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Uninstalling Firefox leaves behind metadata

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July 6, 2016 - 10:02pm
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gwt10
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Uninstalling Firefox leaves behind metadata

I had a corrupt FF profile and decided to start from scratch since there wasn't a lot in there. I right mouse-clicked from the menu and selected uninstall the app as you would normally do.

I had previously renamed it "Firefox 1" in the menu and when I went to do a fresh install, it kept the name "Firefox 1" in the menu, which leads me to believe there is still traces of Firefox metadata left behind within the protableapps platform itself.

I thought uninstall was a clean uninstall. I need to delete everything concerning FF (or any other app I choose to delete) from the portableapps platform. Can anybody explain this?

Thank you

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July 6, 2016 - 11:43pm
John T. Haller
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Platform Settings

It's a platform setting within the menu itself with nothing at all to do with Firefox. It's not app metadata, it's platform metadata. You can change it however you want.

If you're curious, it's contained in the PortableAppsMenu.ini within PortableApps\PortableApps.com\Data. In the section called [AppsRenamed] you'll see any entry that looks like this: firefoxportable\firefoxportable.exe=Firefox 1

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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July 7, 2016 - 3:58am
(Reply to #2)
gwt10
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I also found the following entries in that PortableAppsMenu.ini file

firefoxportable2ndprofile\firefoxportable2ndprofile.exe=1

firefoxportableesr\firefoxportable.exe=245

firefoxportable\firefoxportable.exe=209

I want all traces of Firefox to be gone. Can these lines or entries be deleted as well?

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July 7, 2016 - 8:33am
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Manually

You can choose to manually delete those individual entries if you so desire. They are only indicators of how many times the app was run used by the menu to indicate app popularity if you have the platform set to sort automatically in one mode. None of these are any sort of personal information.

Note that there are records on your local computer that you ran Firefox, of course. Within things like prefetch files and the like and within the registry or logs depending on your antivirus. These often require admin rights to delete. Portable software is not "stealth" as in it leaves no traces and it never claims to be. This is by design within Windows. Some sites will mistakenly refer to portable software as being stealth though this is incorrect.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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July 7, 2016 - 8:36pm
(Reply to #4)
gwt10
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Yeah, I realize there might be traces left on the local computer.

But this takes care of all traces of FF on the USB flash drive, correct?

Or is there something else I need to delete...?

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