Rationale behind using LibreWolf's portable launcher

[ltguillaume]

Using LibreWolf via scoop raises the following issues:

1. People who pin the browser to the taskbar end up using a new profile being created in %AppData%, instead of the one in persist\librewolf, or they end up with two icons on the taskbar when LibreWolf is running (the launcher's and the browser's).
2. Registering file/protocol associations from within the browser causes the profile in %AppData% to be used.
3. All kinds of semi-working solutions are offered instead (see Can not set LibreWolf as default browser Extras#7873).

Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/162vam1/librewolf_fails_to_update_properly_when_using/

These issues are caused by using the portable launcher I created, instead of librewolf.exe directly. The portable launcher is primarily for use on portable drives and for people who don't want any system integration to happen (so file/protocol association, pinning to the taskbar etc. naturally are all out of its scope). Scoop, on the other hand, is only "semi-portable": it doesn't use installers if it doesn't have to and tries to place all critical application data into a single folder (scoop\persist), but apart from that, it adds Start menu shortcuts, adds shims to run the applications from anywhere by their executable's name and allows the apps to interact/integrate with the OS freely.

Then why not just use the portable archive to extract the browser, but use librewolf.exe instead of the launcher and make sure the profile is created in persist\librewolf the same way it's done for Firefox?

[HUMORCE]

ScoopInstaller/Extras#8779 (comment)

[ltguillaume]

No, this was all tested on a clean VM without scoop or Firefox/LibreWolf even installed yet.

I did indeed follow the exact steps as you described for this.

The only reason I can think of it did not work as expected for you, is that there was already an %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini file present.

Test environment:
Windows 10 LTSC2021 on VirtualBox
Scoop installed via default method irm get.scoop.sh | iex
Tried using PowerShell and command line prompt FWIW
Worked as expected for Firefox-ESR (EN/NL), LibreWolf and Betterbird (EN/NL) (all in new environments, i.e. without another FF/LW/BB instance already installed, either via Scoop or separately).

Additional question: why is there a symlink from scoop\apps\firefox-esr\profile to scoop\persist\firefox-esr\profile? This is never used by Firefox itself.

[HUMORCE]

The only reason I can think of it did not work as expected for you, is that there was already an %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini file present.

Yes, but we cannot delete this file in each installation.

why is there a symlink from scoop\apps\firefox-esr\profile to scoop\persist\firefox-esr\profile? This is never used by Firefox itself.

Long time ago, the path of portable profile was set to $dir\profile instead of $persist_dir\profile, it created for easy access by users.

[ltguillaume]

The only reason I can think of it did not work as expected for you, is that there was already an %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini file present.

Yes, but we cannot delete this file in each installation.

I understand that, but it's not really the point of this change. The goal is to have the Scoop(-ESR) profile set as default on a clean installation, so that

1. All the people starting to use Firefox won't experience the issue that their actual profile is in %AppData%, while an unused profile is created in $persist_dir\profile. This not only leads to confusion, but also to wrongfully thinking their profile is safe by backing up scoop\persist, while in fact the profile they're using isn't in there.
2. All the people using LibreWolf don't have to use the portable launcher, which in the use case of scoop is only annoying.

why is there a symlink from scoop\apps\firefox-esr\profile to scoop\persist\firefox-esr\profile? This is never used by Firefox itself.

Long time ago, the path of portable profile was set to $dir\profile instead of $persist_dir\profile, it created for easy access by users.

Ah, fair enough. I thought I'd remove it then, but I see that Firefox doesn't create the profile without the folder $persist_dir\profile already existing. So it's either the persist entry or an explicit mkdir that is still required.

[HUMORCE]

I understand that, but it's not really the point of this change. The goal is to have the Scoop(-ESR) profile set as default on a clean installation, so that

Then the manifest get different behavior between different users.

[ltguillaume]

True, just like the current one already does, depending on whether they manually open the profile manager beforehand (a requirement) or not. At least this way, new users won't have to do anything.

[JustArion]

I'm not really understanding the discussion so far. Has the problem been fixed? My current problems I have with the scoop install is what @ltguillaume noted in the start of the discussion.

• I have to re-pin my current version on the Taskbar to prevent 2 Taskbar icons
• I have to change the profile being used every update back to the one I'm using

Were these issues addressed over the years? If they were, how can I remedy it?

[ltguillaume]

No. I just started using my own bucket for LibreWolf, Firefox-ESR, and Betterbird, which only partly circumvents the issue: it needs to start the profile manager after an update, so that the user can click OK to make sure the Scoop profile is used, otherwise a new profile is created.

scoop bucket add schep https://github.com/ltguillaume/schep
scoop install schep/librewolf

[HUMORCE]

Were these issues addressed over the years? If they were, how can I remedy it?

Best Practice:

Do not install main browser via Scoop. Almost all browsers don't benefit from Scoop's features.

The default profile of Firefox-based browser can be specified with profile selector, but Chromium-based browsers require more complex modification (shell registries, shortcut's launch option, cli flags, etc.)

If you're just afraid of losing your Firefox Profile, you can always create a profile in a standard installation of FireFox that points to <SCOOP>\persists\firefox\profile\<profile_name>.

[ltguillaume]

Do not install main browser via Scoop. Almost all browsers don't benefit from Scoop's features.

@HUMORCE Well, LibreWolf is a browser that doesn't have an internal updater, so Scoop could be pretty useful if it weren't using directory junctions for the current folder (or if Mozilla applications didn't respond to that by assuming a fresh installation because of it).

For Firefox, I would also advise most users to just use its internal updater or its bundled Maintenance Service.