Apps :: How do I make a "custom" tar.gz app load



I have firefox 2.0.0.4 unzipped in my home directory, and it runs quite nice.  I had an idea to make a tar.gz out of the directory and have it unzip into my home, so that I can delete the directory and save some time with save/load of my backup file.  

I did this but am "moderately clueless" so this might be all wrong:I created a directory in my home called /home/dsl/Programs/firefox (with all associated directories).

and then made a tar.gz archive using ark (if I need to do this from shell doing something - that might be the issue) called firefox2 and added the /home/dsl/Programs/firefox/...  Zipped up and looks nice, but  when loaded (after renaming my working firefox 2.0.0.4 directory): everything goes off the screen and nothing works.  I tried to do this in shell and a bunch of stuff ran by in terminal for a while and then I was dropped into root.

I am sure this is an easy thing to do, so what do I need to do to create a loadable tar.gz from an otherwise working program directory?
What do you mean by loadable?  How did you "load" your compressed file?
If you mean making a mydsl extension: search the wiki on "extension"

The easiest way, however, is just to backup/restore /home/dsl/Programs/firefox

original here.