The Portable Browser Wars - Part 1 (Firefox 2.0.0.11)

Sorry for the long delay between posts but I promise I will not let this blog go dead. It's just been a busy week with Christmas, New Years and my best friend's wedding, plus going back to school tomorrow. But I have been doing a lot of research and I've decided the portable browser discussion is big enough that I'm going to split it between two main categories: Installation + Customization and Performance.

This first post will give the procedure for installing Firefox 2.0.0.11 with subsequent posts on FF Beta 3rv2 and Opera 9.25 in the coming days (or maybe even later tonight).

Firefox 2.0.0.11 (Installation)

The very first step in installing Portable Firefox is to grab the latest version from portableapps.com: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

The download is around 6MB and comes as a self-extracting executable. The portable versions of Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird are available exclusively through John T. Haller and portableapps.com. If you see other versions floating around the internet DO NOT USE them as they may be malware or illegal versions of the software. Since portableapps.com is free there's really no reason to go anywhere else.

To install Firefox Portable simply run the downloaded EXE and follow the on screen prompts. As with most programs downloaded from portableapps.com, Portable Firefox is designed to work with the portable apps suite which creates a specific organization for where applications and other data is stored. The installer will search for the first portable device it can find and will give a suggested location of X:\PortableApps\FirefoxPortable with X being the drive letter of the portable device. Firefox can be run from ANYWHERE so if you don't want to store your apps in the portable apps suite, or the installer is not on the correct device, you can browse to wherever you wish to install the software.

As with all portable software the install location does not matter as long as the relative pathways within the application are maintained. The customizations discussed later in this entry involved copying files into this structure but it is suggested that you not delete or move files within the FirefoxPortable directory. The directory CAN be moved or copied to anywhere after installation and will run with all settings as long as the internal structure is maintained.

The installed file size is listed as 19.5 MB but after a first run that number jumps to 24.1 even without any add ons making Firefox a mid-size portable application. For smaller flash drives Opera may be a better alternative with an install size of 9.1 MB but this discussion will be covered more in the performance section.

Now you have a working copy of Firefox 2.0.0.11 with John's default bookmarks. But you still have a ways to go before making Firefox truly your own.

Importing Bookmarks From Firefox

The easiest way to configure a portable version of Firefox is to use a local install on your home machine as a template.

To bring up the Bookmarks Manager simply select
Bookmarks->Organize Bookmarks...

This will bring up the bookmarks manager where you can delete/add and file all of your bookmarks. Assuming you already have your bookmarks arranged how you would like them, Simply select File->Export... from the toolbar. This will bring up a file dialog asking where you would like to save the file. I tend to try to organize all of my portable apps pieces together so that an install can be easily restored and reconfigured.

Suggestions for Organizing Portable Apps files:

• Create a folder named "[PortableAppName] Files"
• Put in that folder a copy of the unaltered installer and your customized version
• Include any intermediate files.

In the case of the bookmarks just save the files as "bookmarks.html" in wherever you are storing your install files. This file replaces the bookmarks.html files in the FirefoxPortable installation. Take your exported bookmarks file and replace the file of the same name in the folder "FirefoxPortable\Data\profile". When you open up Portable Firefox again you will now have access to all of your bookmarks including the bookmarks toolbar for your quick links.

An alternative procedure would be to open up FirefoxPortable and go to the manage bookmarks dialog. From there choose "File->Import" and all of the bookmarks will be added to the existing bookmarks file. This will leave all of the bookmarks previously in the program and add on your bookmarks though there will be some duplications between the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder. You will have to rearrange the bookmarks to incorporate the new entries. The first method described above should arrange your bookmarks in the way you have them on your personal machine and is the suggested method.

Incorporating Add-Ons

Bookmarks are nice but a full fledged install of Firefox will also want to take advantage of the many plug-ins available to expand its functionality. Thankfully most plug-ins are fully compliant with being used portably without any special procedure.

A few of my personal favorites:

• Sage - A handy RSS organizer. Displays the feeds as HTML and gets out of the way when you don't want to see it
• Download Statusbar - Relegates downloads to the bottom of the browser rather than a separate window. Mouse over displays information about the download
• RikaiChan - An english to japanese dictionary. When mousing over foreign characters RikaiChan supplies a definition and common uses
• FireFTP - A handy FTP client
• Mouse Gestures - Allows simple commands such as reload, forward, previous, view source, and others to be done with a simple flick of the mouse
• Ad-Block Plus - Blocks banner adds to allow pages to load faster

Installing these add-ons from the portable version is the same as from the locally installed. Simply open the .xpi file in Firefox and follow the on screen instructions. I tend to keep these installers in the plug-ins folder under FirefoxPortable in order to have them available should they need to be reinstalled.

When installing the add-on its a good idea to make a note of the add-ons settings in your local install and make sure to change all settings til it matches what you use at home. Portable Apps can also be a good way of testing these add ons on the go. As always BACK IT UP, keeping a copy of your customization of Firefox on your local hard disk.

Other Plugins

Something important to note about Portable Firefox is that it does not come with native Shockwave Flash or Regular Flash support. The files necessary to give it that ability can be simply copied from your local firefox install or you can follow the plug-in link when you try to browse to a flash site such as homestarrunner.com. The file necessary for Flash is NPSWF32.dll and for ShockwaveFlash np32dsw.dll. Simply copy this file into your plugins directory and you should be able to watch flash animations.

Final Thoughts

Now you should be ready to use Firefox wherever you go. You can copy the final customization to any device and it should work without any need to reconfigure it. The installation is a little more complicated then continually clicking next, as many portable installations are, but with a little perseverance you should have a working copy in no time.

A NOTE ON UPGRADES: FirefoxPortable used to support the automatic updates from Mozilla. However since some of the more recent versions, updating the portable version on a machine with a local install will overwrite the registry settings for the local install. It is suggested to cancel any requests for upgrade in the portable version and wait until the newest version comes out on portableapps.com. Running the installer for the new version with the same directory as the previous install will upgrade the old installation without changing your customizations.

If you absolutely must upgrade portable Firefox before John puts out an update, make sure you are on a computer with no local install or that can have its local install restored. As always its a good idea to back up before making any changes.

That's all for now. The beta 3 procedure is very similar so if you can understand this you should be good to go. As always comments are appreciated.