Hallo
At first sorry for bad english.
So why does firefox portable write allways stuff to C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming.
How can i prevent this. When i delete this directory firefox crashs.
thanks. greats form germany.
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writing to C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1ijc9r0a.default
November 23, 2011 - 12:11pm
#1
writing to C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1ijc9r0a.default
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it does write there, as it has to write things somewhere, but when you close firefox portable properly, this contents are cleared, provided you start the firefoxportable (launcher) and not the core program firefox itself.
The contents are needed during the operation, so you are not supposed to delete them while firefox is running, that is probably why it crashes then. So you cannot prevent this, but as it will not leave any personal data on the host, it is not any kind of problem.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I've tried it. If I close firefox the data remain there(C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming)...
How did you run it? Did you run FirefoxPortable.exe? Or did you run firefox.exe directly or set it as the default browser? If the latter, you're running Firefox in local mode, not portable mode and all your stuff is stored on the local PC.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'm pretty sure that you are wrong here. Firefox doesn't write anything on local machine's hard drive (except extensions and plugins not developed by Mozilla).
There are two possible reasons of OP's problem:
1. Running firefox.exe in App\Firefox instead of FirefoxPortable.exe .
2. File "prefs.js" doesn't exists in Data\profile folder.
it writes few things to local drive during its operation. If it is started by the launcher and properly closed, then those contents are removed by the action of the launcher.
This known and nothing special just for firefox.
Other programs do that too. That is why launchers are needed. Beside other things, they take care of the cleaning up on close, removing such contents and where applicable removing some registry entries etc.
If someone runs the firefox.exe itself instead of the launcher, then such problems are the result of.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I don't have any local Firefox installations, neither a folder of Mozilla in Application Data. Although I downloaded portable version and installed and ran inside Sandboxie. Opened some pages and terminated all processes unexpectedly so the launcher was not able to clean up anything. Changes made were :
File:
No changes in registry.
People who have made portable might give perfect answer.
I run of course FirefoxPortable.exe and it is my default browser.
I did download now the latest version(8.0.1), make a new "install/unzip" and everythins is allright. Folder Mozilla in C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming is going away now.
I think the trouble was, that my Firefox was "old". I updatet it since min. 1.5 year, vers.3.xx.
thanks a lot from germany...
If you set it as your default browser, whenever it gets run by opening a link or HTML file, it's running non-portably.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
There are 2 special tools to make Portable Firefox (or actually any other browser) to be properly handled by the Windows system.
One tool is for XP and the other one is for Vista/7.
XP: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/defaultbrowser.htm
Vista/7: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/register-firefox-portable-with-default...
I'd also like to ask some moderators to add this info to the FAQ.
They look like half-way decent tools, but only half way.
Unfortunately neither of them can handle drive letter changes.
Sorry to exhume such an old topic, which I found thanks to my good friend Google, but I've been a PortableApps user for many years, and I need a few clarifications.
I put the PortableFirefox folder on a D:\ partition on my 500BG hard drive (PC is an old Lenovo laptop with a 64-bit Pentium P6100) because read/write rates are better on this drive than on the system drive; this has to do with the fact that originally, Windows (7, then 8.1) was set on this partition, which was on first sectors of the hard drive.
I subsequently created a new one (the current C:\ drive) to install Windows 10 alongside Windows 8.1, of which I lost use thanks to a recent Windows 10 update. Now, this D:\ drive only serves for storage purposes, because it's vast and fast.
Back on topic: I like FirefoxPortable for many reasons, but mostly because it's easier on my CPU than a regular install. I launch the 32-bit version, mostly, so I either don't use the launcher (which, if I'm not mistaken, launches the most appropriate version for my PC, in this case the 64-bit version) and create a shortcut to the 32-bit version, or just delete the 64-bit sub-folder, thus forcing the launcher to turn to the 32-bit version.
I prefer the 32-bit version because it puts less strain on my aging CPU and hard drive.
The thing is, even with a RAM disk hosting the temp and TEMP directories, and even if I point Firefox at a distinct directory or folder on my (faster) D:\ drive for caching stuff, FirefoxPortable will still write temporary files on the C:\ drive, in Users\My_Name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla.
Is there a way to change that, and make FirefoxPortable ignore the C:\ drive altogether?
FWIW, I answered my own question: I created a carbon-copy of my user settings in D:\ for Mozilla, and deleted all Mozilla-related entries from the AppData folder on C:\, and if I'm to believe the disk activity tab in Process Hacker, PortableFirefox loads content and writes to the user profile I re-created in the D:\ drive.
Nothing gets written to C:\Users\My_Name\AppData\Roaming or \Local, apparently. Settings are kept after deleting the ad-hoc folders on C:\.
EDIT: just checked, and it does write to C:\ when in use...
Back to the drawing-board...