Two ways to modify PortableFirefox:

1. Turn off the annoying splash screen, which will make FF start up slightly faster.
2. Found a way today to customize multiple copies of Firefox multiple different ways and run them simultaneously. There are several reasons for running multiple browsers at the same time:

• Different add-ons (or groups of add-ons) can almost create an entirely new browser. You may want to keep your old one.
  
• The great add-on "Noscript" even when disabled, can break some websites. Having a second browser available can get around this problem.
• When you want one browser with "Private Browsing" and one without, great for testing.

This is explained here but I'll post a short version:

1. Download and extract Firefox Portable
2. Open the text file FirefoxPortable\Other\Source\FirefoxPortable.ini
3. Edit the lines "DisableSplashScreen" and "AllowMultipleInstances" and change "false" to "true" on both lines. Save changes.
4. Copy the text file into the same directory as PortableFirefox.exe (FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.ini)
5. Copy the entire FirefoxPortable directory to a separate directory (e.g. FirefoxPortable2)

You can now run FirefoxPortable.exe from both directories and they will run simultaneously and independently. The splash screen will not appear and you can give each version its own settings, cache, cookies, skins/personas, and add-ons.

Edit: getting multiple profiles in Portable Firefox (and Thunderbird) is discussed here.

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Couple things to keep in mind. First, disabling the splash doesn't make it start quicker at all. The splash runs asynchronously (meaning that the launcher is still updating the Firefox internal files for path changes and then starting firefox.exe and it continues while the splash is displayed) and has the added effect of making the app feel like it is starting faster and preventing multiple launches (otherwise you can be looking at nothing for 30 seconds on an average flash drive). If you don't like it and wish to disable it, that's just fine... and why we have the option documented and easily available... but disabling it won't speed up launch time at all.

Second, allowing multiple instances will leave non-personal bits behind on every PC you run it on, making it non-portable. It's designed only to be used on your own personal or work PC where this does not bother you. It's important to note this when encouraging others to use the feature.

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PortableApps.com - The open standard for portable software

um... you could always use a shortcut firefox.exe -profile (path) for multiple profiles, instead of having multiple firefox folders...
you can even make it using a bat file so shortcut uses relative links. I don't know how well this works for stealth though

another thing I do is run firefox (portable apps) inside a jauntepe launcher. This sandboxes firefox portable so anything that leaks out of firefoxportable still stays in sandbox. helpful when you accidentally install a toolbar and decide you didnt meant to. its still only installed inside sandbox and no harm done.

Firefox didn't use to like having multiple profiles running from a single copy of Firefox. If it does now support this (I haven't checked), you could just as easily use the second profile feature of Firefox Portable that allows you to easily setup a second (or fifth) profile without having another full copy of Firefox.

Using -profile without the PA.c launcher results in some non-personal Firefox files left behind on each PC as well as personal information in crash logs. Additionally, some extensions and settings (local homepage, MRU, etc) will break as your drive letter changes.

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PortableApps.com - The open standard for portable software

Oh I didn't know that :S
I've been using the firefoxportable/jpe combination to sandbox my firefox runs so things dont get left behind. I'm not sure if I broke launcher
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6426 describes what I did.

edit: I just did something I thought was fairly interesting... I'm not sure if the people over at portableapps want us to modify their launchers... but I did since source code was given. Anyways I just made a new launcher that goes to profile2 folder instead of profile. It seems to work but I'm not 100% sure if I didn't break anything in the process lol. here's a copy of the launcher and modified code http://www.mediafire.com/?btiq87fiqd1peo6. All I did was add a 2 to the .ini path and profile paths.

edit again: after trying out the modified laucher, I'm fairly sure it works with new profile. Handy little thing since I won't need more than 2 profiles (plus now I know how to make more ) and I don't have to have multiple copies of firefox app taking up space and eveything is still in a nice single folder

You can if you'd like, but you actually don't need to go recreating the wheel. We've got one for you already right here:
http://portableapps.com/support/firefox ... nd_profile

You just install it next to Firefox Portable (any version you'd like) and it'll act as a second profile for it. You can install multiple copies for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. They're each self-contained and will automatically get the updated Firefox Portable launcher from your main Firefox Portable install, so you don't have to go updating them all individually. We do the same for Thunderbird and Sunbird as well.

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ooo I didnt know that you guys already had second profile.
but I saw you said


but how I did the launcher above, I was running 2 firefoxs each with separate profiles in each window. I didn't test this extensively, just put different theme/bookmark/addon in each and ran both. They each had own profiles working at same time.

edit: I found that using this addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... ddondetail you can send links to a new firefox window with different profile. Install addon into both profiles and set up the browsers to use the other profile launcher. You can now send links between the 2 windows

edit again: Browser View Plus 1.9 works well with the 2 launchers. I been using it for about 1-2 hours. I keep a clean firefox profile for second launcher (no addons/etc) and keep first profile as one I use. Only down side I've found is that the addon doesnt use relative links so it wont work when switching computers as well.

Right. Like I said, you didn't used to be able to run two instances of the same copy of Firefox with different profiles, which is why it still says that. It would appear that's changed. In which case I need to update that Support item I linked to.

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I added to the second profile idea a bit and made a launcher that uses app\firefox-beta and data\profile-beta so I can have a beta firefox working portably as well. I know portableapps includes a portable firefox beta already, but I want them all in same same folder lol so changing launcher a bit let me do this. And I have to say I rather like this, even more than having a second profile. With the addon the profile switching works well, been using it since I last posted and I havent had any bugs yet.

This is likely old news but more than just Portable Firefox can be customized this way.

Disable the splash screen in other PortableApps-packaged programs:

1. Edit the ProgramNamePortable.ini file (e.g. ThunderbirdPortable.ini)
2. Change DisableSplashScreen string to "true".
3. Copy the edited file into the same directory as PortableProgramName.exe (e.g. ThunderbirdPortable.exe)
4. Start the program. No splash screen!

I'm not sure if this is available for all PortableApps programs, but I was really pleased to find it for Thunderbird and Abiword, which I start and stop frequently.

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BetterPrivacy is a Firefox add-on for cleaning traces left behind by Adobe Flash and other programs, and it also has a portable mode. To enable this, choose Tools from the menu and chose BetterPrivacy - Options and Help tab. At the bottom of the dialog box, check "Portable Mode".

The program will warn users that it slows down the process significantly, but probably if you've gone to the trouble to download this add-on to protect your privacy, its worth the extra time to you.

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Supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation | DuckDuckGo user | My GPG key | Projects donated to: VLC, CubicExplorer, Ditto, Greenshot, TrueCrypt

I use FF4.0b7pre (Minefield) and I've just made it look like this (using userchrome.css):

and like this when I press Alt:

You can change the name of the menu button or other parameters by modifying the file:

It is not made by me, I just combined a few found on the net. Name it "userchrome.css" and put it in "FirefoxPortable\Data\profile\chrome" folder.
If it doesn't look different to you than the normal version, It just makes one bar to accommodate the menu button and the tab bar, thus giving you more vertical space (even more with the now removed statusbar).

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I'm waiting to see all the complaints about them removing the status bar in Firefox 4. I'm all for removing it from view but I think the Chrome/IE9 method of showing a partial bar when needed is far better than how Firefox now shows the link URL you are hovering over to the right of the URL input.

And just to say thank god they finally got their heads from up their backsides and added Paste & Go as a part of Firefox. Now if they would only integrate domain highlighting in the URL bar like IE does and like Locationbar² does when installed.

I'm running the beta of 4 as my main browser and the portable version for the nightlies for bug testing.

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