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Firefox Portable vs Regular Firefox

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nosh:
Would it make sense to run Firefox Portable instead of the regular non-portable version right off the HDD?

I read about an extension that lets us import/export settings for (most of) the existing extensions & intend to start a fresh profile from scratch. I was wondering if I should just go with FF portable - unless there's a performance hit involved! It would make backing things up so much simpler, not to mention the obvious advantage of having a fully configured portable version.

Eóin:
Personally I use a set number of pcs so I prefer to install FireFox but copy over my profile as found at C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles That way I don't have to install and configure every single plugin on each PC. Foxmarks then keeps the bookmarks in sync while FireFox keeps itself up to date.

This works for me because I have complete access to the pcs I have to use. If I didn't I would probably opt for the portable option.

mwang:
I usually do what Eóin does, except I put my profile on my data partition (which is synchronized with my notebook and backed up regularly). With a good sync'er, I could leave out some files that I don't want them sync'ed. (E.g., I save passwords with my home desktop, but not with my notebook.)

Performance hit will be there if you put firefox profile on a flash drive, unless you move the cache folder to a HD. If you use Firefox3, more dynamic databases (those sqlite files) are in the profile folder.

I don't use portable Fox, though, so I don't know if it has any special design to minimize these potential performance penalties. And as Eóin said, if you want to use Firefox on computers you have no control of (with no Firefox installed), I guess the portable version is the only way to go.

4wd:
I only use Portable Firefox, it's the only browser on my system (IE has been removed via nlite).

It's located on my data partition, so I don't have to reinstall it after a Windows reinstall.

I can just copy the whole directory to a flash/external and then use/copy it on/to another computer.

The only things that work different are:

1) any programs that expect to find a browser to set bookmarks will probably fail, (if it's the only browser - a good thing AFAIAC).
2) anything that hooks into Firefox normally, (eg. download managers ala Orbit), won't - you'll need to monitor the Clipboard or copy the relevant dll to the proper directory.
3) that's about it I think.

Personally, I try to use programs that keep all their settings in their local directory, (hangover from the old Amiga days).

Currently I'm using v3 beta 3.

nosh:
Thanks all. I'll build a fresh profile on the portable version and if it seems snappier than the regular one I'll stick with it.

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