[Solved] Private Browsing WIndows

[vayth]

Hi,

I've got some problem with an addon.

One thing that I like from Chrome, which FF doesn't have, is the ability to have private browsing without closing the main windows. Until one day I came across this addon called Private Browsing Windows (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... g-windows/)
Maybe it's not perfect because engine difference, and it does it's job by using a different profile.

But the problem is it's not even working in my browser. The icon is there on the addon bar, but nothing came out when I clicked it. I've asked some people and they have no problem with it. When I told them I'm using Palemoon (which shouldn't have problem with FF's addons, right?), they advised me to ask here, and so here I am.

Anyone got the same problem as me?
Thanks before.

[Blacklab]

Not seen this Add-on before - and my schoolboy German is not enough to understand instructions properly - BUT from reading the English reviewers comments here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... s/reviews/ my guess is that this Add-on relies on finding the path to your Firefox Profile.... and by necessity the path to your Pale Moon Profile is different.... so the Add-on can't work in Pale Moon without altering the Profile Path?

Having had to overcome similar Profile Path problems to make Free Download Manager's Plugin work in Pale Moon (as opposed to Firefox where it works correctly using Firefox's Profile Path) you might get some useful ideas from reading the main "Integrating Free Download Manager" Tutorial and the replies here: http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1070 including jumba's post describing his alternative method that works by merging "profiles.ini" files together.

The mozillaZine article "Profile folder - Firefox" is here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox and as the most recent reviewer mentions the Firefox Help Page "Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data" is here: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pro ... -user-data

EDIT: Since this Add-on appears to work by creating new user profiles I suspect external "hacks" may not be easy or even possible! Thus your best option might be to try and contact the developer Sören Hentzschel directly and ask for his help with Pale Moon integration - his homepage details are on the Add-on pages - he replied to the April 2012 Review posted on Add-on page so you might just be lucky?

[Moonchild]

It's also possible that the add-on hard-codes the search path for the profiles (%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox) which doesn't work - the add-on developer should be able to figure out what is wrong there. Also, you may get some useful information for them from Pale Moon's error console, which normally also displays errors occurring in add-ons.

[vayth]

nice, thanks for the help

I've tried both blacklab's and jumba's, from simply create a new profile.ini, to compy PM's profile.ini into FF folder. Yet I still can't make the addon icon do anything when I click it.

Fortunately, I got the gist of it and managed to make a private window while keeping the main one opened without the need of the addon by making a direct shortcut to the new profile, thanks to profile-related links you provided.

But, yeah, I guess I'll still notify the developer and send the error log as well.. Hopefully he can fix it somehow..

Well, this may be out of topic a little, but can you tell me how to edit tasks of pinned taskbar / start menu shortcut? Like when I right-clicked PM shortcut in taskbar, it gives me option to Open New Tab, Open New Window, and Enter Private Browsing. I'm still thinking where to put the new shortcut, since I don't really want to put it on desktop where I have to minimize the browser to access it, and I can't have two pinned of the same application..

[Blacklab]

@ vayth: Sounds as if your 2nd Profile solution is rather better than the Add-on, much as comments by the latest reviewer zendoodles on 28 July 2012 suggested. Assuming you're using WIn 7 this Sevenforums page might be a starting point on editing right click menus: http://www.sevenforums.com/customizatio ... -menu.html which has some advice and posts on "Editing the Taskbar/Toolbars Context Menu" and a further link to instructions and/or some suggested tools.
Mozillazine article on Profile Manager: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager has paragraph on using shortcut and link to "Shortcut to a specific profile" page: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Shortcut_to_a ... ic_profile Sevenforums also has howtos for a couple of non-taskbar/desktop options for positioning your shortcut: Pin to Start Menu or probably a neater solution Assign a Keyboard Shortcut (this is titled Vista but actually covers Win 7 too.)
Good luck with contacting the developer and please post if you get a response!

PS. If you want to look inside the Add-on.... download to desktop (or your normal download location) from your link in original post (Right Click>Save Link As) and when you have Add-on file "private_browsing_windows-1.0.4-fx.xpi" simply rename file suffix only from .xpi to .zip and then Right Click again to open.
I have had a quick look at the "install.rdf" file (select Notepad if does not open automatically) but no immediate inspiration! When ready to load Add-on (assuming problem fixed!)into Pale Moon just close file (zip up again if reqd) and change file type back to .xpi Then just drag/drop file onto any open Pale Moon window or open browser Add-ons Manager>Select "Install Add-on From File" option under Gearwheel icon at top right of page.

[vayth]

well, it's basically the same concept actually, I just change the StartWithLastProfile to 0 in profiles.ini so it always start with default profile.
but, yeah, I hope I can do it without add-on so that my PM won't be heavy because too many add-ons (dunno if it's a myth or not, but I'm trying to have as few as possible add on at the moment).

thanks, so it's called context menu.. I googled all the night, using task, pinned menu, quick launch shortcut menu, etc, but couldn't seem to find the right keyword..

I'll look for the zip after this

EDIT: it looks like it's a bit different. the one in 7forum show how to edit right-click menu in windows explorer. I actually want to edit the right click menu in quick launch /start menu, but I haven't find how to do it

I'm planning to add a menu below the Enter Private Browsing if possible.

the shortcut keys for shortcut also didn't work for multiple windows. If I have PM running already, even if I have a separated shortcut for the private profile, it won't come out.
The only thing working currently is to double click the shortcut manually (which means I have to minimize to desktop or switch to windows explorer to browse the shortcut, still no quick access method)

I'll see if I can find something from the xpi file..

[Moonchild]

What you are looking for is a way to edit what are called the "Windows Jumplists". This is not something that is easily done, since you need to use calls to the actual program's internal workings to call functions/pass arguments. It takes some more advanced programming to do that, although you may be able to get it to work.
The file you want to have a look at is WindowsJumpLists.jsm in the modules folder. This is a plaintext file with interpreted code (a JavaScript Module (jsm)), so any text editor will work.

For example, the code needed for "Open new window" there is:

Code: Select all

  // Open new window
  {
    get title()       _getString("taskbar.tasks.newTab.label"),
    get description() _getString("taskbar.tasks.newTab.description"),
    args:             "-new-tab about:blank",
    iconIndex:        3, // New window icon
    open:             true,
    close:            true, // The jump list already has an app launch icon, but
                            // we don't always update the list on shutdown.
                            // Thus true for consistency.
  },

Thankfuly, it's reasonably documented in the .jsm file itself:

Code: Select all

   * Task configuration options: title, description, args, iconIndex, open, close.
   *
   * title       - Task title displayed in the list. (strings in the table are temp fillers.)
   * description - Tooltip description on the list item.
   * args        - Command line args to invoke the task.
   * iconIndex   - Optional win icon index into the main application for the
   *               list item.
   * open        - Boolean indicates if the command should be visible after the browser opens.
   * close       - Boolean indicates if the command should be visible after the browser closes. 

If you can get a set of command-line arguments to be passed to the browser that does what you want it to do, then you can edit this file and customize the jumplist.

[Blacklab]

@ vayth: Hope you succeed in altering the "Windows Jumplists" to your satisfaction with Moonchild's most interesting information above!
If not, I have found another mozillaZine article "Opening a new instance of your Mozilla application with another profile" http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new ... er_profile which, if I read it correctly, will allow you to get one of the other shortcut options to work without triggering the browser's "already running" warning? The links numbered 2 & 3 in above article are both to mozillaZine forum Q&A's which are worth a read.

EDIT: Installed PBW Add-on on machine with Firefox 15.0.1 for a test run.... I find that when PBW icon clicked it only opens Profile Manager window and even after I created new "PBW Add-on" Profile I still have to go through Profile Manager window each time.... is this how PWB Add-on operated with you?
Also came across this curious Add-on developers trick here: http://richardwall.info/?page_id=97 under "Some tips and tricks" heading:

Another trick in case you don’t want to start your browser every time is to enter “chrome://browser/content/browser.xul” in the address field and hit enter. It will launch a copy of the browser inside the current browser....

[vayth]

@moonchild
Hmm.. I tried editing the windowsjumplist file, but nothing changed. Do I have to do anything else after that? like compiling or update something?

@blacklab
Yeah, I've managed to launch two separated window with different profile, with two separated shortcuts. But it's a bit troublesome to have the other shortcut elsewhere (almost faster using win+R and type "palemoon -P private -no-remote" rather than opening windows explorer and navigate to the shortcut. Maybe minimize the browser and clicking the shortcut on desktop is faster, but.. well, I like my desktop clean from shortcuts )

and it's interesting to see browser inside browser o_O (browserception?)

EDIT: I've taken a look at the xpi files and made a change in main.js. It doesn't do anything with profile folder. The concept is like we've found above, calling firefox.exe in Run (win+R) and calling profile named "private" (if you didn't name it like that, it only calls Profile Manager when clicked)
It's now working with PM (but not working in FF anymore since I don't want to edit too much from the original)
Thanks for the helps XD
(still curious about the jump list, but I guess I'll try tinkering with it someday later..)

I've also contacted the developer (not answered yet), hopefully he will make the real one support PM as well

[Blacklab]

@ vayth: Thanks for your hint Re: "private" (without quote marks) as new Profile name PBW wants you to setup when installing - that worked! Now my trial install of PBW on Firefox 15.0.1 opens new Private Browsing window from a single click on the PBW toolbar icon - no doubt as developer originally intended.
EDIT: I need to look at the Profile(s) more deeply as on restarting Firefox with PBW enabled I was presented with unexpected "new" Firefox page and the only immediate way to recover my normal Firefox setup was to exit , go into Profile Manager, delete new "private" Profile and then restart normally?

If you have time (assuming changes involved are not too extensive) perhaps you could post exactly what you changed (in main.js and anywhere else) to make PBW run in Pale Moon. Otherwise this thread is a bit of a dead end/tease to anyone reading it in future! Perhaps even a Tutorial/Howto

Hopefully Moonchild will respond Re: "Windows Jumplist" change not working - although strictly speaking that's not really a Pale Moon specific issue, just rather interesting! Perhaps not surprising first attempt failed as Moonchild did warn "more advanced programming" would be required!

[vayth]

yeah, it always launch the last profile you close, at least it's said so, although for some weird reason, I didn't experience it and always start with my default profile (maybe when I change some setting somewhere.. can't remember though...)
Or maybe you can change your PM shortcut properties by adding "-P default" (without quotation of course) at the end of Target Box.

switch(this.getOS()) at line 19 of main.js, change the program file for windows (WINNT) from firefox.exe to palemoon.exe
if you set "always use private browsing mode" in your second profile setting (option -> privacy -> use custom setting), then you should remove '-private' in let args at line 36. If you just create the profile normally, then let it be.
If you have another name for the second private (not "private"), you can also change the argument after -P (which by default is written 'private' without "-")

those are all 2 lines (only the first one actually) we need to make it run on PM.

(btw, is it allowed to post how to change people code's here? I don't have the developer's permission, and even though it's just a script, changing the main code seems... well, I don't know much about licenses things.. Hopefully the developer himself will support our browser as well.. Feel free to edit/delete this post if it's not allowed)

[Blacklab]

@vayth: Thanks - will have a play tomorrow on machine that has Firefox - see if I can get that sorted first. May be just as you say and I simply closed Firefox from the PBW Profile without realising!
Just been having a look at these SevenForums threads Re: Jumplists: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-disc ... ncher.html which has link to: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/14 ... post140563 Worth a look?
Unsure regarding code modification - but only modifying to achieve integration with Pale Moon - not for any nefarious use?

[vayth]

yeah, it's cool having a list of shortcut without taking space o_o

anyway,

Hi,

thanks for your feedback! The new version 1.0.5 should be compatible with Pale Moon.
https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/a ... /versions/

Regards,
Sören Hentzschel

no more modification needed now~