Why? Why not!

I use different machines, at home and at work, so i need to carry with me my Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird. And sometimes, on the same machine, i need different profiles for the same application.

On every machine i use, there is a copy of the Mozilla applications, installed in c:\Program Files\Mozilla.

Why carry on my USB-Disk about 60 MB of files that are always present on every host machine i use?

Why stress my USB-Disk launching executables already present on the (faster) hard disk of the host machine?

I don't need to carry with me the application's folders, identical on every computer i use, but only the profile's folder, that stores my own data.

I need only my profile's folders, and a launcher that forces the Mozilla applications, installed on the host computer, to use that folder.

In other words, i need only a stupid launcher that runs the command:
start firefox.exe -Profile "profilepath/"

Mozilla ToGo. That's all, why not.

How to proceed?

  1. Download and install the Mozilla Applications that you want to use.
  2. Download the Mozilla ToGo Launcher that you need (links to the zip files are at the bottom of this page).
  3. Create a folder wherever you want, with the name you like, and put there the MozToGo Launcher that you need (and eventually the corresponding INI file).
  4. Correct the path to the Mozilla Application in the INI file.
  5. Execute the MozToGo Launcher. Your profile will be created in the same folder of the launcher.

That's all.

How it works?

The Launcher, on startup, searches the correspondenting Mozilla executable in this sequence:

  1. Looks, in it's folder, for an INI file with the full (absolute to machine) executable's path (i.e. c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Mozilla.exe)
  2. If fails to find that INI file, it looks for the executable in the "one-level-up" folder.
    This can be useful if you want to carry with you the application's folder too; in this case the profile's folder must be at the same level of the main Mozilla executable. Be careful: if you want to use the Launcher in this way, delete the INI file if exists.
  3. If fails again, it looks for the related Mozilla executable in it's same folder. In this case it uses a subfolder named #UserData to store the profile. Useful for a different portable use (single profile only in the app's folder).
  4. If fails again, it looks for the default english Mozilla installation's folder (c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Mozilla.exe)
  5. If fails again, it looks for the default italian Mozilla installation's folder (c:\Programmi\Mozilla Firefox\Mozilla.exe)
  6. If fails again, it alerts you with a message box and creates (if not exists) a sample INI file (see the above point 1).

Of course, you can use your actual profile (put there the corrisponding MozToGo Launcher).

BE CAREFUL

Don't execute the launcher outside a folder (not a great matter, but the profile's files and folders will be scattered at the same level of the Launcher).
And above all: if you want to use it with an already existing profile, make a backup of your data before the first Launcher's startup.


Versions 1.0 Beta (16 may 2008)


FirefoxToGo


ThunderbirdToGo


SunbirdToGo

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