After running the latest Beta with no additional extensions or add-ons installed, I found that a single registry entry is left after firefox is closed (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mozilla.org\Mozilla\CurrentVersion). This entry is also left with 2.0.0.12 so I'm thinking it has something to do with my computer. The only way I can get rid if it is to delete the value manually. Again I hope that it is just the computer I am using, is there something I'm not doing? Any help would be appreciated.
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If the launcher were run in a limited user context, or would drop security privileges (the way DropMyRights does) then Firefox would not be able to write to (most of) HKLM and this wouldn't be a problem.
If you wanted, you could use DropMyRights or psexec.exe yourself ... in fact, short of logging in with a non-Admin user account, that's the best way to keep safe when using any browser or mail client or most anything else.
MC
it still is a problem if run on an Admin account.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
you should never be running a browser with Admin privileges!
If FFP is really changing that registry key, it will probably get noticed eventually and a fix attempted.
MEANWHILE
You should use DropMyRights or psexec to run with limited privileges, and then FFP won't be able to write to that registry key, and you won't notice the problem (and no malware you encounter while you browse the web will be able to either -- which is the whole reason not to use Admin while browsing).
MC
I guess my point is not that I'm using FFP on a computer with admin rights, my point is that the launcher should either delete or backup and remove that reg key. I don't really know anything about writing a launcher, but it seems it would be pretty simple to tell the launcher to delete that value. It seems like a quick and easy fix.
It would be quick and easy, if you could guarantee that no local Firefox has been installed -- you wouldn't want to just delete that key if it was put there by something else. The idea is to leave things the way they were, not to delete settings that the host computer might depend on.
There's also the issue of what happens if the power fails or the USB drive is removed without closing the app. You have to provide for the cleanup to happen the next time the Portable app starts, or at least to allow for a graceful recovery.
MC
just hope that portable firefox 3 will allow you to save "check if firefox 3 is your default browser" i know with portable apps you don't want to leave a trail, but would be nice if you could choose to do it.. i've read the support forums on this question, and seems like there isn't an easy fix, but maybe there's a way to automate it so that it would erase the settings upon exit. even if it doesn't, it would be nice to at least have the option to do it, and leave it up to the user- also would be nice to have it in thunderbird as well
The problem is: what happens if the USB drive is removed ungracefully, or the power fails, and the host computer is left thinking FFP that's not there any more is the default browser? Do you want to include a cleanup program in "run once", or how do you handle it?
There are some ways to make it happen, they just get very messy very quickly.
MC
Handling of this key is in the launcher for 2.0.0.12 and the 3 Betas and has been for quite some time. Unless it is detecting Firefox locally and not sticking around (though the Beta 4 release now does this properly).
Any chance you're using the INI with something like AllowMultipleInstances or something? (which is NOT recommended except on your own machine as it prevents the cleanup from running)
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
All I did to produce this was download FFP, extract it, run it, navigate away from the homepage, and close FFP. I did notice that if I just opened FFP and closed it without navigating away from the homepage, this entry is not even created. Again, I'm thinking that it might be something my computer is doing because you said that the launcher handles this, but I have no idea why. Is there anything I can do to determine what is going on with this?
Check Application Data for a Mozilla directory. That's how the old version checks if Firefox is installed (and whether to stick around). The newer version is now checking multiple data points because Firefox could have been uninstalled but left that folder behind.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!