Firefox 67+ launches with default profile when opening links from other applications

If you associate Firefox with anything, it associates it with the standard Firefox install within Firefox Portable, not with Firefox Portable. You need to use a third party utility.

Hello,

I was going to post a similar topic, so I have the same problem with Firefox 67.0 (64 bits) on Windows

I use it in a Portable version via your software and it is by default in the options.

But when I click on a link in a program, for example, it opens Firefox for me, but in a new profile, not the one I currently use.

I don't see where the error comes from, does anyone have any idea?

I have this error since the last version, the stable 67.0.

Sincerely

I confirm all precedent description of the problem.
I add that it is a problem specially related to the portable version of the Firefox 67.
I have an installed version of FF 67 under kubuntu and it work well as usual.

I noticed the exact same issue, thank you for reporting !

It's even more annoying as I use Firefox to open PDF files and organize them next to related websites...

In order to open HTML files/URLs from other apps in Firefox Portable, you must use a third party utility to have FirefoxPortable.exe added to the registry as a browser and then manually set it within the Windows Control Panel. You can not associate within Firefox itself. This applies to all portable apps that use launchers to fully be portable and has always been the case with Firefox Portable as well.

Previously, Firefox would 'fallback' to a running instance if you opened any file with any firefox.exe, so it happened to work previously if you associated within Firefox itself inside Firefox Portable and had Firefox Portable already running even though this was neither supported nor recommended. This behavior changed in Firefox 67 as it sets up default profiles per installed (or not installed) instance of Firefox. You must use a third party utility to manually register FirefoxPortable.exe as a browser and then select it as your default.

I was going to post a similar thread, as I had quite come to like the previous behavior of it opening any associated file or link in an already running window of FF portable, allowing me to depend on it, as if it were installed directly on the machine. THAT is how portable apps should behave. Does anyone know of ANY way to disable this portion of the update or roll back the functionality, somehow?

For me it worked to open regedit and open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR) --> FirefoxURL-somestring --> shell\open\command
There you will find a default value which should point to ...\Firefoxportable\App\Firefox\firefox.exe ...
Change this value to "...\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe" -url "%1"
When you click on links they should open in the FirefoxPortable window now, no restart required.

You can make the same changes for HKCR\FirefoxHTML-somestring\shell\open\command, which will take care of opening .html files and other associated file types in FirefoxPortable.
Of course you can also use a third party program from the internet to make those changes, but why bother.

I found this tool for Registering Portable Firefox as browser, then you can select from Control Panel / Default Programs as default...

https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/register-firefox-portable-with-defaul...

And I can confirm its working with links from Viber Desktop and Thunderbird Portable, with Firefox Portable 67

Dear friends, maybe i don't understand completely your proposal.
If we have the system installed FF67 and the portable FF67 registered, then we can switch between the two FF67 as the default?
Normally, on this computer, was i use, the people use the system default FF. Only i work with PortableApps.
This means, if i start my session, i select the portable FF as the default. And after, i reselect the system installed FF.

Are your proposals the solution for the new FF67 behaviour problems?

I've tried all your solutions, none that work:(

looks like options AllowMultipleInstances=false broken .

I am _completely_ stuck on this. I tried just about everything, and still the bl* choose profile box pops up and FF insists on opening a new window. I can not get links to open in an already opened firefox. And for some idiotic reason, I ihave 2 profiles upon clicking on http: links, yet none of these profiles are the one I am using in my normal browser.

the problem seems to be that http: and https: PROTOCOLS (so not filetypes) are linked to "C:\portable\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\firefox.exe" -osint -url "%1" . Yet they should be linked to "C:\portable\FirefoxPortable\firefoxportable.exe" -osint -url "%1". But when I dive into regedit and change this, I get an error (you have no profiles configured or something that looks like that). What am I doing wrong? How do I fix clicking on http: & https: actually works??? PLEASE help? This is extremely frustrating!

from first post, I tried these:
-The built in windows thing _only_ changes .htm & .html. Not http: & https:
-Using a default program association tool for Firefox Portable: still pops up the "choose profile" mess
- Using a file association tool for Portable Apps: install software to be able to install software???
- Edit Windows Registry: still pops up the profile requester

======edit=======

Thank you #Kryptux who wrote: Control Panel > Default Programs > Associating a file type or protocol with a program, Select all the file extensions you want to open with Firefox Portable, then search for Firefox Portable in the window that has just opened.
Last time I tried that firefoxPORTABLE was _not_ an option there (only firefox & explorer where a choice). I was so desperate I retried it over there again. Today firefoxportable was an option. So: One of the 4 sollutiuns tried here, mare firefoxportable an option ...

I had already run RegisterFirefoxPortable.exe years ago, and associated HTTP and HTTPS with Firefox Portable. As with the rest of you, it was working fine until recently (no doubt v. 67, although I was not keeping track). Just like novw said, the file type associations for HTTP and HTTPS were pointing to "...\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox64\firefox.exe" -osint -url "%1", so I changed them to "...\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe" -osint -url "%1", and hoped that would solve it for me, but it didn't.

I seem to have three differences from others on this thread:
(1) Links in Thunderbird Portable work fine. It's everywhere else that seems to fail, like links in the Windows settings area or various software's Help menu items that go to the web. (Yes, that includes other PA apps - I just tested FileZilla Portable's "what's new in this version", and it failed, too.)
(2) It doesn't matter whether Firefox Portable is already open or not - the behavior is the same.
(3) I do not have multiple installations of Firefox as some of you apparently do, but only the portable one (although it's on my C drive, not removable media). But there is a blank profile in ...\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ that is used every time it is called from other software (except Thunderbird Portable) - I don't know how that got there, but I assume that it would just reappear if I'd delete it.

portajon's final solution (which is good enough for me - I don't care about the two exceptions he named) doesn't sound any different from how I always set up new PCs (or thought I did). [It's amazing that RegisterFirefoxPortable.exe hasn't needed to be updated in nine years (the file timestamp is still 2010), but apparently there is no newer version.] But I decided to check it all thoroughly.

I have no idea what checkboxes he was talking about when he wrote, "Firefox/Choose defaults had all boxes ticked, so clicked Portable Firefox/Choose defaults and ticked all the choices and this replaced Firefox," but it didn't matter.

Here is what I did:

1. I ran RegisterFirefoxPortable.exe again just to be sure, but I doubt it changed anything.
2. I went to File Types... (I use Directory Opus instead of File Explorer, but it uses the same Windows stuff under the hood). Under System File Types, I found several that seemed applicable:
   • Firefox Portable URL - already looked right.
   • Firefox URL - was pointing to ...FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\firefox.exe (wrong, according to novw), but I pondered why that entry even existed, so I deleted it.
   • URL:http - already looked right (previously fixed in response to novw's post).
   • URL:https - already looked right (previously fixed in response to novw's post).
   • URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol - points to IE, but I don't have trouble with things opening in IE, so I decided to leave that alone, fearing I might break something if I mess with it.
3. I renamed ...\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles to "Profiles-XXX".
4. At that point I tested and got: Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. Hmph!
5. I looked back at portajon's post and saw that he said "Local", not "Roaming". I also wondered if I should just rename the profile folder itself, not Profiles. So I did that in both Local and Roaming, with a resulting path of ...\Profiles\qfr061fk.default-XXX.
6. This time when I tested, I fully expected Firefox to create a new AppData profile and send me back to the drawing board. But to my surprise, I was offered the How do you want to open this? dialog! I happily chose "Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition", and then the links worked as they should.

The difference in how Windows responded in steps #4 and #6 is a mystery. In #4 it considered Firefox the default program (which then complained about the missing profile), but then in #6, after no changes to Windows settings, it considered the default program an open question. I will never understand the layers of Windows...

Since I didn't test each step, I'm not sure what change was the real fix in my case - perhaps removing the "Firefox URL" system file type, or perhaps removing the AppData profiles. But the behavior in testing wasn't logical with either one:

• If the system file type removal solved it, why did Firefox even care about the AppData directory structure? (everything should be in PA's area)
• If removing the AppData profile solved it, why did Windows offer up a choice instead of Firefox just creating a new AppData profile?

Another mystery is how FFP has been using profiles all along. I assumed it would use one and only one profile for all aspects - extensions, bookmarks, etc., as well as cache, cookies, and other automated whatnots. But although extensions, bookmarks, etc. are definitely only in the PA profile, I noticed that in ...\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\qfr061fk.default\cache2\entries there were over 7000 files totally 245MB! The timestamps were in clumps - lots of files with a given date/time (e.g. the most recent clump was 57 files at 2019-06-30 9:52pm). Over 2000 of them are in a three-day timespan of 6/27-6/30, none in the three weeks prior to that, then more clumps on random dates going back to around the time I bought this PC two years ago. If those are cache, I don't know: ① why they are in AppData (the corresponding cache folder in the PA profile is empty), and ② why they don't appear every day with lots of different timestamps. What is that stuff? Can I safely remove it (and for that matter, the whole two ...\Profiles\qfr061fk.default-XXX folders)?

Anyway, since my installation is now opening links correctly, perhaps my description of what I did will help someone else.

G'day
I am having this same issue:

win7
Always before, I open 'Firefoxportable' first then, 'Thunderbird portable"
then when I click a link in 'Thunderbirdportable' it opened in 'Firefoxportable'

Now when I click a link in an email it starts firefox.exe in a new window with no addons

this is new behaviour - something has changed

if it carn't be fixed it's a serious feature loss for me

remember it's supposed to be portable - I carn't try these fixs on every PC
If it matters, i don't have either forefox or thunderbird on my PC

As a work around I drag links and drop on a firefoxportable tab to open them.

This option mentioned above worked on my home pc
https://portableapps.com/comment/240241#comment-240241

Could this type of script be added into the PortableApps Options menus - maybe with options for :
PortableFirefox
PortableThunderbird
PortableSumatra
PortableLibreOffice
et al
maybe scan installed portableapps and offer suitable ones that could be made default

Or could somone make it as a PortableApp

That would be really usefull to many I think - I'd give another Donation for that

Windows 7 x64
FF Portable 68.0.1
No other FF installed

Since forever, when I used to click on a URL in my password manager when FF Portable was running, it opened in that instance of FF. As well, that happens on links in PDF readers and, for another example, links in programs' Help > About. I don't open links in emails from Thunderbird Portable, but I imagine I would have had the same result.

Now, as is the focus of this thread, those will open in a separate instance from D:\PORTABLES\FirefoxPortable\App\firefox64 while plastering those nasty folders in AppData and ProgramData.

Since this behavior showed up, I dealt with it by copying the URL address and pasting it in the browser.

Now I'm wanting to overcome that. Using the vast resources of teh webbuhnetz and this forum, I set to task.

First I manually associated "Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition" from "Firefox" to files where needed. There was no "Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition" for the "open with" in Protocols, so with no choice, I left that as is.

No fix. Still opens another instance from D:\PORTABLES\FirefoxPortable\App\firefox64.

Then I ran registerfirefoxportable.exe which added "Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition" to the Protocols "open with" where it did not exist previously and changed the three protocols to it from "Firefox." I verified all files were still properly associated.

Now I get a "Close Firefox" dialogue: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. The old Firefox process must be closed to open a new window."

I copied FirefoxPortable.ini from the Source folder and changed AllowMultipleInstances to true (lowercase).

No fix. I still get the "Close Firefox" dialogue.

In scouring the registry, I found two settings each for Firefox, two with a UID and two without.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxPortableURL\shell\open
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxPortableHTML\shell\open
(Default) REG_SZ "D:\PORTABLES\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe" -url "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL-FE5Axxxxxxxx8BEA\shell\open\command
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML-FE5xxxxxxxx8BEA\shell\open\command
(Default) REG_SZ "D:\PORTABLES\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox64\firefox.exe" -osint -url "%1"
Both of which I changed to "D:\PORTABLES\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe" -url "%1"

No fix. I still get the "Close Firefox" dialogue.

Of the 397 registry keys containing "firefox," 65 of them still path to \App\Firefox64\ most of which I don't care to mess with.

Other than the tedium of purging all registry and files Firefox/Mozilla related from the system and running "for the first time" FF Portable...

What now?? Something simple I'm missing, maybe?? Thank you.

Hello,
just FYI the portable Firefox available on [illegal software site removed by mod JTH] *DOES* support link opening from external application.
I'm a bit surprised the portableapps.com version still doesn't.