Firefox
Custom Setup
Support
Site
last updated on 5 Dec 05
(may need to hit refresh)
This site is dedicated to Mozilla Firefox. If you have never tried it
out before go to
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
.
Have you fallen in love with Firefox and want all your friends to try
it out but find its default setup just a little lacking? Or do you just
want to create a customized build but find the process just too
confusing?
Well this site is designed to raise awareness of these issues and
hopefully influence the excellent developers of Firefox to incorporate
some of the ideas that I and others have come with.
How
to create your own setup
Extensions
that should be integrated into Firefox
How
the default look of Firefox should be
Share
which extensions you think should be integrated
Share how you think the default look of Firefox should be
Download
customized Firefox installer
How
to create your own setup
If you are intending to use your setup on an administrated network then
check out this excellent guide http://firefox.dbltree.com/.
Others may also find that guide useful, however, every user needs to
run an exe file before running Firefox for the first time. This can be
done automatically through the use of scripts.
The following method changes the default profile of the official setup
file so that anyone who uses it will get your default profile on first
run.
1. Go to
start menu and click on Run. Type the following to start the profile
manager.
firefox.exe -profilemanager
2. Create
a new profile and install any extensions or themes and customize how
you want everything to look.
3. Go to you
profile folder at the location specified here http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile#locate.
Note you may need to show hidden files to see the application directory.
4. Rename
the official Firefox
installer to a .zip file and extract. Do the same with the en-US.xpi
file or your equivalent locale file. Then browse to:
en-US\bin\defaults\profile
Replace the profile files here with the ones you created. Removing the extensions.cache, extensions.ini and extensions.rdf
files. Next zip up the directory structure to the way it was renaming
the en-US.zip file back to en-US.xpi.
5. Next use
the excellent SFX
Maker program to create your setup file. After installing SFX Maker and
support setup, run the example script making sure it points to your
setup file zipped. Then create the self-extracting archive. Note you
will need to run the custom icon program and choose the icon bundled in
the zip file to create the usual setup look.
"C:\Program Files\SFX Maker\Support\custicon"
SFX Maker Bundle
Other Guides
Firefox
MSI install for corporate rollout (silent install)
Deployment
with extensions, themes, and pre-config...
How
to add an extension to a build
Contributed by Philip
Moseley:
The
Simple Method of Firefox Unattended deployment
Guide:
Mozilla Firefox Unattended
Silence
of the Foxes: New utility for firefox deployment
Let
me know of any other forum topics
or guides on creating Firefox installers:
Extensions
that should be
integrated into Firefox
The following extensions I think should be integrated into Firefox.
OpenBook
- Show
bookmark folder list by default instead of hidden away with a down
arrow.
OpenDownload
- Very
useful with html cd autoruns to allow clicking on files to download to
temp directory and run.
Sort
Bookmarks - Provide an option
under Manage Bookmarks to sort all
bookmarks and folders.
Style
Sheet
Chooser - Persist style sheet
choices.
Mozilla
Archive Format - Save
complete webpages as a single file.
Share
your ideas here.
How
the default look of Firefox should be
Default Look with Bookmarks Toolbar enabled
Asa's Default Look
Share
your ideas here.
Download
customized Firefox
installer
Well I finally discovered an easy to use program for creating setup
files called Inno Setup, so I have ported my profile into a
single setup file. This will work only for Windows though. This setup
implements one of my ideas of choosing a default profile
during installation. Currently there are two options:
Official
default profile:
(Profile\Default)
The standard profile that comes with the official installer.
Theme\Extension
Collection: (Profile\Extended)
Extensions: Adblock Plus, Adblock
Filterset.G Updater, IEview, FlashGot, Error Console
Themes:
Noia Extreme, Qute 3, Charamel, Red Cats (Green)
Firefox_1.5.exe
(8.77 mb)
Note the flash
plugin is also included and can be selected
separately
during installation (Flash_Plugin). The profile names are not very
good, email me if
you can think of a better
names or know of some way to display a help screen for each profile via
a button or link during setup. To run setup silently you will need to
specify all the options you want installed like:
"Firefox_1.5.exe" /silent /nocancel
/components="Profile\Default,Flash_Plugin"
Put a comma between the list of options you want selected, since you
can only choose one profile there are only two things to choose from.
Therefore only specify the profile if you don't want the flash plugin
installed. If the component parameter is not specified then the default
is installed which is the Profile\Extended
and the Flash_Plugin.
How
to create
your own:
I will write a guide for this later. In the mean time I
have
posted a sample script file and provided a link to download the
program. New users make sure you use the option to install ISTools as
this provides a nice GUI to the script file. Other basic instructions
are included inside.
Sample
Script File 1.5 (60 kb)
Inno
Setup Pack 5.1.5
(1.1 mb)
You can contact me at: