Take Firefox On The Go With Firefox Portable Edition

Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:33 am

When you use different computers, browser settings vary. Unless you save your bookmarks to any online bookmarking site, you can’t take them with you. Loading someone else’s Firefox means different add-ons as well. What if you could take your Firefox with you? This is where Firefox Portable comes into play.

With the portable edition of the popular Mozilla Firefox browser, you can install the browser on a USB drive to take with you wherever you go. Any computer with a USB port now provides you access to the settings you are accustomed to when browsing.

Firefox Portable

How To Get It

You can download the latest version of Firefox Portable from Portable Apps. It includes the PortableApps.com Launcher, which is used to turn Firefox into a portable application. (You can choose to use different launchers if you’d like. Check with the help section of the launcher on adding and creating apps.) The download takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on your connection speed.

Installing

Though this may seem obvious, you need a USB drive, often called a thumb drive or flash drive. Insert it the drive into an available port on your computer. Double click the downloaded Firefox file from above. Select the location on your USB drive you want to install Firefox to. Be sure to select a location on your flash drive. This is not the C: drive. For many users, your USB drive is E: or F:. The rest of the process is automated. To ensure the installation was successful, go to Computer or My Computer, depending on your operating system, and open your USB drive’s directory. Ensure there is a new folder called  FirefoxPortable.

How To Use

Now that you have it, you need to learn how to use it. For the most part, using Firefox Portable is the same as using the Firefox installed on your computer. For best results, there are a few things to keep in mind though. To start Firefox Portable, insert your USB drive and open the FirefoxPortable folder. Double click FirefoxPortable.exe to launch the browser. Once the browser is open, you can install any extensions and add-ons that you want. You can also bookmark your favorite sites or even import your bookmarks from the Firefox installed on your computer’s hard drive.

The one thing to remember is to close Firefox before removing the USB drive. Most USB drives have a small light that flashes when the drive is in use. Wait until this light stops flashing before removing your drive. For Windows users, use the Safely Remove Hardware option located in the notification tray.

Safely Remove Hardware

Press the icon and choose Eject drive name. This lets you safely stop all processes before removing your USB drive.

Eject Drive

Using Your Firefox Profile

If you already have Firefox on your computer, you can copy your current Firefox profile to Firefox Portable. Your Firefox profile is stored in the following directory by default: C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default. Replace [user] with your own Windows user name.

The actual name of the default folder varies, but the word default will be in the name. For Windows 7 users, the path looks a little different: C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default. Copy the contents of this folder with the exception of any cache directories.

Default Folder

Start Firefox Portable at least once to let it create its own directories. Close the browser. Open the FirefoxPortable\Data\profile directory on your USB drive. Paste the contents copied above to this folder. Next, open FirefoxPortable\Data\Settings. Delete the file FirefoxPortableSettings.ini. This lets your new profile settings take over the next time you start Firefox. If you haven’t used Firefox Portable before, this file may not exist.

» Filed Under Free Software Downloads

Related Posts

Comments

Please post your comments/suggestions!