Are IE-based web browsers portable?

Discuss anything related to portable freeware here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Andrew Lee
Posts: 3052
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:19 am
Contact:

Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#1 Post by Andrew Lee »

I am setting up this forum thread to discuss whether IE-based web browsers are portable, due to the torrent of comments that have been flooding the entry for Maxthon Classic.

A representative comment is as follows:
Chris L. Franklin: with a dependence like Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and above. Can this really classified as portable, I mean if so then why are java apps not considered portable ?
My position is this:

Personally, I use Firefox Portable. However, from time-to-time, I am forced to use Internet Explorer when I visit certain sites (government sites are notoriously for this). For that, I used to run a portable IE-based browser (Crazy Browser, if you are interested), but recently, I have been relying on the IE Tab extension to do the job.

A lot of portable apps are also dependent on the IE rendering engine. GreatNews, the unbeatable RSS reader, comes to mind. In fact, the vast majority of Win32 apps that I have come across that renders HTML content in any meaningful way is dependent on IE.

Let's face it: IE _is_ part of the Windows OS, and many Win32 apps do use it, whether it is upload/download via FTP or HTTP, or render web content. Java, on the other hand, is definitely not part of the Windows OS in that sense.

.NET, however, is a different beast, and seems on its ways to becoming part of the OS. I promise you when IE and Microsoft Office are written in managed code, I will add portable .NET apps to the database.

User avatar
m^(2)
Posts: 890
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:38 am
Location: Kce,PL
Contact:

#2 Post by m^(2) »

I definitely agree that dependency from Internet Explorer is not a problem. But dependency from IE 5.5 is - there are too many computers that still use windows versions older than Millenium. And it is often so that when sb. uses archaic windows version, he doesn't update it - and so IE.

.NET is not portable and for me won't be until it's preinstalled on 95% computers I meet or will have a portable interpreter.

freakazoid
Posts: 1212
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:45 pm

#3 Post by freakazoid »

Crazy Browser, a.k.a. "AM Browser" is also my IE clone of choice!

Just wondering why the 3.0 beta 2 is not considered portable.
What registry settings does it occupy?

Can JauntPE be used on it?

User avatar
Andrew Lee
Posts: 3052
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:19 am
Contact:

#4 Post by Andrew Lee »

Just wondering why the 3.0 beta 2 is not considered portable.
What registry settings does it occupy?
From V2.x onwards, settings are written to the registry instead of a local INI file:

Code: Select all

HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_Images: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_Videos: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_BGSounds: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_NoScripts: 0x00000000
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_NoJava: 0x00000000
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_NoRunActivexs: 0x00000000
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_NoDLActivexs: 0x00000000
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Download and Execution\DL_AutoOffline: 0x00000000
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\Domain_Ctrl: "http://www.%s.com"
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\Domain_Shift: "http://www.%s.net"
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\Domain_CtrlShift: "http://www.%s.org"
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\Domain_Alt: "http://www.ambrowsersearch.com/search?w=[%UTF8URL%]"
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\StartPage: "http://www.ambrowsersearch.com/start"
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\ConfirmCloseAll: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\ConfirmCloseApp: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\ConfirmCloseLocked: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\ConfirmClosePopWin: 0x00000000
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\ConfirmQuickSave: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\TabsPosition: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\TabsMultiLine: 0x00000001
HKU\S-1-5-21-329068152-343818398-725345543-1001\Software\Crazy Browser\Main\CheckForUpdateDays: 0x00000007

MISIIM
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:30 pm

#5 Post by MISIIM »

I don't think IE based browser should be considered portable due to the history/settings/cache being written to the local machine. I don't think it matters if non-browser applications require IE though.

User avatar
m^(2)
Posts: 890
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:38 am
Location: Kce,PL
Contact:

#6 Post by m^(2) »

MISIIM wrote:I don't think IE based browser should be considered portable due to the history/settings/cache being written to the local machine. I don't think it matters if non-browser applications require IE though.
Settings? What important settings have to be written on a host machine?
History? Is it important? Not for me.
Cache? "Portable" here doesn't mean "leaves nothing behing+(...)", but rather "works well enough when run from a pendrive w/out installation".

Nomad CF
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:58 pm

#7 Post by Nomad CF »

I personally do not think IE is nor should be classified as portable. Nor should it be taken for granted that a PC should / will have IE it on it. For work and "play" I end up bouncing back and forth between both windows and Linux platforms so to me portable means it will run on windows and with wine and save it's setting local to the apps location. Not that i'm say all apps need to be able run under wine to be classifiable as portable. But it's just another example of how I view / define a portable app.

Side Note: I run Windows FLP every place I have to use windows and during the install I choose not to install IE.

Side Rant: Java can be installed on just about very OS (cell phones use it as a OS) on the other hand .NET / IE can not be.

Kermode
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:59 am

#8 Post by Kermode »

Nomad CF wrote:I personally do not think IE is nor should be classified as portable.
That's good then because nobody has suggested that, nor is this thread about that.
Nomad CF wrote: Nor should it be taken for granted that a PC should / will have IE it on it.
The site has to make some assumtions about what is installed. Otherwise you could say it should just be hardware with no installed software at all. IE is default on most machines out there (even if this site should choose not to accept that).

I am fine with that.

Nomad CF wrote: Side Note: I run Windows FLP every place I have to use windows and during the install I choose not to install IE.
You are sure to be a tiny minority :)

Kermode
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:59 am

Re: Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#9 Post by Kermode »

Andrew Lee wrote: My position is this:

Personally, I use Firefox Portable. However, from time-to-time, I am forced to use Internet Explorer when I visit certain sites (government sites are notoriously for this). For that, I used to run a portable IE-based browser (Crazy Browser, if you are interested), but recently, I have been relying on the IE Tab extension to do the job.

A lot of portable apps are also dependent on the IE rendering engine. GreatNews, the unbeatable RSS reader, comes to mind. In fact, the vast majority of Win32 apps that I have come across that renders HTML content in any meaningful way is dependent on IE.

Let's face it: IE _is_ part of the Windows OS, and many Win32 apps do use it, whether it is upload/download via FTP or HTTP, or render web content. Java, on the other hand, is definitely not part of the Windows OS in that sense.
I agree with you on all that.
Andrew Lee wrote: .NET, however, is a different beast, and seems on its ways to becoming part of the OS. I promise you when IE and Microsoft Office are written in managed code, I will add portable .NET apps to the database.
.NET however I try to avoid, so if and when you decided to add it - I hope you will flag them with an icon or something so i can avoid it :)

spchtr
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:32 am

Re: Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#10 Post by spchtr »

Andrew Lee wrote:Let's face it: IE _is_ part of the Windows OS
Not entirely true. The korean version of windows for instance does not include Internet Explorer.

Just a thought. As an aside, since Internet Explorer can be removed from windows as well, there may well be some computers which will be incapable of using a browser that uses IE's engine.

User avatar
MiDoJo
Posts: 282
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:36 pm

Re: Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#11 Post by MiDoJo »

LOL Revived a dead topic did we ;)

Also AndrewLee Decided that anything with dependences wouldn't be listed in the DB (with a few exceptions)

toomuchjunk
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:52 am

Re: Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#12 Post by toomuchjunk »

Do you guys think this topic is obsolete now that Chrome and its clones are so prevalent? Again, I realize I am bringing back an old post, but I have been very curious as to the options for portable web browsers, especially if they provide high availability servers when I am on the move. I would be very interested in knowing some alternatives that may not be quite as mainstream as I am used to. There is only so much information you can gather in line at the IT staffing agency. Any feedback I could get would be very helpful.
Last edited by toomuchjunk on Fri Jan 06, 2012 3:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
SYSTEM
Posts: 2041
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:19 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#13 Post by SYSTEM »

toomuchjunk wrote:Do you guys think this topic is obsolete now that Chrome and its clones are so prevalent? Again, I realize I am bringing back an old post, but I have been very curious as to the options for portable web browsers...
I personally find GreenBrowser interesting. It's a very feature-rich IE-based browser.

However, I use Opera because it has even more features and a better rendering engine.
My YouTube channel | Release date of my 13th playlist: August 24, 2020

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Are IE-based web browsers portable?

#14 Post by webfork »

toomuchjunk wrote:Do you guys think this topic is obsolete now that Chrome and its clones are so prevalent? Again, I realize I am bringing back an old post, but I have been very curious as to the options for portable web browsers...
  • I don't care for IE, but when you're somewhere that won't let you use anything besides IE, its nice to have some tweaks available to give you better functionality.
  • There are negatives to using Chrome, but one not frequently talked about is that the browser is licensed under BSD, Google can pull the code at any time and stop playing nice with open source the way they did with Honeycomb. The program's gotten a lot of attention for its speed and all the marketing Google's done, but its mostly gone unnoticed here on the site and by techy folks I know.

Post Reply