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A How-To Guide - Multiple Browsers, Multiple Profiles, No Installation


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Here's a quick guide on how to use the "official Pale Moon portable" version as a "loader" for Roytam releases.

I use the older portable versions but the process is the same if you use a newer portable version (I don't like the icon color behavior in Win10 on the newer portable version but that's just a matter of personal preference).

I use both the 27.9.4 version and the 28.2.2 version.

I cannot find a link for the 27.9.4 but here is where you can find the 28.2.2  --  http://archive.palemoon.org/palemoon/28.x/28.2.2/Palemoon-Portable-28.2.2.win32.exe

But there is no real reason to avoid the "new" if you prefer that route  --  https://www.palemoon.org/download.php?mirror=us&bits=32&type=portable (ie, from here - https://www.palemoon.org/download.shtml#Portable_versions )

When you execute it, nothing is "installed" (ie, no registry changes, for example), it's simply just extracted (you could extract via 7-Zip or any preferred archiver, if you prefer).

It will ask "where" to extract the files to - I generally create a new folder named "BasePortable" on the desktop just for convenience.

This folder will contain six sub-folders (Backups, Bin, Downloads, Lib, ReadMe, and User).

It will also contain two files, "Palemoon-Portable.exe" and "Palemoon-Portable.ini".

We'll just keep default .ini settings for the sake of this tutorial.

 

Open the "Bin" sub-folder.

There will be a sub-folder inside it called "Palemoon" - we will keep it by that name even if we are using this for Basilisk, ArcticFox, New Moon, Mypal, et cetera.

Open that "Palemoon" folder and DELETE all of the files in it (if your File Manager reports a read-only file, confirm in order to delete all of the files).

The "Palemoon" folder should now be EMPTY.

 

Now browse back to the folder where you extracted "BasePortable" (I used the desktop).

Make as many copies of this folder as you want in order to make several portable browsers.

But keep the "BasePortable" (with the EMPTY "Palemoon" folder) for future use if you like testing lots of Roytam builds without effecting your "everyday browser".

 

As an example, let's say we want a Pale Moon 27 browser, a Pale Moon 28 browser, and a Basilisk 52 browser.

We would copy the "BasePortable" THREE TIMES.

 

Then rename the three copies to, for example, "PaleMoon27Portable", "PaleMoon28Portable", and "Basilisk52Portable".

The folder name can be anything you want it to be.

 

Next we download the Roytam versions we want to make as a portable browser.

For this tutorial, I'm using the following three -

http://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-27.9.1a1.win32-git-20180707-54887c52d-xpmod.7z

http://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.1.0a1.win32-git-20180922-3c04affe2-xpmod.7z

http://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.4.win32-git-20190727-9b0ff0e8b-xpmod.7z

 

Then all three of those .7z files are extracted into their own folders.

If you use 7-Zip context menus in your File Manager, highlight all three, right-click, hover over 7-Zip, then select Extract to '*\'

 

These will all have sub-folders of their own of either "palemoon" or "basilisk" for these examples.

 

Open the 27.9 folder's "palemoon" sub-folder and copy all of the folders and files.

Paste those copied folders and files into the "Bin" -> "Palemoon" folder of "PaleMoon27Portable".

 

Open the 28.1 folder's "palemoon" sub-folder and copy all of the folders and files.

Paste those copied folders and files into the "Bin" -> "Palemoon" folder of "PaleMoon28Portable".

 

Open the 52-g4.4 folder's "basilisk" sub-folder and copy all of the folders and files.

Paste those copied folders and files into the "Bin" -> "Palemoon" folder of "Basilisk52Portable".

 

For the case of the Basilisk52Portable, you will also need to rename "basilisk.exe" to "palemoon.exe".

Once you become more comfortable with the .ini file and the folder structures, you don't need to keep the generic default "palemoon" naming scheme.

But it's easier to just keep "defaults" if new at the portable loader.

 

You now have three browsers completely independent of each other.

You can execute all three at the same time.

You execute the "portable" browser by executing (or shortcutting to) "Palemoon-Portable.exe" in the root folder of each browser.

 

This method will start new profiles for each browser.

The profiles are independent of each other.

The profile locations for these three examples are as follows -

PaleMoon27Portable -> User -> palemoon -> profiles -> default

PaleMoon28Portable -> User -> palemoon -> profiles -> default

Basilisk52Portable -> User -> palemoon -> profiles -> default

 

 

Hope this is helpful to those that reached out requesting more details for the "portable loader".

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5 hours ago, Sampei.Nihira said:

how are all these browsers detected by SpeedyFox?

I used to use SpeedyFox under the FALSE assumption that it was making things "faster" - IT WAS NOT!

Nothing but a "placebo effect", akin to "snake oil".

I challenge you to prove me wrong, with quantitative before-and-after "measurements"  --  'good luck' to those accepting the challenge  :)

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Thanks ArcticFoxie, nice guide with great instructions.

I have just one question, I tested with palemoon-27.9.1a1.win32-git-20180707-54887c52d-xpmod.7z, and If I start from Palemoon-Portable.exe it
creates 2 empty folders (Moonchild Productions\Pale Moon) in
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data   and
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data

Is it possible to edit Palemoon-Portable.ini to prevent these 2 folders from creating in ~\Application Data\?

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1 hour ago, we3fan said:

Is it possible to edit Palemoon-Portable.ini to prevent these 2 folders from creating in ~\Application Data\?

Not that I'm aware of.

Those folders are temp and will be EMPTIED every time you close the browser.

SEVERAL portable browsers can even share that same folder without affecting each other.

I use a "wrapper" program at home that will perform what you seek, but I don't recall what it is called offhand.

And with those folders being EMPTIED by default, I just let them sit there and ignore them.

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The "wrapper" program previously mentioned is called JauntePE and can be found here  --  https://sourceforge.net/projects/jauntepe/files/

I'm not sure those 2 folders are worth the "learning curve" to learn JauntePE but I guess that's up to you.

I personally clear my cache of EVREYTHING upon exiting EVERY browser session so at least on my end those 2 folders are EMPTY so they don't bother me sitting in ~\Application Data\.

 

The "portable loader" does have a "[RunAfter]" section but I confess that I've never used it.

Edited by ArcticFoxie
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Thanks ArcticFoxie.

I appreciate the "wrapper" program recommendation, it seems like a good program that can be very useful sometime so I will remember it.
But for this "task" I think we can make it work from the Palemoon-Portable.ini


I managed to do it with this line:
DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Moonchild Productions

This is totally not needed but I wanted to try if I can find a more elegant way to do it.
For example if I can find the universal name value that is used, so every browser can automatically detect its own folder name that it creates, so
I can enter this name value without going in ~\Application Data\ to see what folder name every browser creates.
In palemoon-27.9.1a1.win32-git-20180707-54887c52d-xpmod > palemoon > application.ini it says:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; This file is not used. If you modify it and want the application to use
; your modifications, move it under the browser/ subdirectory and start with
; the "-app /path/to/browser/application.ini" argument.
[App]
Vendor=Moonchild Productions
Name=Pale Moon
RemotingName=palemoon
CodeName=NewMoon
Version=27.9.1a1
BuildID=20180706231851
ID={8de7fcbb-c55c-4fbe-bfc5-fc555c87dbc4}

[Goanna]
MinVersion=3.4.2
MaxVersion=3.4.2

[XRE]
EnableProfileMigrator=1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I wanted to try if it can somehow detect the name value for Moonchild Productions.
I tried different combinations with the names Vendor and [App]Vendor, but none of these 19 lines worked:

DirRemove=Vendor
DirRemove=$Vendor
DirRemove=$Vendor$

DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Vendor
DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\$Vendor
DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\$Vendor$

DirRemove=[App]Vendor
DirRemove=$[App]Vendor
DirRemove=$[App]Vendor$

DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\[App]Vendor
DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\$[App]Vendor
DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\$[App]Vendor$

DirRemove=[App]$Vendor
DirRemove=[App]$Vendor$

DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\[App]$Vendor
DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\[App]$Vendor$

DirRemove=Moonchild Productions
DirRemove=$Moonchild Productions
DirRemove=$Moonchild Productions$

As I said this is totally unnecessary and it is something that I got curious about.

Do you have any suggestion what name value might work to automatically detect the folder name it creates? Is this even possible in this way?


Yes clearing the cache on browser exit is a good practice.
Do we have to do this manually in the Browser Settings/Options/Preferences for every different browser individually?
Or there is some automatic way of doing this for all browsers?

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Thanks ArcticFoxie, I will try it.

 

This line works to delete the empty folder in ~\Application Data\:

DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Moonchild Productions

Is it possible to use a name value that will automatically detect the empty folder each browser creates?

I tried with the name "Vendor" but these 2 lines didn't work:

DirRemove=$Vendor$

DirRemove=C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\$Vendor$

Is this even possible?

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