Why does Windows XP insist on opening firefox.exe and some default profile instead of FirefoxPortable.exe and the correct profile. This problem seems to be linked to having three different sets of 'profile' and 'plugins' directories within FirefoxPortable.
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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Do you have regular Firefox installed and set as the default browser?
I'm using FirefoxPortable as my standard browser and don't have the regular Firefox installed.
Sounds like you have set Firefox Portable as your default browser...
That is something you shouldn't do because it leads to the things you noticed.
Where exactly do you have 3 different sets?
I have 2: One in /App/DefaultData (which is copied to /Data on first launch) and one in /Data.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Here are the directories setup by the portable apps installer file:
\App\DefaultData\profile
\App\Firefox\defaults\profile
\Data\profile
You have one profile: Data\Profile
The one in App\Firefox\defaults\profile is Firefox's default profile and is not used in Firefox Portable.
The one in App\DefaultData\Profile is the default Firefox Portable profile and is copied to Data\Profile if it doesn't exist.
Most likely, you set Firefox to be your default browser. This doesn't set Firefox Portable as your default browser, only the copy of Firefox that's inside Firefox Portable. Since it is a standard copy of Firefox, it is creating and using a profile in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles on your local C:\ drive. You can't set the Firefox inside Firefox Portable as your default browser.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Try reading this thread:
https://portableapps.com/node/17483
It was the first item found when searching for "default fireforx" using that handy search box that is at the top of every Portableapps.com page.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
I was able to get external program links to consistently open FirefoxPortable.exe as my 'stationary' default browser by using a utility called DefaultBrowser by Ramesh Srinivasan
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/defaultbrowser.htm
This may have the advantages of FirefoxPortable with just one profile and plugins directory and no need to sync two different setups, so far so good. Thanks for the responses and pointers.
Yes, the search is nice. It gets reasonable suggestions without even having to post the question!
Glad you have the solution to your problem!
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com