I found no way in the forums to search so...
When I run firefox portable it uses the settings I have from my Win 8 PC with firefox installed.
So clearly not separate or secure. Seems to me. If this has already been asked/answered direct me to that thread
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On where you have it installed as well as how it is being run, perhaps a little more info so We do not have to assume?
“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
The way to search the forums is to use the search box in the top-right hand part of the screen.
Are you running FIrefoxPortable.exe? Have you added a FirefoxPortable.ini with custom options?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Another potential problem / feature is that, by default, there is only one version and one profile of Firefox active at any time. So if you have already started Firefox non-portable (i.e. your installed version that uses the profile on your computer) and you click on Firefox Portable from the PortableApps window, what happens is that Firefox (non-portable) opens a second window.
The same phenomenon happens also the other way around: if you start FirefoxPortable and then click on the desktop icon of Firefox, it will open a second window of FirefoxPortable.
Michel Gagnon
Montréal (Québec, Canada)
If a local instance of Firefox is already running, Firefox Portable will alert and tell you and refuse to run (click to see).
Running a local instance just runs Firefox normally which means it hands off to any already running instance. Firefox is not meant to have multiple separate versions or profiles running at the same time. It does however have the ability to do so for development purposes.
You can enable the development feature using AllowMultipleInstances in the FirefoxPortable.ini file but we do not support doing so and it will leave things behind on every PC you run on because the launcher can't stick around to clean up.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I cannot confirm that. If I'm running a local instance and start Firefox Portable, I don't get any warning. Instead of that, just another instance of the local Firefox is opened.
I tried to monitor that with prozess monitor, but after over 6000 events, I gave up.
firefox.exe in FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox had a very short lifetime while the local firefox.exe was running the whole time.
I remember, we had a thread with this issue some time ago (maybe two years?), but that came to nothing. I cannot find it anymore (the search is no help there).
I have no additional settings, no AllowMulipleInstances. FirefoxPortable is a fresh install and Firefox local is a different install form the last time I tested (new computer either). The only extensions I have installed on the local install are ABP, CookieMonster, DownThemAll, Video Download Helper and NoScript. Firefox Portable.
I run it on Windows 8.1 64bit with all latest updates.
That message box I showed is from the launcher itself. The launcher checks to see if firefox.exe is already running. If it is, it checks to see if the parent.lock file exists in the profile directory. If it exists, as it only should when Firefox is running and using that profile, it just starts firefox.exe. If it doesn't exist, it checks to see if you have enabled AllowMultipleInstances. If you have, it starts firefox.exe with -no-remote. If you haven't, it shows that error.
Is there some reason that the parent.lock file exists in your profile directory when Firefox Portable is not running? For example, did Firefox Portable crash the last time you ran it?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I did some quick testing. I actually had a parent.lock file in my proflie directory. I checked and found out, that my FirefoxPortable installation was first installed half a year ago, but never used. To exclude human (my) errors, I did a complete fresh install.
Without any profile in data, FirefoxPortable behaves as it should (error message).
Second test porcedure: Start local Firefox -> close -> check if firefox exe properly closed in taskmanager -> start FirefoxPortable -> close.
Profile etc. is generated in Data, including parent.lock.
So, after a first run, when the profile is generated, FirefoxPortable starts additional instances of an already open local Firefox instead of displaying the error message.
If I recall it correctly after that long time, that is the same behaviour as I reported formerly. I did not know then, that parent.lock is the file to check against, and maybe it was another reason that time.
I'll do a cross check with another language version and report later.
-edit-
Exaclty the same behavior with Platform set to English and English FirefoxPortable installed.
I've confirmed this issue. It appears that the usage of that file changed a while ago. I've posted a bug and will have it sorted in the next set of Firefox releases. https://portableapps.com/node/52708
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!