Firefox users who want Adobe Flash to view videos, play games or access other Flash based contents do not need to install Flash for that functionality. There is an easier and safer way.

The following guide works for Windows based portable Firefox versions. The process has two steps. The Flash plugin needs to be downloaded first, before it can be added to Firefox. Adding in this case means making it recognizable by the browser without installation.

Open another web browser or download manager and download the Flash plugin from the official Macromedia website. The plugin comes in a format that Firefox would prompt to install instead of download. Downloading it in another web browser is therefor the best solution.

The next step is to unpack the flashplayer-win.xpi file. Most unpackers like 7-Zip will have no problems unpacking the file. Users who encounter troubles should consider adding a .zip extension to the file, before trying to extract the files to the local computer system.

Locate the dynamic link library NPSWF32.dll in the extracted files, and move it to the Data > Plugins directory of the Firefox installation. Restart the browser, and check the plugins section to see if the Flash plugin has been recognized.

This is done by going to Tools > Add-ons, and switching to the Plugins tab in the new window. Another possibility would be to visit a Flash powered site to see it in action. Users should not encounter any difficulties if they have followed the instructions to the letter.

The only drawback of this method is that Flash needs to be updated manually whenever a new version becomes available.

One of the best ways to perform such tests are portable versions as they do not alter the data of the installed versions. Firefox 3.6 portable and Thunderbird 3.01 portable have recently been released as well.

The portable version of the email client Thunderbird 3.01 can be extracted to any computer system folder. It can then be started from there to test the new version before the upgrade is performed. The same is true for the portable version of the web browser Firefox 3.6.

It does make sense to import the data of the installed versions into the portable versions to be able to test all the settings and add-ons that are installed. This can for instance be done with Mozbackup which supports both Firefox and Thunderbird. Firefox users can use FEBE or Fav Backup as an alternative.

The programs can import add-ons, settings, passwords, emails or the history from the installed versions of Firefox and Thunderbird.

Firefox 3.6 and Thunderbird 3.01 can then be downloaded from Mozilla if the tests have been to the user’s satisfaction.

The Firefox web browser does not have that restriction. It is possible to install multiple versions of the web browser. They cannot be launched at the same time usually but there is a solution for that as well. And there are portable versions of the web browser so that all the versions can be put on an USB stick to be available on every PC with USB connections.

The Mozilla Firefox Collection is a software collection of multiple Firefox versions that can be launched at the same time. Included in the release are currently:

• Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.20
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0.19.0
• Mozilla Firefox 3.5.18.0
• Mozilla Firefox 3.6.16.0
• Mozilla Firefox 4.0.0.0

This collection has been mainly designed for web developers as it comes with the interesting option to launch an url in all versions of the Firefox web browser that have been installed during installation.

The following add-ons and plugin can be installed with the Firefox versions:

• Firebug add-on
• Web Developer add-on
• Flash Player plug-in

Features of the Mozilla Firefox Collection:

• It can open one or more local files and/or URLs in all installed versions of Mozilla Firefox with a single click
• It can appear in the context menu of Windows Explorer, so a file can be opened in every installed version of Mozilla Firefox directly
• It can display the version number of Mozilla Firefox in the titlebar
• It includes a number of window resizing options for the Web Developer add-on, settings for all common resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900 and 1600×1200 are included
• It can be installed for all users, so it’s available for everyone
• It can be installed and used silently, it’s possible to create an unattended installation and use all functions using command line parameters
• It even works under the most restricted user accounts after installation, only the installation needs to be done by someone with Administrator privileges
• It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 98, 98 SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 and 7

The main benefit of this approach over installing portable versions of the Firefox web browser versions that need to be tested is that it is a more comfortable approach especially with the option to launch a local or remote website in all versions of the web browser simultaneously.

The Mozilla Firefox Collection can be downloaded from the developer’s website

Portable in this case means that it will not interfere with the Firefox installation on the computer system. It is possible to migrate add-ons and settings to the portable version by using Firefox add-ons like the Firefox Environment Backup Extension (FEBE).

This turns the portable version of Firefox into a 1:1 copy of the installed version; Ideal for testing and analyzing the new web browser. Firefox 3.5 portable has been published at the portable apps website from where it can be downloaded. The portable version is only compatible with the Windows operating system although it has been reported that it will work in Wine on the Linux operating system as well.

The portable version can simply be extracted to a folder on the local computer system from where it can be started afterwards. Everything else in the portable version of Firefox works like in the installed version including the installation of add-ons.

The very same page lists a few known issues of the Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 web browser. This includes a Google Mail bug (can be resolved by reloading the page), no new window creation when dragging tabs on the desktop, choppy OGG audio and video playback on old computers and SSL website loading problems after returning from private browsing mode.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 will access the user profile on the computer if another version of the Firefox web browser is installed. Several of the installed Firefox add-ons are at this time not compatible with the latest beta version of Firefox and will fail to load unless the user forces compatibility with Nightly Tester Tools.

Users who do not want to mess with their default installation of the Firefox web browser can download and use a portable version of the beta instead.

It pretty much does everything that Firefox 3 can do as well. It is possible to install extensions and themes for instance. Bookmarks can best be imported into the portable version. Just point it to your bookmarks.html file in your Firefox 2 profile folder.

It is even possible to run both the Firefox 3 portable version and another Firefox version at the same time. To do that you need to create another profile for the portable version. Head over to my article that explains how to multiple Firefox profiles simultaneously.

The main advantage of this method is that the portable version does not interfere at all with Firefox 2, they are completely independent so to speak. This method does have a downside however, none of your settings are imported which means you cannot access your bookmarks for instance. Since it’s only installed for testing purposes it should not matter that much however and you could still move some of the files – like the bookmarks.html file – from the Firefox 2 profile folder to the one of Firefox 3 to be able to use them.

Another possibility is to create a new profile and assign that shortcut to Firefox 3. This still has the effect that both browsers use independent settings and don’t interfere with each other. Since it is a little bit complicated to setup I would probably go for the portable version to test Firefox 3.

Lastly you can simply install Firefox 3 in another directory which would mean that it would use all of your settings.

Below is a list of changes in the new Beta 5 of Firefox 3:

[Improved in Beta 5!] Integration with Windows: Firefox now has improved Windows icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
[Improved in Beta 5!] Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
[Improved in Beta 5!] Integration with Linux: Firefox’s default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.
[Improved in Beta 5!] Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. Create and restore full backups whenever you want.
[Improved in Beta 5!] Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 5, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.