The new Firefox 3.04 beta is out but the beta testing tag is enough to unnerve many people into waiting for a more stable version. If you can’t wait for the stable version but at the same time you don’t want to risk your Firefox profile on the buggy beta version, you can have the best of both worlds - use the portable version instead.
Portable Apps is run by John Haller and he has come out with portable versions of a lot of big name software such as Thunderbird, Pidgin, GIMP and Open Office. But at the moment, the spotlight is being thrown on his efforts to provide a continual portable version of the highly anticipated beta Firefox 3. Everytime Mozilla updates the Firefox beta, Haller comes out with a portable update. An unofficial hack has also been provided which allows you to run Portable Firefox 3 alongside your regularly installed Firefox 2.
So you can use Firefox 2 for your profile, extensions and regular surfing. You can then use portable Firefox 3 for testing purposes and to get a general feel for what’s coming. Plus because it’s portable and nothing is installed, you can just delete the whole folder from your computer when you’re finished.
So just download the pack from Portable Apps to your computer. When you’ve done so, go to the folder FirefoxPortableTest\Other\Sources and there, you’ll find a file called FirefoxPortable.ini. Copy that file to the directory where FirefoxPortable.exe resides. Remember to leave the original file where it is.
Next, open the copied file with a file editor such as Notepad and you’ll see this :
All you need to do is change “AllowMultipleInstances=false” from false to true. Save the file and close. Now click on FirefoxPortable.exe and you should now be able to run both Portable Firefox 3 and your regular Firefox 2 side by side without any conflicts.
(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger and professional freelance writer. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net
Filed Under: Browser
Tags: firefox tips, portable app
Nice post. It always annoyed me that I could not run both at the same but now I know this is possible.
[...] Mozilla Firefox 3.4 Beta without installing.. The new Firefox 3.4 beta is out but the beta testing tag is enough to unnerve many people into waiting for a more [...]
Please note that there is no such thing Mozilla Firefox 3.4 (yet). It is Firefox 3.0 beta4, which is yet another TESTING version before the 3.0 release.
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve corrected the article.
Alpha comes before beta, can we say this article is stupid?
@ Nameless Genius
Isn’t it obvious that it was just a mixup?
If you’re going to call me stupid, at least have the balls to leave your real name in the comments.
Awesome! Portable and parallel installation! I just found your posting — I can’t wait to try this out. I’ve been holding back for fear of messing up my FF 2.12. Ooops, there isn’t a 2.12, it is really 2.0.0.12. I’m sorry I made a mistake. I hope I don’t get called stupid for making a simple mistake
Nah, don’t worry mate. It’s past “Name’s” bedtime.
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