Which one(s) should I choose, Firefox + Thunderbird or Mozilla Suite?

Jim,

I have an SLT folder in Firefox. It is because I have been using the same Profile from much, much, earlier versions of the browser. However, even though the Profile Name folder no longer ends in .SLT, technically, the file is still "salted ", as the first eight characters are "salted ", but the extension is the Profile Name, rather than "SLT ". Mea culpa! I have edited the Reply accordingly.

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,

I believe we had a discussion about this several months ago in another thread, about the time I moved my profile and simplified the path.

The eight "salted" characters that you refer to in the profile name are randomly generated as part of a default profile creation. If anyone knows what "salted" means, they're keeping it to themselves, as I haven't been able to find a definition. And, there seem to be two schools of thought about why the eight random characters ... one holds that they are there to provide security against hackers, the other that they are to differentiate multiple profiles.

It's quite easy, however, to create unsalted profiles in other than the default location, as we've discussed elsewhere. As it happens, I use a single profile: E:\Userfiles\Mozilla\Firefox, but I could just as easily add additional profiles called (for example) \Mozilla\Firefox\JSS, \Mozilla\Firefox\JSS3rd, or \Mozilla\Firefox\Jim.

Christer ...

Believe me when I say that it's a lot easier to do than it is to explain!

 

Mozilla FAQ

7.4. What is the @$%#@$%#.slt directory in my profile directory?

This is called salting. Profile data is stored in a randomly named directory to make it difficult for malicious programs to find profile data (see Bug 56002 - Make path to profile dir unpredictable and 97180).
--

Actually, the random 'salting' of the profile directory is intended to increase privacy and security, not reduce it. It essentially makes the location of profile files unpredictable, reducing the risk that a security flaw could allow an attacker to access user data. See Bug 56002 - Make path to profile dir unpredictable for
more details.

Alex Bishop
Administrator, MozillaZine.org
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http://gemal.dk/mozilla/profile.html
What is the [random string].slt all about?
As an extra security measure Mozilla adds a random string to the path of the profile. This makes it a bit harder for vira/etc to obtain the path of the profile. For more information see Bug 56002 - Make path to profile dir unpredictable.
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Netscape, Mozilla, Thunderbird, and Firebird|Firefox Profiles
All releases prior to Firefox 0.9 and Thunderbird 0.7

The Profile's directory name (xxxxxxxx.slt) is randomly generated as a further security measure; this process is called "salting ". From Profile Managers perspective the location of a Profile has three elements. The PATH on which it resides, its NAME, and its SALT (xxxxxxxx.slt). The corresponding windows pathname is \PATH\NAME\SALT. When you want to create a Profile using Profile Manager, it will use default PATH and NAME. If SALT does not exist, it will create it. When Mozilla is first installed, this behavior can not be modified! (On subsequent installations it will default to previously recorded Profiles.)

Once Mozilla has been installed, the behavior is quite different: you can select PATH and NAME. If SALT does not exist, Profile Manager will create it. However, if SALT does exist, Profile Manager will create a POINTER to it in Registry.dat. Registry.dat can not be moved from its default location; it's the "anchor point" for finding Profiles.

Irwin Greenwald
Mozilla Champion
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Thanks, Ramona!

What can I say? Lazy is as lazy does!

 

Christer,

More good infor for you, sort of after the fact though, if you have installed Firefox:

How to Manage Profiles

Backing up your profile

Backing up your profile folder in Firefox is easy. Just follow these steps (which assumes you know how to manage files on your computer):

1. Optional: Empty the browser cache, to reduce the amount of data to backup. Go to Tools > Options... (Edit > Preferences... on Linux/Mac), select Privacy and click the Clear button next to the Cache item in the list.
2. Shut down Firefox completely (File > Exit).
3. Make a copy of your profile folder to, for example, a CD-RW disc or a separate hard disk for backup purposes.


Move an existing profile or restore a backed up profile

It's possible to move the location of a profile folder. This could be useful if you have a backed up profile folder somewhere on your hard drive and want to tell Firefox to use that as your profile. This section explains how to do this.

1. Shut down Firefox completely (File > Exit).
2. Move the profile folder to the desired location. For example, on Windows, move the profile from C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default to D:\Stuff\MyProfile. If you are reading these instructions because you want to restore a previously backed up profile, this step isn't necessary. Just note the current location of the profile you want to restore.
3. Open up profiles.ini in a text editor. The file is located in the application data folder for Firefox:
* On Windows XP/2000, the path is %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
* On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\
* On Linux, the path is ~/.mozilla/firefox/
* On Mac OS X, the path is ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
4. In profiles.ini, locate the entry for the profile you've just moved. Change the Path= line to the new location.
5. Change IsRelative=1 to IsRelative=0.
6. Save profiles.ini and restart Firefox.

© 2002-2005 David Tenser.
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Ramona

 

Hi Christer ...

Learning by doing ... I'm proud of you, as most users seem to be afraid to experiment with alternate profile locations.

Like you, I was also bugged by the fact that C:\...\Application Data\Mozilla\ doesn't contain the folder for Thunderbird, as well as for Firefox. It's just not neat!

I don't know why the two registry.dat files are created, as they don't seem to serve any particular purpose. You can move or delete them and there's no apparent harm done. The only ones actually required are the two profiles.ini files and the pluginreg.dat file for FF. In fact, you can delete the latter file, and it will be recreated the next time you open FF.

Here's a little exercise for you, if you're interested ...

With Tbird closed, delete everything from the C:\...\Application Data\Thunderbird\ folder in Windows Explorer, but keep the Thunderbird folder open near the top of your screen. Now, open Thunderbird. The first thing you'll get is the Import Wizard, but the thing to note is that the profiles.ini and registry.dat files have been created, as well as a Profiles folder, with a xxxxxxxx.default profile folder inside. If you open profiles.ini in Notepad (or whatever text editor you use), you'll see that the path points to the new xxxxxxxx.default profile folder.

Back your way out (Cancel, Cancel, Exit), close the Thunderbird window, and delete all the folders/files in C:\...\Application Data\Thunderbird\.

Open Thunderbird's profile manager (for convenience, I keep shortcut icons to the two profile managers in the Internet section of my Start menu). Note that, as soon as you do, profiles.ini and registry.dat files are created, but no Profiles folder. If you open profiles.ini, no path is present.

Recreate your profile. The only file required is profiles.ini.​

You can perform the same exercise with Firefox, but that would be like beating a dead horse.

The whole point of this is to show you that you don't have to backup anything in C:\...\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox or ...\Application Data\Thunderbird, as long as the actual profile folders are located elsewhere. The profiles.ini files, which serve only to point to your profile folders, can easily be recreated with the profile managers. The profile folders should, of course, be backed up.

 

Christer ...

You can make it even easier than that. You don't have to install them (I keep zipped archives of TT/Tbird just for that purpose) and you don't have to back up the profiles.ini files.

To show you how simple it is, I just moved the FF folder on my laptop from its usual location at D:\Internet\Firefox (my installed programs are on D:\ and data on E:\) to a temporary location, deleted the Mozilla folder and its Firefox subfolder, from C:\...Application Data\, and deleted all references to Firefox from the registry.

Then, and this is why it's so easy, I simply moved the Firefox folder back to D:\Internet\ (same as unzipping to that location). Before opening Firefox, I ran its profile manager, re-establishing my normal profile. Voilà! I'm back in business.

Even without installation, the registry entries are restored, three or four by running the profile manager, the rest simply by opening FF and designating it as the default browser. Thunderbird would be handled exactly the same way.

In short, all you need to backup are your profiles and zipped FF/Tbird programs.

 

There are ... you just have to know where to look for them.

Firefox

Tbird​

Understand that these aren't official releases, but what are known as "nightlies ".

Remember, too, that if you have an installation you're happy with, you can just zip the program folder and keep it as your backup.

 

Christer,

Zip files for Thunderbird, and Firefox, which are official Releases, are available here:

Thunderbird 1.0
Firefox 1.0

Ramona

 

You understand correctly, no updates, and full versions.

It's a no sweat deal, Christer.
Uninstall Firefox, using Add/Remove, if you select the .exe file
OR
Delete the entire C:\Program Files\firefox folder, if you used the ZipFile.

Uninstalling has no effect whatsoever on the Profile.

Ramona

 

Ramona ...

You beat me to it.

Christer ...

Use zipped versions, if possible. Rename the Firefox folder to something like XFirefox, unzip to the parent folder, and proceed as usual. When you're satisfied that the new version is to your liking, delete the old, renamed folder.

If you're using an installer version, use Add/Remove, as Ramona suggested, then install the new version. Actually, you can use the same method I mentioned in the previous paragraph (rename, then install), and FF should work just fine. The downside is that you're likely to end up with several versions listed in Add/Remove. Been there, done that!

Your profile is never affected by an Add/Remove or a new installation.