Hello, since I recently bought SSD, I desided to redirect (mklink command) Firefox folders from %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA% to RAM Disk (ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver).
More specifically I set up persistent RAM Drive R: that is inicialized from *.img file during logon and written to *.img (on hdd) during logoff.
Then I created symbolic links by
mklink /D %APPDATA%\Mozilla R:\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla
mklink /D %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla R:\AppData\Local\Mozilla
Everything works as expected (preventing writes on SSD)...
But when I run Thunderbird Portable and close it, the launcher deletes not only %APPDATA%\Thunderbird and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Thunderbird folders but also destroys Mozilla Firefox symbolik links...
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Creating a junction or symbolic link within APPDATA or LOCALAPPDATA can have negative affects due to the way Windows works. Unfortunately, Windows is kind of dumb when it comes to these things as they're basically bolted on after the fact. The way the launcher works is that it checks to see if, for instance, %APPDATA%\Mozilla is empty as it exits. If it's a symbolic link/junction, the Windows API wrongly says... yup, it's empty. The FirefoxPortable.exe launcher then deletes it, since it's empty. This is a long-standing issue in Windows and will likely never be addressed.
We have some test code for the launchers that should eventually work into production. But we have a very full plate and this is a very niche issue.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thank You for Your immediate answer and clarification!
But I wonder, why Thunderbird Portable checks and deletes folders that belong to Firefox, as I am not using Firefox Portable. My Firefox is installed one.
The APPDATA\Mozilla folder is used by both Firefox and Thunderbird.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Oh, I was not fully aware of that fact. Now it is clear to me...
but I'm trying to do similar on an older computer. Portable apps are running in a RamDrive, including FireFox and ThunderBird.
I'm wondering if a workaround or solution was ever found.
{New Install Windows 7x64 on a ZBOX AD-02 with 60GB SSD}
Very interesting topic!
Thanks a lot to John for taking the time to answer with details!
Please test the function of these two test launchers for Firefox and Thunderbird here: https://portableapps.com/node/54162
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!