Making Thunderbird 3 Beta 1 Portable

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As you all may know, Thunderbird released first Beta of their upcoming version 3. I have been using Portable version of Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 for a while and am very happy with it. So the first thing I checked was whether portable version was available. Obviously, it was too early, so I decided to try on my own.

It is in order to mention that I have also been using the nightly builds of FF3.1 Shiretoko for a while as well. Partial credit for the following hack goes to this Lifehacker article. So without further delay, here is what you can do if you want to try latest Thunderbird without disturbing your existing TB version.

1. Download the latest version here
2. Exit from your current instance of Thunderbird 2
3. Install it like any other Application
4. Do not let the installer start Thunderbird automatically on the last screen.
5. Rename <driveletter>:PortableAppsThunderbird20017AppThunderbird to <driveletter>:PortableAppsThunderbird20017AppThunderbird2
6. Create a New Folder <driveletter>:PortableAppsThunderbird20017AppThunderbird
7. Copy the entire contents of <driveletter>:Program FilesMozilla Thunderbird 3 Beta 1 to <driveletter>:PortableAppsThunderbird20017AppThunderbird
8. Run <driveletter>:PortableAppsThunderbird20017ThunderbirdPortable.exe !!
9. All your accounts settings would be intact.

Note :  The extensions might not work.