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Launching URL from windows bypasses portable firefox.

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ShalowUser
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Launching URL from windows bypasses portable firefox.

whenever i click a link on windows (about boxes in programs) it open the firefox program and not firefoxportable.

how can we make them open the firefoxportable with the default settings ? or make firefox.exe (original) look in the profile directory of portable firefox ?

either way, i want to be able to open my links in the portable to retain all my preferences, etc

thanks

Simeon
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Generally

you cant do that.
Its one of the main disadvantages of portable Applications. Because they are portable, the good news is that they don't clutter the Registry and your PC, but on the other hand you cant set them as standard programs for a specific file type.
Some people here are working on solutions to change that. One project is the PortableFileAssociator that would do exactly what you want. But I cant tell you how well it works as Ive never used it.

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KickButts
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Sorry, Simeon...

Actually, he can.

He just need to edit the file association, so it points to FirefoxPortable.exe instead of to firefox.exe.

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ghrasko
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URL association

Hi,

I disagree with those who say that if I use portable, then it must not interfere with the operating system (registry etc.). I try to use portable, as it keeps Windows cleaner on the expense of a bit of the application execute speed. Also I can easier move the application when I reinstall my laptop.

I use Windows 7 (quite new for me). I successfully associated html, htm etc files with the portable firefox using Control Panel/Default Programs/Set Associations. I also set there the association for URL protocol. It works fine when I open html files or url files from the desktop, but invokes the original (non portable) firefox directly from the portable package if I invoke it from an email.

So generally associations do work, but not always.

Gabor

ShalowUser
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actually.

It is not a file association, it's a URL link in winword or in the "about" box of a program, how do you associate that ?

Simeon
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I think

it just uses the system standard browser so you'd have to get Firefox Portable to be that.

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

ShalowUser
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yup

I know that, but how do i do this, and why doesn't the portable firefox have an option for that ?

ShalowUser
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there

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/defaultbrowser.htm

this does the trick, but can PFA do that ?

dbau
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FirefoxPortable is designed

FirefoxPortable is designed so that it doesn't affect the computer you're running it on and setting itself as the default browser changes the host system.

ShalowUser
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the problem with firefox

the problem with firefox portable, is that you CAN'T use it even if you change the system outside the portable option.

meaning even if you fiddle with the registry, firefox portable uses a profile "outside" the firefox directory and bypasses the profilemanager inside firefox.

it also creates a directory mozilla (empty) inside the data profile folder. so it still messes with the host computer.

that's why i thinapped and stoped using firefox portable. It's very very unstable and a lot of times my profiles got lost every now and then, and sometimes, my profiles got frozen (any changes made to them were forgot when i close and reopen).

John T. Haller
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Nope

You're missing a bit of the point. Firefox Portable is designed to be portable... not to be an install on the host PC. For that, you use regular Firefox. If you genuinely want to use Firefox Portable as your default browser, you just need to point the relevant registry entries to FirefoxPortable.exe instead of firefox.exe. The included Firefox within Firefox Portable is a standard, unaltered copy of Firefox and our modifications are mainly within the launcher and the default options in keeping with our license with Mozilla.

The Mozilla directory is not left behind unless you use the run multiple instances option. This is clearly spelled out in the readme.

If you'd like to use an illegally packaged version of Firefox, that's your choice. But I wouldn't recommend it to others.

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ShalowUser
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why are you assuming it is

why are you assuming it is illegal ? don't make biased asumptions.

I do understand the point here... it's just that if you don't want to mess up the system, maybe the directory should not be created in the first place. also, why not use the default profile in the original firefox ? is that messing up the licence with mozilla ?

for the rest out there, don't assign firefox to be the default browser (from within the program) cause this assigns the firefox.exe and not the portable firefox.exe, making the firefox.exe launch the default profile and not your portable one.

John T. Haller
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Licensing

Unless the company has a license to repackage Mozilla Firefox and states it on their download page, they can't do it. It's in violation of the Mozilla trademark guidelines. You can only distribute an unaltered Mozilla Firefox binary installer created by Mozilla or one of the entities with permission to repackage it (like PortableApps.com). Unless you have obtained it from an entity that paid the $5,000 cost for the software plus the licensing fee for every download and has a license from Mozilla to distribute it, you're using illegal software.

Nearly every portable app packaged with Thinstall/Thinapp and available for download that I've seen is packaged illegally. GPL licensed software (over 2/3 of all open source software) and similar licenses can not be packaged in a closed source binary for which the source is not available, so every one of those packages is in violation of the license and, thus, copyright law (according to the Free Software Foundation). Closed source software (free and paid) generally prohibits modifications or repackaging as well. Heck, most sites are using warez copies of the packaging software in the first place. There are plenty of sites that host illegal software like this, but we don't link to or discuss them on PortableApps.com. We only deal with legal, legitimate software.

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ShalowUser
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stop making a long list of

stop making a long list of legal mumbo jumbo before knowing the facts.

I made it on my own, and it's for my own personal use. No Download, No distribution, own licence, fully legal.

John T. Haller
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Facts

The above post I made is all factual. I was under the impression you'd downloaded either a pre-packaged version or a warez version of ThinApp. We've had more than a few users posting about that in the forums (some of whom we had to ban). If you've either purchased the $4,995 license or are using the expiring trial yourself and are not sharing the apps with anyone, you're actually ok. My apologies as that appears to be the case.

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ShalowUser
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no prob.

No prob, I can understand that the aspect you are describing is more common that anyone would think.

Good luck with firefox Portable making it better. any ideas if you are going to use the default profile of mozilla or is this not authorized ?

is it's not, can you tell us a way to do so ?

Simeon
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What do you mean

by "default profile"?

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John T. Haller
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Not The Purpose

The default profile on the local PC is used by the local PC user (when regular Firefox is installed). We keep a profile on the flash drive so (1) the user's data is never written to the local PC and (2) we don't interfere with a local install.

If you're installing Firefox Portable locally and want the local PC to use the portable profile, you can either manually edit the registry or edit filetypes in Explorer and point the appropriate filetypes and entries to FirefoxPortable.exe instead of firefox.exe or you can run the Firefox profile manager and point it to the portable profile which will make an entry in the local Mozilla Firefox directory in APPDATA telling it where to look for the profile.

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ShalowUser
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got ya

got ya...

what about the profiles disapearing sometimes ? (i mean when we run firefoxportable)

or sometimes, you make two or three bookmarks, and they disapear the next time you restart. Like if all your settings have been frozen !

Simeon
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I think

that belongs into another thread.

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

consul
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why have both versions?

I have just ffp on one of my laptops as a local install, why not have it like that so there is no other firefox for windows to accidentally come across?

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atomic1fire
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the point of portable

the point of portable applications is not to interfer with system settings, I suppose it could be possible to remove registry settings on removal of the drive, including unmaking it the default browser on that computer and making the former default the default, but it would be more work then nessasary.
Port your settings on to the computer if you have too, but if you dont have permission to change another persons settings, that pretty much invalidates your whole plan.

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