Test Firefox 3.04 beta on your PC Without Installing a Thing

Essential Firefox ShortcutsThe 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 FirefoxPortableTestOtherSources 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 :

    [FirefoxPortable]
    FirefoxDirectory=Appfirefox
    ProfileDirectory=Dataprofile
    SettingsDirectory=Datasettings
    PluginsDirectory=Dataplugins
    FirefoxExecutable=firefox.exe
    AdditionalParameters=
    LocalHomepage=
    DisableSplashScreen=false
    AllowMultipleInstances=false
    DisableIntelligentStart=false
    SkipChromeFix=false
    SkipCompregFix=false
    RunLocally=false

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

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Mark O'Neill

Mark O'Neill is the managing editor of MakeUseOf.com

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  • Alfred Westerveld

    Nice post. It always annoyed me that I could not run both at the same but now I know this is possible.

  • http://tomercohen.com Tomer Cohen

    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.

    • http://www.betterthantherapy.net Mark O’Neill

      Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve corrected the article. :-)

  • Name

    Alpha comes before beta, can we say this article is stupid?

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      @ Nameless Genius

      Isn’t it obvious that it was just a mixup?

    • http://www.betterthantherapy.net Mark O’Neill

      If you’re going to call me stupid, at least have the balls to leave your real name in the comments.

  • http://www.madcookie.net MADCookie

    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

    • http://www.betterthantherapy.net Mark O’Neill

      Nah, don’t worry mate. It’s past “Name’s” bedtime. :-)