How to set Firefox Portable as the default browser in Windows XP
Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser bundled with a PortableApps.com Launcher as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you. Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition can be copied to a thumb drive so that you can use it where ever you go. Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition does not register itself with the system, and thus cannot be set as the default browser using the GUI.
DefaultBrowser, an utility which I wrote allows you set the default web browser for your user profile in Windows XP, without affecting other users in the system. DefaultBrowser v1.7 (and higher) supports Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition. Here is how to set Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition as the default browser for your user profile in Windows XP.
Visit the DefaultBrowser page, download the application and save the file to Desktop. Unzip the file and extract the contents to a folder of your choice say D:\Software\Browsers.
Select Firefox Portable from the list of browsers, and click Apply.
In the Browse dialog box, select the location where the executable FirefoxPortable.exe is located.
Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition is now set as the default browser for your user account.
Important: If you’re using Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition from a USB disk, whenever the drive-letter for the USB disk changes, you’ll need to re-register FirefoxPortable.exe using the DefaultBrowser utility again. For instance, the drive-letter for your USB disk may change when adding additional hardware in your system.
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Comment by ExitRitual on 15 June 2008:
Is there anything like this for Vista?
Comment by Ramesh Srinivasan on 15 June 2008:
@ExitRitual: This week I’m planning to publish a write-up on setting FP as the default browser in Vista.
Pingback by Register Firefox Portable with Default Programs in Windows Vista - The Winhelponline Blog on 26 August 2008:
[...] app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you. We saw how to set Firefox Portable as the default Web browser in Windows XP. Here is a tool which can register Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition with [...]
Comment by hello on 4 September 2008:
this is excellent, but it doesn’t seem to be working on portable firefox / xp. any suggestions? it still goes back to IE every time…