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Can't open up Desktop URL Links if AllowMultipleInstances=true.

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January 29, 2021 - 10:59am
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gaveitatry
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Can't open up Desktop URL Links if AllowMultipleInstances=true.

Hi. For the last several months, I have been running Firefox Portable and Waterfox Portable at the same time. Then today, I experimented with Firefox Portable and Waterfox Full Installation at the same time. The problem is that both Waterfox browsers, Portable and Full Installation, are extremely weak browsers. There is a video cam website that I visit and if I just open one person's webcam it can freeze on occasion. If I have two webcams open, it freezes up a lot more. I can forget running my own webcam. But none of these problems exist in Firefox Portable

So I finally decided to just get rid of Waterfox and see if I could run two instances of Firefox at the same time. Following the instructions on this forum, I was easily able to run Firefox Portable (my main browser that has all my bookmarks and other data) and Firefox Full Installation (that I only use for the webcam website and I have the navigation bar hidden) side by side. Works fine. If Firefox Portable is open, I can open up Firefox Full Installation with no problems. And vice versa

But there is ONE PROBLEM. I took some bookmarks from Firefox Portable and I moved them to my USB Drive. And I already have Firefox Portable registered (edit: using Register Firefox Portable 1.1) and all my bookmarks are set to open up with Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition. They were opening just fine. But ever since I changed the .ini file, I can no longer open up those bookmarks that I have saved on my USB Drive. It will tell me that "Firefox is already running, but not responding. The old Firefox process must be closed to open a new window." And that's even when just Firefox Portable is running. So it has something to do with the .ini changes. I only changed two things. I allowed multiple instances and I disabled splash screen. Nothing else. So basically what I am saying is, the .ini changes let me run both browsers same time no problem. But if I want to take a bookmark that is saved to my USB Drive and open it, I get that error message, even though a.) Mozilla Portable is the only browser running and b.) I have Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition registered as my default browser. Do you have any ideas? And this is my .ini file.

[FirefoxPortable]
FirefoxDirectory=App\firefox
ProfileDirectory=Data\profile
SettingsDirectory=Data\settings
PluginsDirectory=Data\plugins
FirefoxExecutable=firefox.exe
AdditionalParameters=
LocalHomepage=
DisableSplashScreen=true
AllowMultipleInstances=true
DisableIntelligentStart=false
SkipCompregFix=false
RunLocally=false

I don't think my system details are going to help much, because this is a problem with Firefox Portable and not my system. But if you really need to know, ask me whatever you need to, and give me some time to find to report back. I am running Windows 10 and I always check for updates once or twice a day. And I am guessing that I am using the 64-bit version of everything, because that is what I usually do, but I can check and confirm later. Both Firefox Portable and Firefox are updated to latest versions. Installation paths, does it matter? Firefox is set to default location. Firefox Portable not default location. If I remove the .ini file or set AllowMultipleInstances to false, the desktop URL links work again. But of course I don't want to remove the .ini file or set AllowMultipleInstaces to true, because I want to run Firefox Portable and Firefox (Full Installation) at the same time.

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January 29, 2021 - 12:45pm
John T. Haller
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FirefoxPortable.exe?

Do you have FirefoxPortable.exe directly set as your browser using a third party utility to register it? If you have firefox itself set as your default, it will fail.

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

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January 31, 2021 - 11:51am
(Reply to #2)
gaveitatry
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Yes. Maybe I didn't make

Yes. Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough in my original post. I used a third party utility called Register Firefox Portable 1.1 to set Firefox Portable as my default browser. So once again, if I delete the .ini file, desktop URL links open in Firefox Portable no problem (even if Firefox full install is installed). But if I set AllowMultipleInstaces=true, then the desktop URL links won't work and will demand that I close Firefox Portable first, even if Firefox Portable is the only browser running and FIrefox full install is completely closed. Not only is this an inconvenient problem for desktop URL links, but it intereferes with bunches or programs too. For example, in the Camfrog desktop application, I can't click "View Profile" of any number of people whose profile I want to see because of this problem. Or if I use Howard E-Mail Notifier, I can't use the system tray shortcut to check my emails because it will want to close my browser instead of just opening my emails in a new tab. I feel like I did the very best job I could do to explain this problem. Hopefully it is enough.

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January 31, 2021 - 12:45pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Try HTML File

Ok, let's try this one step at a time without any other Firefox versions running.
1. Install a new fresh copy of Firefox Portable (current stable) to your Desktop directory.
2. Copy the FirefoxPortable.ini file from FirefoxPortable\Other\Source to FirefoxPortable
3. Edit the FirefoxPortable.ini file within FirefoxPortable and set AllowMultipleInstaces=true
4. Run FirefoxPortable.exe
5. Drag help.html and drop it on FirefoxPortable.exe

That should let us determine if it's working as expected on your machine. Next, close Firefox Portable and launch a local copy of Firefox. Then do the above steps again. Report back on everything.

Side Note: Please keep the Bug tag off your post for now. I can't reproduce your issue, so it could be an issue with your setup or config and not anything in our code.

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

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January 31, 2021 - 1:12pm
(Reply to #4)
gaveitatry
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I don't mind doing steps like

I don't mind doing steps like that. I haven't yet, but I am willing to. I just don't understand the point of 5.) Drag help.html and drop it on FirefoxPortable.exe. How does dragging and dropping a desktop URL link into the browser help determine anything? The problem is that double clicking desktop URL links doesn't work. I can drag and drop desktop URL links into the browser. But I want to double click and open them instead. Which works, if the .ini AllowMultipleInstaces is set to false. It really feels like you are BS'ng or trolling me at this point.

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January 31, 2021 - 1:39pm
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Second Instance Passing In

Dragging help.html onto FirefoxPortable.exe causes the launcher to initiate its AllowMultipleInstances mode if it is already running. Note that I'm saying drag it and drop it onto the FirefoxPortable.exe you already have running in Explorer, *not* to drop it on the existing browser window. This is the same as if you had registered FirefoxPortable.exe as your system default for HTML files and double clicked one. You can also drop URL shortcuts onto FirefoxPortable.exe to test this. Dragging a URL shortcut works the same as if you had FirefoxPortable.exe properly registered as your default browser for URLs and double clicked one.

The above helps us determine if perhaps the third party tool didn't properly register it as your default.

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

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January 31, 2021 - 4:56pm
(Reply to #6)
gaveitatry
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Strange behavior.

For some reason double clicking .URLs in the fresh Firefox Portable install worked. You seem to believe that I didn't previously register Firefox Portable correctly using Register Firefox Portable 1.1, but I don't believe that is the case. I have used that third party tool forever, ever since I first installed Firefox Portable. It only takes a few seconds to re-register, and I did that a hundred times already. And as I stated in my original post, disabling AllowMultipleInstances would cause double clicking .URLs to work again. So I feel that the main reason why double clicking URLs didn't work before but worked in the new install is because an old install that has been continuously updated and currently up-to-date may not be exactly the same as a fresh install. In other words, those many updates didn't update everything all the way. One thing that I noticed differently in the new install that was different from my up-to-date old install is that the new install no longer showed the ApplicationID in 7+ Taskbar Inspector. It's like you purposely went out of your way to hide it ever since I created that thread before Christmas on an alternative means of pinning portable browsers to the taskbar without having to install Portable.apps Platform. I even went as far as to learn alternative methods for getting the ApplicationID of a program, and found an excellent easy way to do it using PowerShell. But once I changed the ApplicationID of a dummy.exe shortcut, it didn't work as before. It no longer opened up Firefox Portable at the pin location on the Taskbar. It opened at the end, after all the other pins instead. A really frustrating experience. I didn't want to use an extra program, the Portable.apps Platform. For one, it is an additional program. I have no way of knowing if I am supposed to run it at all times, or if I only need it to install Firefox Portable the first time. If I am supposed to keep it running, that doesn't make me happy having to run an additional program. I also don't know how the updates work. There is indication that Portable.apps Platform does the updating, but with the standalone Firefox Portable installation it updated itself. So are there going to be two updates running at the same time? Will they always be the same or will they conflict with each other? What if I have Portable.apps Platform closed and Firefox Portable updates itself? Why do I even need Portable.apps Platform? But it does let me pin Firefox Portable taskbar, and easily too. So that is one plus. So I'm trying to use it. But then I run into another problem. I could do multiple standalone Firefox Portable installs and I could copy the Profile folder from one install to another, regardless of where that Firefox Portable install is located (Desktop, USB Drive, C: drive subfolder), and the add-on extensions would work just fine. I think that it would even work if I copied the entire folder to the desktop of another laptop. That really makes it feel "portable". But when I copied the Profile folder to correct location in the Portable.apps Platform subfolder, the add-on extensions broke. That makes me sad and mad. Doesn't feel portable or trustworthy. So after restarting the browser a few times and seeing that I can't get those add-on extensions to work, and seeing how copying the Profile over multiple times in case it didn't copy correctly te first time didn't work, I was forced to uninstall and reinstall those 20-30 add-on extensions. And later I will have to go through each add-on extension and reconfigure everything. It's going to be a pain. I really hope that this will all be worth it in the end. If you really did go out of your way to make ApplicationIDs hidden in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and to make pinning to taskbar no longer work using methods like Win7AppId to first change ApplicationID of a dummy.exe shortcut and then change target path to Firefox Portable, then that makes me feel like you are forcing Portable.apps Platform on people. And if that is the case, what is the point of having separate download links for each and every portable app you have? Why not just have one and only one download link on your entire website - for Portable.apps Platform and force people to use it to download the portable app of their choice? Because I really don't get why a previously installed Firefox Portable that has been continuously updated and currently up-to-date would have ApplicationIDs show up in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and my Win7AppId trick to pin Firefox Portable to the Taskbar without using Portable.apps Platform would work, but a fresh install of the same version of Firefox Portable would not let me do those things. And I'm still befuzzled why double clicking .URL shortcuts in the older install that had been continuously updated and was up-to-date wouldn't work, but it worked on a fresh install. It's like your updating system is unreliable or something. But I really like portable browsers, and despite all these headaches I am still blessed to be able to use them and I can still do what I want so I guess it is all okay in the end. Despite the strange behaviors and headaches.

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February 2, 2021 - 11:05am
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Changes

Both Windows 10 and Firefox have made changes since the tool came out, so I'm unsure how well it works anymore. As I neither wrote it nor supported it, I gave you the steps to ensure that Firefox Portable itself worked on your system independent of any issues with the registration of it as a default. When troubleshooting, it's best to isolate one thing at a time.

Taskbar pinning changed completely in newer versions of Firefox as well and that's a separate issue.

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

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January 31, 2021 - 5:06pm
(Reply to #8)
gaveitatry
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Good news.

1.) I tried copying the Portable.apps Platform folder from one laptop to another and it seems like it kept all my add-ons extensions and settings. 2.) Also, even though copying Profile from old install to Portable.apps Platform broke most of my add-on extensions and forced me to uninstall and reinstall them all, my add-on extension settings were all still there after the reinstall.

So yes, I feel pretty happy. Seems like everything is working perfectly. I may end up converting my old Firefox Portable standalone install on my other computer to a Portable.apps Platform install too. I may end up deleting that thread I created in December soon. Not yet. Please leave it up for now, and then I'll ask you to delete it when I am ready. Thank you. So glad this mess seems to finally be resolved and now I can do things I couldn't previously do, like run two Firefox programs at the same time and have double clicking .URLs work.

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January 31, 2021 - 5:26pm
(Reply to #9)
gaveitatry
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One interesting thing.

On the laptop I have Portable.apps Platform installed, I added the .ini file for Firefox Portable because I wanted to get rid of the splash screen. And even though I did not set AllowMultipleInstances to "true", it still lets me run Firefox Portable and Firefox (full install) at the same time with no problems (and double clicking .URL shortcuts still work). I wasn't expecting that. But anyway, I'm going to install Portable.apps Platform on my other laptop and see if it does the same thing.

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