Thunderbird Portable Questions

[wpr]

Thanks again to all for your contributions.

I just downloaded the install program, put it on my E drive (where I keep my portable software and files), executed it, and it did create the expected files in the expected places (from my long experience with SeaMonkey).

I've used many of the portableapps programs and this is the first time I've seen that I should have the install program on the desired destination drive. I'll try to remember this for the future.

Many thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome.

[Frank Lion]

General tip for T/Bird users - there is actually a profilemanager and more that is hidden away in T/B. It originated in Firefox and was later migrated over to T/Bird.

Access it by setting your Thunderbird Start Page to about:profiles and restart.

[BuddhaNature]

So is the 'launcher' referred to by BuddhaNature something different from the standalone file (i.e., thunderbird....paf.exe)?

I see the terminology this way:
There is a PAF file: this what most people would think of as an installer file. For Thunderbird Portable this file would be titled as ThunderbirdPortable_[version]_[Locale].paf.exe I have, elsewhere, seen people refer to this type of file as a PAF file, in preference to calling it an installer. 'PAF' stands for 'Portable Apps Format'. Once you have used the PAF file to install the portable app to your drive it plays no part at all in the operation of the portable app you just installed. So, after 'install' you can move that PAF file anywhere, or delete it if you have no further use for it. This is true for all PAF files, for whatever program, that you would download from PortableApps.

What I refer to as the launcher (I have seen that term used at PortableApps forum and in some PortableApps documentation) for Thunderbird Portable is a file in the root folder into which you 'installed' your copy of Thunderbird Portable. In a default 'install' the root folder would have the title [WhateEverDrive]:\ThunderbirdPortable So after 'install' just double-click on that folder to open it and in that root directory you will see a file titled ThunderbirdPortable.exe - that is the launcher and you must always use that to launch your Thunderbird Portable. The same location (root directory) and rule applies to all Portable Apps that you would download from PortableApps - every program you install from PortableApps will have a launcher and the generic name for that file would be AppNamePortable.exe If you use PortableApps' "PortableApps.com Platform" (it sits in the system tray when running) for launching your portable apps then it is this launcher file the Platform uses as the launching program for whatever portable app. (Personally I don't use the PortableApps.com Platform as I don't like it very much, I use another program for launching my portables, but when it comes to PortableApps implementations of a portable program I do know to point my launching program to use the PortableApps launcher to launch 'whatever' program.)

I've used many of the portableapps programs and this is the first time I've seen that I should have the install program on the desired destination drive. I'll try to remember this for the future.

I didn't think Dan was suggesting that you must do that. I thought he was just pointing out that if you have the installer on the drive, or in the path, that you intend to install the portable app to, then it's quicker to do so by putting the installer on that drive, or in that path, and then launching the installer. Doing it that way the installer will offer the correct path for the portable to be installed to, without the user having to modify anything (unless, of course, the user does want to modify the path). I never use the installer default path, always modify the path to suit myself, and have no difficulties with doing so. Likewise, I never launch the installer from the drive on which I want to install the Portable App - typically I download the installer into a ramdisk, run it from there, install the app to a completely different drive then delete the installer (which I don't need to keep) - I have never had any difficulties because of doing so.

P.S. Thanks, Dan, for mentioning how the installer automatically adjusts the default path to install the portable to according to the installer's current location. I hadn't noticed that about the installer before.