One of my preferred Firefox Portable features is the ability to make it run side by side with the Firefox version I’ve got installed on my system (currently the 2.0.0.16 one), two different Firefox instances that are by now two worlds apart and that couldn’t share the same Windows session as explained by the error message shown below, unless you modify a parameter hided in the meanders of the Firefox Portable configuration files. Waiting to devote the right time for verifying that the transition won’t make me lose important pieces on the way, surely I don’t give up at checking the improvements and the technological advancing that the Mozilla platform has known during this months.

In my case the need is to delay the switch from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 (yes, I’m trying to establish a record as the last user to have done the upgrade before the end of support for the old version :-P) for the practicality and deep customization reasons amply explained elsewhere.

If, in that regard, it’s ok to the majority of the users to permanently install the Mozilla Firefox browser on the system, the “transportable” version developed for the suite can be exploited by whom have the need to use a testing environment at no cost for the Windows Registry or to compare the last build of the Mozilla code with the one currently installed on the PC.Īs the adaptability and the adaptation of FOSS code to the several, peculiar needs teach, the usage scenarios for Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition next to the regular version of the browser can vary greatly: someone could need to try an add-on without the risk to compromise the main profile, some other could need to test the behaviour of a website in different versions of Firefox or with different browsers with no need to install the red panda at all.

One of undoubted benefits of open source software is its incredible adaptability to usage modes pretty different from the ones originally expected by the developers.

Firefox portable install