Hello,
I've been trying to download & install Thunderbird Portable onto a USB drive. But ".exe" doesn't seem to arrive with the download. On one attempt the program itself opened and we went through the account set up; it worked on the original computer but not when the USB was plugged into another computer - "exe. not found" was the reason. Second attempt: it wouldn't start up at all because no .exe found.
The download & install processes were a bit different from the simple instructions on the Thunderbird Portable page, by the way - nothing to double click.
Thanks
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The normal install process is as follows:
Navigate to the App page.
Left-click the download button.
You get redirected to one of Sourceforges download servers.
Download the file, preferably to your desktop.
Double-click on it. It should find your drive automatically and set the right install path.
Hit "install".
All your old data will be preserved.
What did you do?
Did you change any paths using the ini file? Or just a plain standard install?
I am just trying to figure out what you did so I now what went wrong. Normally its very simple, but some people make it more complicated than it has to be.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
After left clicking the download button, the Sourceforges page appeared, but after waiting quite a while as nothing happened, ("will start shortly" didn't start) I hit the "direct link", then proceeded. I did specify the flash drive as the destination for download, not the desktop. Are you saying that it will go to the flash drive from the desktop?
I didn't do anything involving ini files (sorry, don't even know what they are).
I am following dialogue boxes in Japanese. The first one asked if I wanted to save or start (?) and I believe the subject was .exe. I tried it both ways. The second box asked for a destination and I specified the flash drive.
I would like to try again at some point because I LOVE my own Th Portable and am trying to get it for my husband. A friend downloaded the first time. Both our computers have Japanese OS so I will sometimes be guessing in my ttranslations.
I appreciate your help.
Nan
Do you have the PortableApps Menu installed? That would make the process much more easily understood (I think).
https://portableapps.com/node/8450
Then, go to the root of your USB and find the StartPortableApps program and run it.
The way to install Thunderbird most easily is to download the Thunderbird Portable PAF (installer) file to someplace you can find easily (like your desktop). Then, from the PA menu, click the Options button and Install a new App (or at least that's what it says in English) and browse to that PAF file. Once the install completes it should appear on the PA Menu, and launch from there.
If you install without the PAM, it should ask you for a directory to install into, probably making \ThunderbirdPortable wherever you ask it to (as well as asking to accept the license). If you don't have PAM installed, you may have to make sure you are telling it to install on the USB drive, since it might not be able to find the USB drive on its own. Inside that folder should be ThunderbirdPortable.exe. Is that what you are running?
If you save the installer to some place other than the USB drive, the installer will run more quickly, and you won't need to delete the installer from the USB afterwards.
It sounds like you installed the Thunderbird Portable to your first computer, or else that you (somehow) used the original Thunderbird installer to your first computer. When you are finished with the install, you should be able to use My Computer to explore the USB drive and see the PortableApps and/or ThunderbirdPortable folder, and the ThunderbirdPortable program. If you don't see those on the USB drive something has gone wrong.
MC
I'll try this someday soon but am going on vacation now. I do appreciate it.
In Vista (Business Edition, default set-up), I had to "right click" the install file and specify to run as an administrator. Even though you have administrative rights, Vista's default set-up is to ask you through a prompt if you want to run it. Install via answering "yes" to the prompt installs everything but the *.exe file. If you right click and choose to run the install as an administrator, it does it just fine.
You can change the default behaviour through the "user control panel." I have not been willing to do that.
weird, but that's the Vista we all know and love....
Now if someone can clean up the story on the U3 issues, that would be nice.
All the installers and launchers from PortableApps.com are set to instruct Vista that it doesn't need admin rights, so they work just fine without right-clicking and setting it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!