I have looked for a while on a simple and quick way to run Portable Firefox from a CD in any version of windows. The LiveCD batch file works great for XP but not for Win98, which I still find myself having to use occasionally. I came up with a simple solution, and I'm sure I'm not the first: to make PortableFirefox a self-extracting archive, have it extract to a temp drive, and then automatically run Portablefirefox.exe. 7zip works great for this, and I had PF 1.07 loading quick and reliably from CD in practily any version of windows. This saves space since the files are stored on the CD compressed and decompressed on the hard drive, and there's very little difference in the loading times.
However, since I've updated to version 1.5, I can't seem to get it to work. 7zip self-extractor automatically makes a folder under %userprofile%\temp\7zS***\ under which my PortableFirefox folder is extracted (directory structure intact). What's weird is that if I put a copy of PF there and manually run it, it works just fine. Any suggestions?
I'd include a copy of one of my 7zip SFX archives as an example, but I'm not sure what the best way to post them would be (I don't have a website to store them on).
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is old. I have made a new version, but don't know if it will work. Try:
https://portableapps.com/node/583
Oh and I might be able to host the file for you
What`s the size?
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R McCue
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Yeah, I worked on tweaking that batch myself for a while, but I'd prefer an alternative solution. This one worked great up until FF1.5, and now doesn't seem to work. Reasons anyone? Suggestions?
My file is about 5 meg. For testing purposes, I used the default Portable Firefox without adding extensions. I did remove the DCOM extension just to make sure that wasn't the issue, although I highly doubted it. The only other thing I changed is "wait for firefox" to true in the PortableFirefox.ini and copied that to the root PF folder. Also, if you want, I'll quickly make a version that works using FF1.07 so you can see what it should do.
I like Self-extracting 7zip because it's clean, efficient, and freeware GPL... so I can distrubute files made with it without having to worry about getting a paid version or violating the EULA. IF there's an alternative free installer-type self-extracting format that someone recommends(one that automatically extracts the files to a temp filder and runs a specified program), I'm all ears.
Thanks,
Alex
Did you check the 2nd post?
It uses NSIS
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R McCue
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
OK, sorry for not reading your suggestion. Since I thought that was just going to be a link to another batch file version, I skipped it at first. Looks like that will take care of the run from CD problem, although I still really like the self-extracting archive method better for some situations. I had considered NSIS (after googling free installer apps), but I've never used it and don't know much about it. I'll check it out though, thanks. Also, I want something that just extracts the files quickly and runs PFF... no menus or prompts to mess with, so hopefully Nullsoft's app will be able to do that. It looks pretty powerful.
Is there a way I could send you an example of what I put together with PFF1.07 so you can see what I want to do?
alex
...that still doesn't seem to work. I tried your PF Live launcher from the other thread and it has the same issue my SFX version does. I know that it's successfuly writing the file to the temp folder just as my version did, and it runs Portablefirefox.exe just fine (splash screen comes up). But after that, Firefox.exe uses 99% CPU for 2 sec or so and then closes. I have encountered the same issue on another XP machine and on a Win2k machine, but it actually hangs up for almost a minute using my version. Any idea why this is happening?
Methinks its your ini. Move it from PortableFirefoxCode to the same dir as the PortableFirefox.exe and change Wait for Firefox to true.
And sure send me stuff. I'll have heaps of time tomorrow.
BTW I work on Aussie time.
And my NSIS is completely silent.
BTW please note that the NSIS version is no longer in development (maybe) and that topic is closed. Oh and it's unoffical.
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R McCue
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Already took care of the ini, as I said above...
"The only other thing I changed is "wait for firefox" to true in the PortableFirefox.ini and copied that to the root PF folder. Also, if you want, I'll quickly make a version that works using FF1.07 so you can see what it should do."
I'm checking out using NSIS now, and it looks like it can obviously do everything I want it to do
ok, so how do I send you my example? could you PM an email address?
Go to my profile page then contact me
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R McCue
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
My goal here is a run from CD version of PF (and other portable apps) that is still customizable but is stored in a compressed archive to save space on the CD and shorten the time it takes to copy to a temp folder. I've changed my mind about how... if PF is a self-extracting zip, it can't be modified... so that's probably not the best method most of the time*. Instead, I would like to have (or make) a modified PortableFirefoxLive.exe that's able to extract compressed archives (I know it's possible with NSIS), and then put all the other files in a zip OR 7zip in the same folder. When you run the unofficial PortableFirefoxLive.exe, the archive next to it will be unzipped to a temp folder and run like normal.
That way, everyone could still open the compressed PF folder, replace the profile, etc. That still doesn't solve the problem of why I can't get PF to run from self-extracting zip. Since this machine hasn't had a regular install of firefox before, I went ahead and tried that to see if it was a registry key problem... but still no luck.
*: There are times where an unmodifiable version of PFlive (in one Self-extracting archive) is ideal... a kiosk that completely resets everytime you run Firefox, for example. That's actually what I had in mind when I was trying to make this originally.