Portable Version

[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.

[luetage]

@pesala You can disagree as much as you want. The reality is we regularly get users here who are confused by the term and run into problems, because they think a Vivaldi standalone installation is portable. This is not an isolated case. Just make a simple search for portable on VF, if you don't believe me. And I'm sure there are even more results where people just used Standalone in the title and then complained about portability in the OP.

Anyway, simply calling it Standalone (non portable) would solve this problem (albeit an ugly solution), but that's for the devs to decide.

[pafflick]

@luetage I think you're both right to some extent. @Pesala is right that there's nothing wrong with the name itself. Standalone does not imply portability per se, so we can say, that this term is being used correctly.

However, the undeniable fact is that quite a lot of people gets confused by it, as they expect that standalone means complete independence of the OS and thus portability (which is not the case). Heck, even I was confused at first, a couple of years ago when I downloaded Vivaldi for the first time, after years of using (the old) Opera where I got used to the ability to install the browser "on a USB stick". My first thought was that "standalone" means "portable". I couldn't be more wrong.

So, to conclude: No, the name is not wrong or incorrect. But it's confusing to many people (even the power users). I think that this issue should be addressed at some point, otherwise we're going to continue seeing people coming here and complaining about the "non-portability" of a standalone browser...

[schreck]

i have to move to a new laptop, i have lots of configured extensions like ublock, tampermonkey, etc
no way of moving this to the new place?

[Ayespy]

@schreck No. You can sync the new machine with the old one, using Vivaldi sync, and that will replicate your extensions, but not their settings at this time. Currently, there is no way to transfer extension settings.

[zaibon]

@schreck Depending on the vivlaid version you use could you try to activate the sync feature. It still is in experimental status and won't sync all data but you can shift quite a lot of infos from one install to another.

As it is still experimental use it at own risk! (I think atm there are a few problems with notes that don't have a name)

You can activate this feature here vivaldi://experiments after a new start you have a new option called "sync" in your settings.
In addition you can have a look at the site vivaldi://sync-internals

EDIT: damnit I type too slow ^^

[schreck]

can you sync without the saved passwords being sent?
otherwise thats no option. isnt there an extension to export all extension setting ?

[zaibon]

@schreck That's how the sync settings look like:

[Ayespy]

@schreck Yes, you can choose not to have your passwords synced. You do, however, have to enter a password (either your forum password or a new one) to start sync. Then you can pick what items to sync.

I have never heard of an extension to export extension settings. There may be one, but I do not use or research extensions, so I would not know.

[schreck]

you sure the extension settings are not synced?
so the extensions are not copied, just the list of installed ones and then downloaded and installed in the new vivaldi?

[pafflick]

@schreck As the sync feature is still experimental in the Stable channel, I think that a safer way (for now) would be to do that manually. I have successfully transferred my profile from one device to another (including extensions settings) and I described the procedure here.

The biggest drawback is probably that you have to install the extensions manually on the new machine, but you won't have to configure them again, they'll have their old settings.

If you want to copy only the extensions, according to this article you should copy the following folders:
Extension Rules, Extension State, Extensions, Local Extension Settings, Local Storage, Managed Extension Storage, Extension Cookies and Secure Preferences.

[eilegz]

its one of the missing features that makes me switch between vivaldi and opera as my chromium default browser. Opera itself have a portable version which its really portable in every sense addons, settings everything its there plus the fact that opera sync its also fully functional and working. Its gonna take a while for vivaldi to have sync running but having a complete portability would be helpful

[CoxyNEL]

I agree, i love Vivaldi but I need a portable version, i'm using a PortableApps-Like USB key with 90% of my apps on it, so I can switch the usb key between several computers. I've uninstalled Vivaldi and i'm using Chromium & Opera on the key because they have both a portable version. So the problem is not chromium !

[Agych]

Have almost moved to a new OS, and sadly Vivaldi is the only program missing there.
And also there has already been many cases when I wanted to copy over a clean-but-fully-customized-and-configured Vivaldi to my relatives', friends' and collègues' PCs, just like I did with Opera, but I simply couldn't.
Really looking forward to the Vivaldi's ability of being Portable in the nearest future.

[burbuja]

@ayespy I dont get it, I mean you can use the standalone as portable without any problems, sure you need usb2.

[Ayespy]

@burbuja Yes, you absolutely can use it portably now, with sync, but the design (minus sync) is not 100% built to move from one machine to the next, without sync, because of the way passwords and extensions are encrypted. And for that reason only, it would not accurate to rename Vivaldi Standalone to Vivaldi portable.

Someone like me, who doesn't use extensions, could always use it like a portable if I could remember all of my passwords.

[CoxyNEL]

Standalone mode doesn't work as a portable mode at all. For those like me who often switch between machines (several times a day), the standalone version is unusable.

I started using Opera at the very beginning (~1995), and switched to Maxthon when Opera "classic" (14) died. When I discovered Vivaldi, I was very happy because it really renewed the Opera mind I loved, so I switched to Vivaldi. This is the best browser for me, but I cannot use it properly for now, so I'm using Chromium & Opera as portable apps, because these are really portable (with working sync).

I need portable apps because I must use multiboot OSes on my main computer (different OSes for Work, Testing & General Purpose) & others computers as well. 75% of my usual apps are on my USB key, each time an OS is started, all shortcuts & file associations & default apps are defined to points to the USB key automatically. But this does not work with Vivaldi (I need to reconfigure sync each time I switch the OS).

I hope they will release a portable version, not depending on the Windows session!