I initially upgraded my primary FF Portable install. I noticed the performance was very bad when opening web sites, moving between pages of web sites, etc. I was astounded to see the same performance when accessing a local web server that is 1 Layer 2 switch hop away, inside my home, does not serve anyone else, and has an average CPU utilization of 0%.
I installed FF 25.0.1 portable in a different directory on my local laptop hard drive. I made sure my laptop firewall would allow it access to the Internet. My personal FW is Vipre and it uses "name & location of the program" along with allow/block/prompt rules. I selected "allow".
I made sure that I did not load or install any extensions. Just a straight vanilla FF 25.0.1 portable install using the "paf.exe" file from "portableapps.com". I noticed that FF loaded Adobe Flash player plugin (version 11_9_900_152) in the background.
FF 25.0.1 portable could access the initial FF "firstpage" rather quickly. Then I opened a new tab to access "www.google.com". The URL automagically changed over to "https://www.google.com"...and then I waited. I noticed about 1 minute go by on my laptop clock before Google displayed it's page. 1 minute for Google!?!?
The PING time to Google DNS from my home FW is a steady 15 milliseconds, and to "www.google.com" is about 10 milliseconds. My own laptop is 1 Layer 2 switch hop and about 30 cable feet away from the home FW.
So I tried other web sites in FF 25.0.1 portable. "slashdot.org" had the same "slow" experience. I tried a few video streaming web sites. Same thing.
My previous experience with FF portable has always been good to exceptional. I like FF portable so much that I keep a copy loaded on a thumb drive so I can carry it on business trips to access personal email and favorite web links.
I tried 3 different portable web browsers on the same laptop: Iron Browser portable, Maxthon portable, Qupzilla portable. All are from "portableapps.com".
I pulled up the same web sites in these browsers. In every case the non-FF browsers were faster than FF, about 10-15 seconds at most when opening the mainpage of any web site.
In one case I opened the site in Qupzilla, then opened it in FF thinking it might be a delay in resolving DNS over the Internet. FF was still about 1 minute to open the same page...on the same laptop...through the same laptop FW software...through the same Internet connection.
I doubt the problem is in portable apps packaging as I have tried many other portable apps at one time or another.
I seriously think the issue is in upstream FF. I have seen similar complaints about the non-portable version. I even tried the non-portable FF 25.0.1 on the same laptop and still noticed it being "slow". I noticed one FF forum comment where a developer thought it might be a bug introduced into some resolver aspect of FF that would be fixed in a later version, perhaps FF 26 but maybe later. I tried the FF 26 portable beta and still saw the same "slow" performance.
So the question I have is this: How can I access an older version of FF portable, say FF 24 or FF 23?
While I like the portable Apps Launcher, I can't find a way to make it search, display, and allow selection of older versions of portable apps packages. For me, regressing the version of my FF portable apps install might be the best interim solution since changing to a different web browser is a hassle, not to mention going without many FF plugins that I find "necessary" to make my web browsing experience "pleasant".
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Update
I found the portable apps section on "sourceforge.net" and downloaded FF 24.0 portable. Then I loaded that version "right over the top" of the same laptop hard drive directory that I loaded a version of FF 25.0.1 portable much earlier today. I decided to load FF 24 portable that way because portable apps are upgraded that way.
In my case I am attempting to do a "regression" to an older release that is not "too old".
Once I had FF 24.0 portable loaded I accessed the same web sites that I accessed about 5 hours ago with FF 25.0.1 portable...and was there ever a difference in performance!!!!!
Under FF 24.0 portable I find web sites popping open very fast...a matter of seconds. I tried a few different web sites before making this update and the performance is consistently faster compared to FF 25.0.1. I even have a few extensions loaded, NoScript & Ghostery, and both are current.
So to me at least, the issues with FF 25.0.1 portable truly seem to be "upstream". Perhaps there are issues with the extension API in FF 25. Perhaps new bugs entered the FF 25 codebase, either as "pur error" or through an attempt to optimize or clean up previous code. I can only speculate about that stuff as I am not a software developer.
I guess it's time for me to stop updating every portable apps I use when updates occur, especially FF. Perhaps I even need to rethink donating to "portable apps" now that I see they accept something other than PayPal.
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I installed Firefox Portable 25.0.1 to my Desktop directory on my Win7 x64 box and it worked without issue browsing to multiple sites. It's also working fine from my USB 2.0 drive. My first thought was to try a fresh install, but I see you already tried that. It could be your antivirus of firewall slowing things down.
Could you try shutting down your other apps, scanning it for viruses, then disabling your antivirus and firewall temporarily and running it to see if it works properly then? You could try one, then the other, then both to figure out which it is. Don't forget to immediately turn them back on after and rescan just to be safe.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I run Windows 7 x64 on my laptop. All the current updates are loaded. Perhaps that could be a cause of the issue, but regressing MS patches seems next to impossible in Win7.
I did do a test with FF 25.0.1 where I disabled the firewall and ensured that anything would passthrough. FF 25.0.1 performance was still bad; web sites would still take 60 seconds or longer to load.
As for scanning for virii, VIPRE is very good about not being a "resource hog"; I can smoothly transcode video on the same laptop even while VIPRE is doing it's scans. FWIW I have never encountered any issues with VIPRE messing up any application. Now YMMV and your AV experiences may vary, but I find VIPRE to be the best for me.
I find it strange that I should see performance differences between FF 25.0.1 and FF 24, both "portable" (2 separate installs in 2 separate folders...a "cool" feature in portable apps), and then see "side by side" comparison with 3 other "portable" web browsers that is similar to FF 24 performance. That tells me that FF 25.0.1 is the culprit. When 4 different browsers have similar performance and the 5th browser "looks bad" in comparison, then logical deduction implies the 5th browser is likely the problem. Disagree with me if you wish, but I would rather we "agree to disagree" at this time.
If FF 25.0.1 is now "sensitive" to AV software, then that is yet another reason why I should regress to FF 24, especially if I haven't seen any program updates for my AV nor have I received any alerts from my AV vendor. Having a browser become "sensitive" to AV would also be "a first" in my years of experience with web browsers, even going back to 1995.
BTW...none of my experience should reflect badly on portable apps; I still like them and still recommend them to friends to look at.
So, I still maintain that the issue is "upstream" as the "non-portable" FF 25.0.1 has the same behavior as the portable FF 25.0.1. I don't use the non-portable FF, but I did try it for sake of comparison. I think you have stated elsewhere there is no difference in FF software used in non-portable versus portable, just how it's packaged, and I think my comparison of FF 25.0.1 portable & non-portable supports your statement.
I would also add that in reading various Mozilla forums, the "upstream" developers appear to be in "a state of denial" regarding any problems, or at least "confused" to some degree since the issue seems so "inconsistent"; some users see it and others do not. In 1 case a developer thought it might be a resolver issue, based on some recent code changes, and also thought it would occur when people use a private DNS server, usually for caching purposes, rather than sending every DNS query out to a Internet DNS server. That would match my case. I have an internal "caching & forwarding" DNS server that provides "local" DNS services in my LAN; all of my internal devices except the FW point to it, not any external DNS. The developer went on to say they committed code to an upcoming FF release that should fix the issue, but which upcoming version was not mentioned. I wish I could find that forum link again.
John, I respect you for your reply and interest in this issue. I think we should wait and see what the "upstream" FF developers say and do about this "problem".
My Windows 7 x64 machine is always fully patched and has no issue running local or portable Firefox (local or USB) either a fresh install or my normal one with a full set of bookmarks, cookies, passwords, and 4 extensions. I have not noticed FF25 to be any more or less sensitive to antivirus or firewall issues. That's just a standard troubleshooting technique (much as suggesting a clean install, a clean install to a local hard drive, etc) as a few interfere with portable software.
One other user noticed an issue with FF Portable 25 with firebug on set to run on all pages causing a massive slowdown. Turning it off and only turning it on when needed solved that issue. One other user noticed performance issues with FF25 but pointlessly refused to follow any troubleshooting steps at all. Side note: you never want to deal with users who blame your software and refuse to try specific troubleshooting techniques. They're a complete time-suck.
FF Portable 25 (and .1) has about a quarter million downloads so far and there have been no addition reports besides those. Likely, there is a specific interaction with some other software or configuration on specific PCs which is why it only occurs for a small % of users. That's why I suggested looking into antivirus, firewall, etc. I also suggest another PC on the same network as well as a different network (work/school vs home, for instance).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John,
Can you look at this thread?
https://portableapps.com/node/38639
I'm still having an issue where Firefox just sets and won't load any page. I'm not going to be able to trouble shoot much, as I'm on a work computer, but I would be willing to do what I can.
There is also a chance that "work" is doing it to get people off of Firefox and only use IE. grrrr. Both 25 and 25.0.1 have done this.
What is your network setup? Similar to mine or different?
Do all of your devices point to an Internet DNS server and not a local internal "caching & forwarding" DNS server?
Seeing that you are saying "work", then there might be a local "caching & forwarding" DNS server (or multiple servers) and all of the internal computers point to the internal servers rather than to external Internet DNS servers.
Also, what anti-virus software is used?
FWIW these questions may help to establish any possible trends in cases where people experience FF 25 or 25.0.1 being "slow". Call me "curious".
I'm at work, have Portable apps installed in my user directory.
We do have an internal DNS server, but other than that, I can't tell you.
Microsoft Forefront Endpoint protection. I can't turn it off, as they have it locked down.
At one time (and may still), we also routed everything through a monitor site.
I assume the built in W7 firewall.
I have the "open in IE" app installed, and all sites open just fine in IE, when Firefox is locked up. BTW, when this happens, ALL sites are locked, not just some. Wish I could tell you more, but they have things pretty locked up here. I was surprised they even have installs turned on!
BTW, I just had this happen to me this weekend on my home computer running the non-portable version, so I guess it's a Firefox bug, not a portable app version issue.
My issue seems to be fixed with the new version 26
I currently run Vipre 2013 on 2 machine and VIPRE 2014 on another. All three have FF 25.0.1 installed XP SP3, Win 7 32 bit and Win 8 64 bit. I have no slow issues on any machine? I also run the portable as well on all three machines without issue either. So I have tried to duplicate the issues you have discussed and can not.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
What is your network setup? Similar to mine or different?
Do all of your devices point to an Internet DNS server and not a local internal "caching & forwarding" DNS server?
A standard Time Warner connection to a Cisco Modem into a WPA2 Cisco Router which I then connect to that via a WPA2 Tenda Wireless router/WAP/WEP So I go through two separate security points as well as My Vipre Internet Security Suite and its firewall
I also use the above set up to manually connect to a VPN n NYC as well
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss