Portable Version

schreck

why is this so complicated??
even if i run the same vivaldi standalone on two different windows on my notebook,
everything is messed up/lost..

Ayespy

@schreck Two different windows? You mean two different versions of Windows, or just two different windows in the same profile? I don't have any such problems here. Nothing is messed up/lost. You aren't by chance running two different versions of Vivaldi but using the same profile folder on the disc to do it?

I can run ten or twelve different versions of Vivaldi side-by-side (so long as they each have their own standalone install directory) with no problems whatever.

Why is it so complicated to make a true portable version of Vivaldi? Because the entire data structure has to be changed, secure files and folders that can move from system to system have to be developed, and the data structure of the underlying Chromium engine has to be changed, and then re-patched with the changes for every update.

schreck

@ayespy
i have win7 and 10 on my notebook.
after starting vivaldi in another windows and then going back, eg all extensions and passes are lost

Ayespy

@schreck Do Win 7 and Win10 somehow share the same user profile directory?

Agych

How big was the disappointment when I copied the Vivaldi standalone folder to my new OS and saw that the customization I've spent hours on, is gone.
Settings, extensions, UI personalization, everything.
For me, true portability is now the most desired feature, much more desired than customizable toolbar, customizable menus, sync and other.
Really really hope that it will be implemented.

Pesala

@agych Probably you forgot to copy something. I regularly have to copy my Vivaldi Standalone installation to another drive, and never lose any of my customisations in the process.

Agych

Well, all Vivaldi files are in the Vivaldi Standalone folder, and I copied the entire folder.
Tried several times. Fixing the permissions and ownership of the folder doesn't help.
Maybe the case of moving to another location on the PC works (as well as copying to a different PC with the same Windows snapshot / same user - I have already done this with success), however it doesn't seem to work in the following cases:

Copying Vivaldi to another Windows installation (the same PC).
Copying Vivaldi to another Windows installation (copying from one PC to another PC).

Pesala

@agych I am currently running Vivaldi Latest Snapshot from a folder on a USB drive, which I just copied from my Desktop hard drive. Everything is preserved: themes, settings, shortcuts, last session, etc., even forum logins.

Zalex108

@pesala said in Portable version:

@agych I am currently running Vivaldi Latest Snapshot from a folder on a USB drive, which I just copied from my Desktop hard drive. Everything is preserved: themes, settings, shortcuts, last session, etc., even forum logins.

It seems that the profile resets itself when using a complete profile on another OS, User ID, SAM...

I didn't made any test yet, but seems to be something on the Chromium browsers.

Agych

@pesala
Are you running it from the USB on the OS where you copied it from / where you've been using it before, or on a different OS?

washere

@schreck said in Portable version:

why is this so complicated??

Probably because of numerous extensions compatibility, writing to registry, etc etc. With so many things needing to be done by the devs, I do not see any portable version for the foreseeable future.

Similar issues with Chrome, which is why Chromium Portable was created. A cut down version of Vivaldi? Vivaldium, not the same thing as a true full functioning Portable, nor do I foresee the Devs spending lots of needed time on that mini-me either. Portable chances IMHO seem zilch. It would have been nice though, very nice.

Agych

Opera Standalone is actually almost portable.
I just copy-pasted it to my new OS, the same way I tried with Vivaldi, and the only things that disappeared are passwords and login sessions.
All other stuff - customization, extensions, settings, etc., all is preserved!
It would be really awesome if Vivaldi could do this too.

duarte.framos

This has been discussed before.

For security reasons Chrom* browsers encrypt your profile and settings so they can't be "stolen" or read elsewhere.
This encryption is done against your current Windows login/User profile, that is why changing computers discards most saved settings, they were encrypted for another user account and can't be retrieved in a different computer.

It is not Vivaldi's doing, it is Chromium, and has nothing to do with copying files or compatibility issues. That is why some settings are preserved while others are not when moving to another computer. Basically all Chromium native features (like extensions, logins, browsing data, history, saved passwords, autfill data, etc) are lost. Vivaldi own implemented ones are generally preserved, like bookmarks, gestures, web panels, notes, etc.

@pesala said in Portable version:

@agych I am currently running Vivaldi Latest Snapshot from a folder on a USB drive, which I just copied from my Desktop hard drive. Everything is preserved: themes, settings, shortcuts, last session, etc., even forum logins.

This works only because you didn't actually change Windows account.

I would also like to see a true portable version, I recently got a laptop and was very disappointed to have to reconfigure most stuff again after switching. It has been done before, we have several functional Chrome and Chromium based portable browsers without data loss (Chrome Portable, Chromium Portable, Opera, and all others) at the expense of security, so we know it is not impossible to achieve.

And no, sync is not a full solution, if you don't want your data "out there" for security or privacy issues.

Pesala

@duarte-framos I wonder if it would help if one used the same username and password on the other PC? Of course, one would also have to use the same bit-depth on both PCs.

Agych

@duarte-framos said in Portable version:

It is not Vivaldi, it is Chromium

Well, Opera is also Chromium, however Opera only removes passwords and login sessions while keeping everything else, when copied to another OS or PC

duarte.framos

@pesala said in Portable version:

@duarte-framos I wonder if it would help if one used the same username and password on the other PC?

As far as I know this is somehow hashed against user profile, computer ID and hardware so no two user accounts are the same even on identical hardware with same username or password. Remember, the objective here is to maximize security, I'm sure Google engineers have gone to great lengths to protect your data, and ensure no one else can fake clone your account and get hold of your data.

Ironically enough the same google collects and stores outrageous amounts of data on you to fund all this we have today.

qwaq

Installed as standalone on a PC dual booting 2 windows 10 installations (one is an insiders preview build). When I booted into the other system, lost all the extensions. So went back to the original system it was installed on, and found the extensions disappeared there too. Familiar behavior since I was previously on Chrome, except that Chrome wipes everything out incl bookmarks. Hence the reason I was excited about Vivaldi, thought the standalone might be portable, but its not fully so. But I can understand the privacy, security reasons for that. Firefox portable though has no such issues.

Ayespy

@qwaq Standalone is not called portable, because it is not portable.

Vivaldi Sync will largely overcome such deficiencies, at least unless/until Vivaldi can replace Chromium's encryption scheme, which makes it impossible to move a profile to a new user or device and retain passwords and extensions.

luetage

@ayespy As mentioned before, standalone implies portability. That's a given. It's just a bad name for what it does.

Pesala

@luetage I disagree. The name is fine. The settings are independent from AppData so one can install any number of Standalone versions of Vivaldi with different settings and run them all at once if one wishes.

"Portable" implies the ability to move something; while "Standalone" only suggests having no dependencies.