How can I run Thunderbird from a USB drive?

**Kingfisher** · 03-11-2009

Hi,

I've found other forums, talking about firefox / thunderbird on a usb device. But those requires to modify some environment variables with batch files, which isnt really nice. Is it possible to run Thunderbird from a USB drive? But how do I do so ??

**Una** · 03-11-2009

The simpler way to do this is with Portable Thunderbird in windows, an official build that has been repackaged Thunderbird "as a complete email client removable drive-friendly". One of its main features is a special pitcher for portable Thunderbird extensions. To install, all you need do is download and unzip the ZIP file anywhere on your USB drive.

Portable Thunderbird can upgrade by installing a new version over the older. This will not destroy any of your data (your profile) since its stored in a separate directory.

**Mac-Imagery** · 03-11-2009

Even without Portable Thunderbird is quite easy to run Thunderbird from a portable USB drive. The key is to launch Thunderbird using the profile "path" command line argument, where "path" is the location of the profile you want to use. The path should be in quotes if it includes spaces. For example, in Windows if Thunderbird program is installed on drive F in a folder called "Mozilla Thunderbird" and his profile is in a folder called "My profile of TB, you can use this syntax:

Code:

"F:\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -profile "F:\My TB profile"

**Barclay** · 03-11-2009

Download Portable Thunderbird is a free open source application portable email client that lets you take all your emails and contacts stored with you wherever you go. You can run from a USB pen drive or other removable media. Portable Thunderbird is based on Mozilla Thunderbird and allows a great email solution for anyone

**Mac-Imagery** · 03-11-2009

If you have configured Thunderbird to store messages on a USB drive, make sure you compact folders periodically. Otherwise, you may find that their e-mail files on the USB device, are being packed with deleted messages that have not actually been deleted from the email archives. Compacting folders keep the size of their mail files to a minimum.