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Firefox Tip of the Week – PortableFirefox

Portable Firefox – Take it with you!

This week, I’m not covering an extension, but I’m covering something that I love about Firefox and the OpenSource Community.  I love Firefox, and I want to take it wherever I go.  But I don’t want the hassle of installing it on every computer I sit at during my day at work.  In comes PortableFirefox, which you can get from http://www.portableapps.com/ .  John Haller has taken the time to take popular open-source programs and turn them into versions of the applications that don’t need to be installed, all you have to do is unzip the download and they are ready to go!  I have been using PortableFirefox for the past 6 months at work.  I keep a copy in my shared network storage, so I can run it whenever I am on a computer on the network.  I also use it to test out extensions for my extension of the week features here in the newsletter.  This way I don’t screw up my main Firefox installation with an extension that has a bug in it.  The most common way that I have seen this used is to put on a flash drive and take it computer to computer, either using Firefox wherever you are using a computer, or trying to show someone the differences and benefits of Firefox over other browsers.  Any way you look at it, it’s a great way to keep Firefox around without having to install it everywhere that you go.

Happy Portable Browsing!

Daniel A. Williams

daniel@thepcgurus.com