I just found a bug in the latest Thunderbird release. It leaves behind a folder called "Thunderbird" in %APPDATA% with the usual Mozilla Crash Reports folder in it including a file with the install date.
Firefox and Seamonkey handle the folder correctly (=backup and restore), it seems that this functionality has been forgotten in the Thunderbird Launcher.
Tested on Win XP SP3 limited account.
Can anyone confirm this?
EDIT: This has been fixed.
I quit ThunderbirdPortable and found files in the folder you describe.
Mine are:
InstallTime20091121183158 dated 12/04/2009 09:10am
InstallTime20091130201643 dated 12/07/2009 03:51pm
InstallTime20091204171430 dated 12/09/2009 12:08am
InstallTime20100111101938 dated 01/24/2010 06:23pm
I was having some trouble with the webmail/AOL extensions retrieving mail until I landed beta versions of them.
A couple of days ago I installed Lightning just to see how it worked.
Edit: WinXP SP3, running as HMFIC
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
I did some research on Mozilla crash reporter, and found this advice:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=132
It specifically mentions disabling the crash reporter in FirefoxPortable by editing the application.ini file.
I made the same changes to the application.ini file in the ThunderbirdPortable directory.
I found that an empty directory called %APPDATA%\Thunderbird was created when ThunderbirdPortable started, and was removed after quitting ThunderbirdPortable.
Since things are stable here, I haven't been able to test this out after experiencing any crashes, so YMMV.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com