Portable Chrome or Portable Opera

kendall.a · 31. Dec 2013, 12:17 AM

After spending a few hours with portable Firefox, I decided to see if the other installed browsers that I use (though, seldom) also have portable versions. To my surprise, I also found portable versions of Chrome and Opera.

Does, or has, anyone used the portable versions of Chrome and Opera? If so, your thoughts or experiences would be invaluable. Also, do you install them on your hard drive or do you install them on a flash/thumb drive? Thank you.

joeguru · 31. Dec 2013, 05:05 AM

FYI the Best Free Web Browser reviews also mentions which Browsers have portable versions.

sicknero · 02. Jan 2014, 12:19 AM

I tried Dragon portable, which is the Comodo port of Chrome and tbh I wasn't very impressed ... the extensions and toolbar buttons etc were very erratic and the whole thing never felt very stable.

Conversely, I think IceDragon (Comodo's port of Firefox) is excellent, I prefer it over FF portable myself as it seems to me to be much smoother and quicker and more solid. Also it's genuinely portable and survives migration to other directories with no problems, which I've not found with FF portable. With FF portable I've had problems with add ons disappearing/disabling themselves after I've moved the browser to a different folder.

I run IceDragon and Maxthon portable from a dir on D:\ usually, it's not really the actual portability that I like but the fact that when I do one of my frequent wipe/restores of my O/S, the browser is there and ready to go when I fire up my fresh install of Windows.

The only issue really with portable browsers is that they tend not to store their temp data in the usual locations (Maxthon is a nice exception to this, you can change the cache directory in settings) so you might want to think twice about privacy but, it's not difficult to work out where portable browsers are writing to and clean up manually or add the location to CCleaner or whatever. A simple directory monitor will help you find out where the browser is putting its temp files and so on.

Juxxize · 02. Jan 2014, 11:40 AM

Using a portable version of a browser would be very handy for me because all the computers at my college are on IE which isn't very compatible with Google drive , for example I can't open my drive notepad in IE which is what I use to write my reviews for here if I run Chrome from a flash drive at collage Google drive would work better.

sicknero · 09. Jan 2014, 10:11 AM

The privacy clean-up software PrivaZer has an option to add portable browser locations ... I'm not sure if it's a recently added feature or if I just never found it before : )

It supports portable versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Chromium, Dragon and Ice Dragon, and SRWare Iron.

31. Dec 2013, 12:17 AM	#1 (permalink)
kendall.a Been Here Since the Begin Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Colorado, USA Posts: 2,320	Portable Chrome or Portable Opera After spending a few hours with portable Firefox, I decided to see if the other installed browsers that I use (though, seldom) also have portable versions. To my surprise, I also found portable versions of Chrome and Opera. Does, or has, anyone used the portable versions of Chrome and Opera? If so, your thoughts or experiences would be invaluable. Also, do you install them on your hard drive or do you install them on a flash/thumb drive? Thank you. __________________ <-------Just jammin to some music....

31. Dec 2013, 05:05 AM	#2 (permalink)
joeguru Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: USA Posts: 311	FYI the Best Free Web Browser reviews also mentions which Browsers have portable versions. __________________ To err is human, to blame it on a computer is even more so.

02. Jan 2014, 11:40 AM	#4 (permalink)
Juxxize Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Merry Old England Posts: 220	Using a portable version of a browser would be very handy for me because all the computers at my college are on IE which isn't very compatible with Google drive , for example I can't open my drive notepad in IE which is what I use to write my reviews for here if I run Chrome from a flash drive at collage Google drive would work better. __________________ I love Gizmos, it is my bible

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

02. Jan 2014, 12:19 AM	#3 (permalink)
sicknero Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: England Posts: 657	I tried Dragon portable, which is the Comodo port of Chrome and tbh I wasn't very impressed ... the extensions and toolbar buttons etc were very erratic and the whole thing never felt very stable. Conversely, I think IceDragon (Comodo's port of Firefox) is excellent, I prefer it over FF portable myself as it seems to me to be much smoother and quicker and more solid. Also it's genuinely portable and survives migration to other directories with no problems, which I've not found with FF portable. With FF portable I've had problems with add ons disappearing/disabling themselves after I've moved the browser to a different folder. I run IceDragon and Maxthon portable from a dir on D:\ usually, it's not really the actual portability that I like but the fact that when I do one of my frequent wipe/restores of my O/S, the browser is there and ready to go when I fire up my fresh install of Windows. The only issue really with portable browsers is that they tend not to store their temp data in the usual locations (Maxthon is a nice exception to this, you can change the cache directory in settings) so you might want to think twice about privacy but, it's not difficult to work out where portable browsers are writing to and clean up manually or add the location to CCleaner or whatever. A simple directory monitor will help you find out where the browser is putting its temp files and so on.

09. Jan 2014, 10:11 AM	#5 (permalink)
sicknero Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: England Posts: 657	The privacy clean-up software PrivaZer has an option to add portable browser locations ... I'm not sure if it's a recently added feature or if I just never found it before : ) It supports portable versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Chromium, Dragon and Ice Dragon, and SRWare Iron.