Strategies for browser files on RAMDisk

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by doveman, Aug 13, 2013.

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  1. doveman

    doveman Registered Member

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    I've started using my browsers (IE, Iron, Opera) through Sandboxie, with the Sandbox folder on my RAMDisk.

    This has the advantage of making it quicker as it's reading/writing files to the RAMDisk instead of the HDD and I can also just set it to quickly delete the Sandbox with RMDir when I close the browser, rather than needing to wipe it with Eraser as I would if it was on the HDD.

    The tricky bit is trying to get it so I can still preserve my bookmarks and open tabs when I close it. With IE I can set Direct Access in Sandboxie to my Favourites folder, so any bookmarks I add are preserved but with Iron and Opera it's a bit more difficult, as the bookmarks and open tabs are stored in a file in the Profile folder and if I set Direct Access to that, it will be using the HDD for most of the files (cache, cookies, etc) which rather defeats the purpose.

    For Iron, I think I might be able to get away with setting Sandboxie to give Direct Access to specific files in the Profile folder, namely Bookmarks, Current Tabs, Last Tabs and History but I really need someone who knows more about what the individual files are for to advise me here.

    For Opera, perhaps it will be sufficient to give Direct Access to bookmarks.adr and the sessions subfolder but again, it would be better to have some advice from someone who knows a bit more about what all the many files in the profiles folder and it's subfolders are used for.

    One possible difficulty with IE is that I believe it creates a temporary file in the Temporary Internet Files folder for any downloads before moving them to the actual downloads folder, so this might cause problems if trying to download large files and there's not sufficient space on the RAMDisk (1GB) for them. I could give Direct Access to this folder but then most of the temporary browsing files will be writing to and reading from the HDD, rather defeating the point of running from RAMDisk. Iron and Opera don't have this problem as they just create the file directly in the Downloads folder, so I can give Direct Access to that so that they can write any files I'm downloading straight to the HDD.
     
  2. majoMo

    majoMo Registered Member

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    From same reason than you, I use the Sandbox folder on my RamDisk (245 MB).

    For Opera (v. 12, x-64 version) [using it yet, until move to Maxthon once for all...]:
    • Direct Acess:
    %AppData%\Opera\
    %Local AppData%\Opera\Opera x64\widgets\
    %Local AppData%\Opera\Opera x64\thumbnails\
    %Local AppData%\Opera\Opera x64\icons\
    P.S.: The main Cache Files are in "%Local AppData%"; thus profile files remains in "%AppData%".

    You don't need to "give Direct Access to" that folder at all.
    If you use the "Download" folder you can do Full Acess to it (never had annoyances like "there's not sufficient space on the RAMDisk"; like you saw before I use 245 MB only). [IE uses TempIntFiles folder in fact but...: it creates a 'partial' file in your customized 'Download' Folder that solves the apparent problem].
     
  3. doveman

    doveman Registered Member

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    Thanks majoMo, that's useful although I should have mentioned I use Opera Portable (and Iron Portable), so it's not using %AppData% or %Local AppData%.

    Interested to know why you allow it to write to widgets, thumbnails and icons on the HDD?

    Maybe something's changed with IE10, as I've certainly run into problems with large downloads when I last tried putting the IE temp files on a RAMDisk (was quite a while ago though).
     
  4. majoMo

    majoMo Registered Member

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    > "I use Opera Portable"
    Maybe you can search where are items like widgets, thumbnails and icons and to customize for your particular setup.

    > "why you allow it to write to ( ... ) "
    . widgets - since extensions are set there (I want e.g. to have them updated);
    . thumbnails - icons in Speed Dial; so they stay always there (I delete them sometimes when doing a cleaning with a customized entry in Winapp2.ini file from CCleaner; some with cookies, etc.).
    . icons - Bookmarks icons stay there always (not only when user uses the link).

    > You need to set downloads to e.g. 'Download" folder and setting Full acess to it; if not the annoyance can arise.
     
  5. doveman

    doveman Registered Member

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    Yeah, Downloads is covered as I set all browsers to D:\Downloads and give Direct Access to that in Sandboxie.

    I can see why you'd want to give access for those folders you listed now, thanks for the info.
     
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