The following allows macOS users to run two different Vivaldi's alongside each other (e.g. stable and snapshot), with their prefences/settings stored seperately. This is also handy if you want to do an initial test of a snapshot in a self contained manor, without touching your main prefences/settings.
It works by causing launch Vivaldi in such a way that it stores its prefences/settings in a directory next it (called "Vivaldi Data"), rather than using the default prefences/settings directory ("~/Library/Application Support/Vivaldi").
- Open the
Automator.app(part of macOS) and create a new "Service" - Change "Service receives" to: "files or folders" in "Finder"
- Drag "Get Selected Finder Items" (found under "Files & Folders") into the actions area
- Drag "Run Shell Script" (found under "Utilities") into the actions area below "Get Selected Finder Items" and set "Pass input" to "as arguments"
- Replace the example code with the following:
case "$1" in
*Vivaldi.app) open -a "$1" --args --user-data-dir="${1%/*}/Vivaldi Data" ;;
esac
- Save the Service workflow with an appropriate name, e.g. "Launch Vivaldi Standalone"
- Open "System preferences → Keyboard settings → Shortcuts → Services"
- Find your new Service (under "Files and Folders") and assign it an appropriate shortcut (e.g.
⌘S)
You will need to do the following every time you wish to launch a copy of "Vivaldi.app" in Standalone Mode.
- Click on
Vivaldi.apponce to select it - Issue the keyboard shortcut or select the service from the services menu
- Autoupdate does not work well when Vivaldi is run in this way (on "Upgrade and Restart", your main prefences/settings will get used)—when you receive the upgrade notification, go to vivaldi.com (or vivaldi.net for snapshots) and download the new version, extract it from the dmg, shut down Vivaldi and then overwite the old version locally.
If you want to be able to start other Chromium based browsers in this way, adjust the code above as follows: