Q. How do I use Zotero on a lab computer? How do I use Zotero on a public access computer?

You can use a version of Zotero that runs on something called "portable apps". This allows you to download and run a Firefox browser with Zotero. After logging off all of your personal data will be purged from the system. This keeps your data safe, but it also means that you have to synchronize your account before logging off of your computer, otherwise any unsaved data will be lost. 

To set up and run Zotero on a lab computer at Western (and possibly other computers as well) do the following:

1. Download the portable Firefox with Zotero here.
2. Open the file. You should be able to find it in the downloads folder titles zotero.exe.
3. Open FirefoxPortable.exe 
4. You will asked what file directory you will want to use for Zotero. Choose Firefox. After doing that you will have to close Firefox Portable and open it again.
5. Open Zotero in Firefox by clicking on the Z by the browser bar . You should not see any files there other than the Zotero introduction.
6. Set up your account synchronization (if you have not done that before follow these steps). This will save your data to the cloud. If you do not have a Zotero account set one up now or you might lose citations and files you collect.