If you work on a restricted access PC, such as at the office, where you are unable to install software on your own volition you may already be aware of the website PortableApps.com. PortableApps is a software repository for applications that typically require administrative level access to install but instead can be setup and executed directly onto a USB thumb drive instead of the local PC. The collection of software is vast including the popular browser Firefox – which is the exact setup I leverage.

One of the immediate problems with keeping a portable install of Firefox on a thumb drive is the lack of plugin support available within the browser. Simply, things like Adobe Flash refuse to install within the portable environment. For some, it may not matter, but for me, it does tend to become problematic.

The solution is actually rather simple but not the most obvious by any means.

Download flashplayer-win.xpi directly from the Adobe website. It’s important to note that if you simply follow the link from within Firefox Portable it will try and auto-install before failing. Instead, you should right-click on the link and choose Save Link As.

An xpi file is just package bundle that Firefox uses for it’s installer but it’s actually possible to extract the contents of the file using your native .zip tools – for example WinZip or 7zip. You may find it easier to just rename the file extension from .xpi to .zip.

With the xpi unpacked, locate the two files flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll. Move these two files into the Data->Plugins folder inside your Firefox Portable install.

Restart Firefox Portable to have it load the newly installed plugins.

One thing that is extremely important to mention – this manner of installation means that Flash will not be updated automatically as security vulnerabilities are discovered and patched. Instead, the process above needs repeated with every update.