Mozilla has not provided .zip versions for Releases since when the web browser we know as Firefox got to version 1.0.2 as all of the the previous Releases had .zip since Phoenix 0.1

Firefox jumped in popularity in use once the Release versions number got to 1.0. Yes the version 1.0 in Nov 2004 was not the first Firefox Release as many wrongly think.

When the 1.0.1 came out people thought in order to keep their settings (like Bookmarks, passwords, history, extensions etc) they had to put the new version over 1.0 folder contents even though their settings were in a separate Profile folder. This was fine if both versions 1.0 and 1.0.1 was setup or .zip. However many ended up mixing the .zip and setup versions over each other for the 1.0.1 Release so it caused bad crashes and as a result Mozilla discontinued .zip for Releases since.

Also a lot of people did not understand the basics of how to install and use the .zip version as this was a common question on the independent https://forums.mozillazine.org as Mozilla did not get their own https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/ support forum up and running well till oh later 2007.

Firefox for Windows started having setup .exe for Release at version 0.8 as 0.7 and earlier only had .zip.

.zip only https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firebird/releases/0.7/ .zip https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/0.8/ .zip https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/0.9/ .zip: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/1.0.1/ no .zip: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/1.0.2/win32/

I understand, and I DO know how to use the .zip files, but I know many won't. I currently have candidate 124 build 1 running absolutely beautifully, so I'm content with that. Thank you for your helpful response.

The .exe installer is still an archive which you can extract yourself with tools like 7-Zip. Just make sure it is the full installer and not the small stub installer which is just a downloader.

That is true as it is a self extracting 7-zip which is something some antivirus or scanners can have false positives on sometimes over the years, more so the small online stub installer.

The .exe installer is still an archive which you can extract yourself with tools like 7-Zip.

I had no idea that was the case. Thank you very much. I tested with the 123.0.1 .exe, and it worked perfectly. This brings my quest for a standalone (no-installation-required) Firefox to a successful close. From now on, I'll get the latest installer, extract the files with 7-Zip, and update my Firefox with no additional baggage. Thanks again. Dan