I loved FF portable so much, I installed it on my desktop, thinking to use it as an alternative to IE for certain sites while having less "saved" data than a regular desktop installation of FF would. It works like a charm, started from a shortcut that leads to C:\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe instead of the Firefox.exe file. I was curious what would happen if I set FF to be my default browser, but when I do that from within FF portable, it sets the Firefox.exe file to be called---and that doesn't have any of my personalizations, bookmarks, etc. The .exe that is called when I click the FFportable link has all those customizations. I tried copying my profile, bookmarks, etc. to the App folder and a few other tweaks (I'm usually pretty good at this stuff), to no avail---firefox.exe just opens naked and new, no customizations. I tweaked firefox.ini and a few other files I thought had the secret to lead to the profile that has my customizations, but no luck.
Yes, of course, I can just install regular FF on my desktop, but now this has become a "geek mystery" to me :), so I was wondering if anyone here has a suggestion. And if not, and I have to install regular FF on my desktop, how do I copy all the customizations over from the portable install?
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Setting Firefox Portable as the default from within the app will make the base app the default as you've found.
You have to do it manually from outside the app and associate filetypes with the FirefoxPortableLauncher.exe. Or you can wait just a little longer until the Platform does it all for you.
Thanks, Winterblood. I did think of just associating .html files (and .htm, etc.) with the launcher.exe but just assumed I was missing something :). I was just surprised that the version of FF loaded from the base app differed from the one loaded by the launcher---I'd assumed that the launcher just called the base app. But it's somehow giving me all my bookmarks and customizations and the base app isn't. So I'll either try your (and my original thought) suggestion to do it through file association, or I might just install FF on the desktop like a normal person and be done with it :).
The Launcher does just run the base app as you assume, but it runs it with command line parameters that set the profile directory.
Running the base app without the Launcher means running it without the command line parameters, thus it creates/uses a profile on the local PC.
is it possible personalize the default command line of the laucher?
Something like: "start FF & take the profile from this directory"...
You can use this tool: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/register-firefox-portable-with-default...
Thanks, Drugoy, I checked that out and it turns out there are directions for XP here: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/how-to-set-firefox-portable-as-the-def... . I will try that, but it sounds like it might still start the base app instead of the launcher app and still miss my profile. I'll give it a try! Thanks to those who responded and explained.
I tried it and it seemed to be working but then when i'm using firefoxportable and i click on a link in some program that would normaly open the default browser, i get a message saying the firefox is already running and not responding. The only help i found for this error message was about the profile being locked and firefox not being able to open it.
I don't understand why firefoxportable doesn't just open a new window or tab. Why is it trying to re-open firefox from scratch.
Yes, i'm replying to myself, since no one else did and i finaly made it work.
I found 2 ways of making FFPortable the Default Browser.
1- On a per user basis: use http://windowsxp.mvps.org/defaultbrowser.htm
2- For all users: use http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/89803-set-default-browser-in-regis...
Now the trick to having FFPortable opened and still be able to open links is putting the FirefoxPortable.ini in the FirefoxPortable folder and setting AllowMultipleInstances=false.
Don't know why, just that it works now.
Thanks for this. I came across this issue myself just now and was glad to find a simple solution. I don't like the idea of running the temporary file associator programs recommended below because it's just one more thing running in the background. Thanks again!
I highly recommend you use a temporary file associator like eXpresso or PortableFileAssociator instead for the issues above.
all you've been told here is so last year. to make FF portable default in Win7 and newer, you need to register it as default program using registerfp1_1 . Then just select it in the Default Program wizard in Win7