I sync my portable apps between all my computers and virtual machines.
I am considering disabling the syncing of Google Chrome Portable on my main computer and using a local installation of normal Google Chrome, as it has sync support built-in (although I have not managed to get it working for some reason).
Anyway, I have noticed a problem when I make Google Chrome Portable the default web browser. It's obviously not making the portable launcher the default browser, so it opens the executable directly, so I do not get any of my settings and extensions from my usual profile.
So, what are the registry keys that needs to be edited to point to the portable launcher?
And, where are the files for this other profile that is being used when chrome.exe is being run directly, so I can delete them? I thought that they might be in %APPDATA%, but I cannot find them.
Thanks.
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If you are using Chrome Portable and then just going to undo everything that makes it portable, why use the portable version at all? You are better off using a standard install of Chrome, and then you won't have to re-enable functionality that has been disabled for or by making the app portable.
It isn't undoing 'everything that makes them portable'. I already explained that I have all my portable apps synced across all my computers and virtual machines. As I have a lot of them and as I like to have all my apps immediately available on a new OS installation, I use portable apps. I have a virtual datacentre testing lab here, and this is the main benefit of portable apps for me. So, my use of portability has a wider scope than your definition.
Also, when using a USB flash drive, once the PA menu has the ability to execute scripts and startup and eject, you could easily make a script which add the .reg file to HKCU and then replaces it to the previous values on eject. I think that would be pretty cool.
I changed...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\http\shell\open\command, , "C:\Command\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable\App\Chrome-bin\chrome.exe" -- "%1"
..to point to...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\https\shell\open\command, , "C:\Command\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable\GoogleChromePortable.exe" -- "%1"
..instead, and did the same with..
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\ftp\shell\open\command
..and...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\https\shell\open\command
..and everything appears to work fine now. However, there are a few mentions of chrome.exe in HKLM, where it is not as clear whether they need to be changed too.
There is also a key...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache
With a value of C:\Command\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable\App\Chrome-bin\chrome.exe, so I made another one for the correct path, with the Data entry of Google Chrome and deleted the original string.
But there are quite a few mentions of chrome.exe in HKLM and a few binary values as well, and it is much more unclear whether I should change them as well.
This does seem to work so far though, but I just want to make sure that I have made all the required changes for this. I think that if I make the changes on a fresh OS installation, before using Chrome, and then comparing the HKCU and HKLM hives after using it, I would be able to see if it has been done correctly.
Where the alternative profile files are is still something I need an answer for. Now that the profile is not being used, finding the location of it is going to be more difficult.