Firefox Portable 40.0.2, ESR 38.2.0, Beta 41, Dev 42, and Nightly 43 fail to properly alert that another copy of Firefox is already running after they have been run once. This is due to the launcher using the parent.lock file within the profile as an indicator of whether that profile is currently in use. This file used to serve that purpose but no longer does. The launcher needs updating to use a system-wide mutex the way 7-Zip and other custom launchers do, as well as PAL.
UPDATE: I've confirmed the same change in the parent.lock file to be the case with Thunderbird and SeaMonkey as well. I'll be updating them on next release.
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This is fixed in the following Firefox Portable versions:
Stable 41.0 on 2015-09-22
ESR 38.3.0 on 2015-09-23
Beta 42 on 2015-09-24
Nightly 44 on 2015-09-24
Developer 43 on 2015-09-28
The fix will roll out to other Firefox channels and Thunderbird and SeaMonkey as new versions are released.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
This is now fixed in SeaMonkey Portable 2.38
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
This is now fixed in Thunderbird Portable as well with today's release.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Could that change be the reason why I can't any longer run portable Firefox next to my stationary one, using --no-remote?
Works beautifully with Loader 1.7.11, not at all with 1.8.0. I guess there's no reason it shouldn't allow multiple Fx versions running if the --no-remote parameter is given to each portable.
Edit: Scratch that, looks like it needs AllowMultipleInstances=true now.
Edit2: Does not even work with that setting, I'll stay at Launcher 1.7.11 in this case.
It's always been the case that you needed to just set AllowMultipleInstances, it's just that the launcher didn't work right before if the .profilelock file existed.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Even if I insert that line into my Portable Firefox and start with --no-remote (using a batch file) it still complains if the stationary Firefox is running.
With Loader 1.7.11, I can start any Portable Firefox as long as I pass --no-remote to the Launcher.
You just have to place AllowMultipleInstances, it passes -no-remote automatically. Be sure your FirefoxPortable.ini is formatted properly and in the right location (next to FirefoxPortable.exe). You can also disable the splash to ensure it is being seen.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
At last. Now it works, no idea what was wrong before. Thank you.
As you mentioned the splash screen, there's another way you could make the Portable Firefox versions unique (about:config):
distribution.about
distribution.id
distribution.version
Example: http://i.imgur.com/fPSfFCw.png
I'm doing that myself to quickly see what Portable Firefox version I'm in, currently. Just a suggestion.