Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

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[PCMartin]

Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by [PCMartin] » 2017-11-09, 23:50

Attn: riiis

For Google Chrome, this extension works great for me. Unlike Open With Google Chrome, its toolbar button doesn't disappear between browser sessions and it requires only a single click.

For Firefox and Firefox ESR, however, I'm having problems. For now, at least, I need to run mainstream/current Firefox and Firefox ESR using different profiles, because pre-55 and 55+ profiles are incompatible and get corrupted if loaded into the wrong version of Firefox. Also, I need to start at least one of them with the -no-remote switch in order to be able to run both at the same time. In short, I need to start Firefox and Firefox ESR with profile switches and -no-remote switches. I have added these to my program shortcuts, but there doesn't seem to be a way to add them to the "Location" paths in this extension's options and have them "stick." This would be a welcome additional feature. Profile Manager pops up when I start either browser without a profile switch, but frankly, I don't want to take the risk of accidentally loading the wrong profile -- which isn't out of the question since the toolbar buttons for Firefox and Firefox ESR are exactly the same (see below), and neither button is accurately labeled (see farther below).

Another feature that would be nice would be the ability to specify custom toolbar and menu icons. I use a custom icon for my Firefox ESR program shortcuts. It helps me distinguish current Firefox and Firefox ESR at a glance.

Finally, even after Menu and Location entries have been customized in the extension's options, the toolbar buttons are still labeled with the original entries (for me, IE instead of Firefox and Vivaldi instead of Firefox ESR). Maybe a third customizable field in Options could fix this.

Regardless, it's nice not to have to drag the Open With Google Chrome toolbar button back into place every time I start or restart Pale Moon, and it's nice to be able to load a tab in Chrome with a single click, so many thanks to the author, riiis.

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by riiis » 2017-11-10, 02:47

"Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More" accepts only arguments for incognito/private browsing mode. Thus, you might want to use "Browser View Plus" instead of "Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More". BVP takes multiple arguments, not just one. However, BVP uses drop-down menus, so you'll need to make 2 clicks to launch an external browser, not just one. I did find an issue with browser # 4 (Vivaldi default). This has been fixed in extension version 3.0.5.

JustOff

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by JustOff » 2017-11-10, 09:48

I prefer Open With by Geoff Lankow, it works perfectly with Pale Moon.

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by billmcct » 2017-11-10, 12:21

JustOff wrote:I prefer Open With by Geoff Lankow, it works perfectly with Pale Moon.
Ditto.
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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by rabnbeinn » 2017-11-10, 15:19

I use Open with edge, ie, chrome and more with no problem, I have (only as a back-up) FF56.0 and it works just fine.

The latest version of OPEN WITH will not allow you to install (a UAO may solve this) although later versions say.... "This add-on is not compatible with your version of Firefox. Download anyway"
I didn't try a UAO or a later version as riiis add-on does what I need it to do.

[PCMartin]

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by [PCMartin] » 2017-11-11, 17:49

I appreciate the responses so far.

I've tried both Browser View Plus (PlayLink) 45.1.5 and Open With 5.6.3.1-signed (each separately, with the other extension disabled).

By way of background, this is the command line I use to start Firefox 56.0.2 (64-bit):

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p 55+ -no-remote

and this is the command line I use to start Firefox ESR 52.4.0 (32-bit):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p Pre-55-ESR -no-remote

The -p profile switches load different profiles for the two browsers because mainstream Firefox switched to an incompatible profile format at version 55 and Firefox ESR won't update to that format until July 2018. The -no-remote switches allow me to run both browsers at the same time.

In Open With, it was necessary to make new custom entries for Firefox (x64) and Firefox ESR (x86) in order to add my switches/arguments. Also, I needed to rename my Firefox ESR profile from "Pre-55 ESR" to Pre-55-ESR, because unlike my Windows program shortcuts, Open With apparently stumbled over the quotation marks and didn't read the argument for the profile switch, so Profile Manager popped up. I don't know whether Browser View Plus has that problem because I renamed my profile (and changed my Windows program shortcuts for Firefox ESR) before trying out Browser View Plus.

In Browser View Plus, I needed to do several copy-and-pastes in order to change the default display order, which I wanted to do to separate and better distinguish Firefox and Firefox ESR, since they both use the exact same icon. I also needed to restart Pale Moon after dragging Browser View Plus's "PlayLink" button to the toolbar in order to have it populate with the new options. (Before I restarted, it only displayed "Add," which I believe was nonfunctional at that point. Not a big deal.)

Both extensions worked fine with Google Chrome, whether it was already running or not. Both extensions opened new first instances of Firefox and Firefox ESR with the selected tab. However, if Firefox was already running, attempting to open a new tab in it from Pale Moon yielded a warning pop-up that it was already running and needed to be closed before a new instance could be opened. Ditto for Firefox ESR.

Any suggestions for getting either extension to work with Firefox and Firefox ESR when they are already running? In case it's relevant (which I kind of doubt), I use Tab Mix Plus in Pale Moon, Firefox, and Firefox ESR, and have enabled Single Window Mode in all three browsers (Tab Mix Plus Options > Links > Enable Single Window Mode). It basically opens additional browser windows as new tabs in the existing window.

By the way, riiis, I can live with a two-click dropdown menu, and I like the way the PlayLink toolbar button updates to a one-click button for the last browser selected!

Thanks very much to everyone for the feedback so far!

JustOff

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by JustOff » 2017-11-11, 21:16

[PCMartin] wrote:I've tried ... Open With 5.6.3.1-signed
I'd recommend You to use the latest version (6.8.6 at the moment), it actually compatible with Pale Moon, just download it locally and then install.
Any suggestions for getting either extension to work with Firefox and Firefox ESR when they are already running?
I use a separate copy of Portable Firefox for this, run it using Open With without any switches and all works well. Note, do not enable AllowMultipleInstances for the portable browser using either FirefoxPortable.ini or command line.

[PCMartin]

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by [PCMartin] » 2017-11-12, 16:07

@ JustOff:

Thanks for the tips. I'm a little busy today, but I'll give them a shot when I have a little downtime and get back to you. Again, thanks!

[PCMartin]

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by [PCMartin] » 2017-11-15, 20:11

@ JustOff:

I "installed" Firefox ESR Portable and Firefox Portable and substituted them for the installed versions in Browser View Plus. I can now open tabs in either variant of portable Firefox when it is already running, but I can't run both variants at the same time. If I'm already running Firefox Portable and try to open a tab in Firefox ESR Portable, I get a warning that Firefox is already running and that it will have to be closed first. Ditto when I'm already running Firefox ESR Portable and try to open a tab in Firefox Portable. I get that same result whether or not I have -no-remote arguments for either or both browsers in Browser View Plus, and whether or not I run both browsers as 64-bit or Firefox Portable as 64-bit and Firefox ESR Portable as 32-bit (by setting AlwaysUse32Bit=true in Firefox ESR Portable's FirefoxPortable.ini file).

I'd really like to be able to have both Firefox and Firefox ESR running at the same time, the way I can with the installed versions using Windows program shortcuts with -no-remote switches.

My apologies if I've overlooked something obvious. This is my first time using Firefox Portable. (I'm also a bit puzzled about how to pin buttons for my two portable Firefox programs to the Windows Taskbar. I didn't have any trouble doing that with Tor Browser, or indeed with any other portable programs I've pinned in the past, but Firefox Portable doesn't seem to behave the same. That's beyond the scope of this forum, so I don't expect tips, but I thought I'd mention it.)

JustOff

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by JustOff » 2017-11-15, 20:42

[PCMartin] wrote:I'd really like to be able to have both Firefox and Firefox ESR running at the same time
Sorry, I probably missed this part. I think this is impossible, because AllowMultipleInstances=true is required to run two different copies of the browser, but at the same time AllowMultipleInstances=false is required to be able to open new tab from the command line :problem:

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by riiis » 2017-11-15, 20:49

[PCMartin] wrote:I'm also a bit puzzled about how to pin buttons for my two portable Firefox programs to the Windows Taskbar.
Right-click on the "FirefoxPortable.exe" files. "Pin to Taskbar" should show up in the context menu at that point. However, I generally take these additional steps to change the names: Send to the desktop as shortcuts. Change the names of the desktop shortcuts, as appropriate. Right-click the renamed shortcuts to pin to taskbar. Delete the shortcuts if no longer needed.

You can also create these shortcuts directly from the "firefox.exe" files in the "App/Firefox" or "App/Firefox64" folders (bypassing the FirefoxPortable launcher).

Also, while on the desktop, you can change the icons of one or both versions of Firefox.

[PCMartin]

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by [PCMartin] » 2017-11-16, 17:35

@ JustOff:

I appreciate the clarification. For now -- until Firefox ESR gets updated to a post-56 version in early July 2018 and there is no longer as much point in running it (since it will no longer support "Legacy" extensions) -- I think I'll just launch my installed versions of Firefox ESR and Firefox manually and copy and paste URLs of pages that I can't get to work in Pale Moon. I just hope I won't end up loading everything in Chrome out of laziness instead of first falling back to Firefox ESR and then Firefox.

@ riiis:

I really appreciate the Taskbar button tips, but I'm probably not going to follow up on them, since being able to run both Firefox ESR and Firefox at the same time is important to me and I will therefore be running installed versions (with -no-remote switches) rather than portable versions. It's still nice to be able to open a tab in Chrome with one or two clicks of a toolbar button. (And ditto for Internet Explorer 11, I suppose, although I never seem to want or need to do that. The only times I open IE are to update Adobe Air and Adobe Flash Player for IE, and to quickly trigger the Windows networking troubleshooter when I'm having Internet connectivity problems. I have a friend who I'm pretty sure uses a couple of old sites that run in IE only, however, so I know there is a call for it.)

Thanks again to all responders -- I appreciate all the helpful clarifications and tips.

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by Splat » 2018-10-11, 20:48

Please forgive the necropost. I just found this extension and so far, so good. It does exactly what I wanted. The only thing I wish it could do is close the PM tab/window after opening the link in whatever browser you wanted it to go to or leave the PM tab/window open. This would be decided by user definable option, or maybe have both options available via right-click context menu. Any way this can be implemented? Thank you!

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by back2themoon » 2019-01-26, 15:38

I'll add that Open With 6.8.6 (by Geoff Lankow) has been giving me problems lately: about 4 out of 10 times, it won't pass the link to Firefox. Browser opens but no page loaded. (edit: looks like there's a recent 6.9 version, wonder if that works or is even PM compatible)

Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More seems to work fine and I like how you can separately configure buttons and context menu.

update: problem seems to occur with "Open With Edge..." too.

JustOff

Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by JustOff » 2019-01-26, 17:45

back2themoon wrote:I'll add that Open With 6.8.6 (by Geoff Lankow) has been giving me problems lately
I use 6.8.1 (there was just no reason to upgrade) daily without any problems :roll:

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by back2themoon » 2019-01-26, 21:17

6.8.6 also worked fine for a long time, this is a recent thing. Perhaps something else is interfering or it's triggered by a recent PM (or even FF) update. I'll try 6.8.1.

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Re: Open With Edge, IE, Chrome, and More

Unread post by back2themoon » 2019-01-28, 09:02

About Open With Edge, IE etc. described in this thread: are the changing icons a known problem? I tried changing the Vivaldi and Chrome options to Firefox and another program. It seems to work, but often it will revert back to the defaults.

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