or NONE). This is where FFP keeps track of the paths changing. If you copy a profile in without altering this... FFP won't fix your paths correctly.
- Local Files Cleaned Up - Firefox still leaves behind a couple directories and a single file when run portably... but the launcher now sticks around until after FF is closed... and will then cleanup those files. So, now, FFP leaves no files at all behind on PCs you run it on.
As mentioned, the more folks that can test these new bits out, the better. Grab the Firefox Portable 1.5.0.7 Pre-Release 5 and try it out.
UPDATE: Made Pre-Release 2 with better (and faster) handling of launching a second instance.
UPDATE Sept 21: Updated to Pre-Release 3. Fixes an issue with being unable to specify the EXE name. Updated the readme to properly indicate allowed INI location. Added WaitForFirefox back in... will only wait automatically when it need to clean up after Firefox (APPDATA directories when FF not installed locally). Added ability for the launcher to setup the default profile and settings when used with an INI provided that the default directories are maintained.
UPDATE (PR 4): Removed the extra debug message boxes and packaged as Pre-Release 4.
UPDATE Sept 22 (PR 5): Added the ability to disable the intelligent start for folks that copy profiles in regularly.
Thanks,
John