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May well be, just as another possibility, a pref not visible in about:config doesn't necessarily mean its default value isn't active anyway - just hidden from users yet deeper. Like all the "permissions.default.xxxx" prefs except "image" (others are subdocument, script, xmlhttprequest, stylesheet, media, object, etc. Values if visible are 1/2/3, but with "invisible" working like 1 too) About a mysterious hidden place with lingering cached effects from addons, some candidates: in the far past it was definitely xul.mfl in profiles (perhaps along with another *.mfl), and later the startupCache folder in profiles, and thought I had once discovered similar cached stuff in "Local Settings" folder but then couldn't reproduce it anymore, and also not sure anymore which version and how. Perhaps because my profiles are usually portable.

Feel free to donate me something as a sign of appreciation for the UOC Patch and the Enforcer. Click on the "Donate" button to donate with PayPal: *UPDATE!* The UOC Patch has been successfully ported to the Quantum Generation! Experience a quantum leap in performance with the new QUOC Patch, (pronounced Quawk) based on the tried-and-true public N2M release of the classic UOC Patch. The QUOC is aimed exclusively to Firefox Quantum-based browsers, so every browser newer than 52 ESR. I haven't tested it on older versions and so, it might not be compatible with non-Quantum based browsers. The QUOC Patch uses the 45 ESR version of the UOC Enforcer. A new version of the UOC Patch is currently in development, but I cannot give exact release dates. Users of the SeaMonkey browser, especially version 2.48, can use the 45 ESR version of the Patch. I recommend you to start with a new and clean profile, in order to get the most out of your patched browser: old and "dirty" profiles might hamper the performance of this new version of the UOC Patch. QUOC Patch ADDENDUM: There are two keys in the QUOC Patch file that have been commented out. These are: privacy.firstparty.isolate and privacy.trackingprotection.enabled If you remove the // and the comments, enabling those keys, you will increase the privacy protection in your browser at the expense of some sites not working correctly or some others not displaying thumbnails, such as https://www.geo-ship.com . I have left them disabled in the patch, but you're free to tweak the file and enable them, if you wish. If you use Telegram Web with the QUOC Patch and you experience videos and GIFs not loading, simply set this key dom.caches.enabled to true. The UOC Enforcer is required in order to fully enjoy the optimizations introduced by the new version. So, do not forget to install both the UOC Patch and the Enforcer! An explanation on how to install the UOC Enforcer is written below, right in this post. Build number is N2M. A brief introduction Hi everybody, I'm writing this thread because I would like to share with you an experiment I made as a result of two years of using an old, single core system (an overclocked Pentium III-S Tualatin 1.4GHz) with the modern web. As you all know, the most versatile and useful web browser to use for old machines, especially XP ones, is Mozilla Firefox, thanks to its customizability, the numerous forks that it spawned and the built in certificates manager that makes things easier if we want to connect old computers to the internet. This thread focuses specifically on @roytam1's browsers for XP, such as New Moon 27 SSE and Firefox 45 ESR SSE, because they are the ones I use on my Pentium III system and the ones I used as a base to develop my "patch". We know that old computers, especially if single core or SSE only systems, can struggle a bit with the stock versions of these browsers, because they are quite resource intensive, and so the experience is quite limited unless you have an hardware that is capable enough to run the browser comfortably. So, a year ago, back when my Tualatin was still a 800Mhz Coppermine system, I started delving into the about:config of Pale Moon first, and New Moon later, in order to reduce as much CPU and RAM consumption as possible. Had to do several trials and errors, but in the end, I finally managed to get improvements in responsiveness and overall speed on the browser and so, after six revisions, I officially want to release the UOC Patch, my personal attempt, inspired by the community and by my experience of using an old computer as a daily driver, at making web browsing with Firefox and derivatives a much more enjoyable experience. Ok ok, good. So what's the UOC Patch? The UOC Patch (shortened form of Ultra One Core Patch, pronounced "Wok" in its shortened form) is a custom Global Preferences file available for any Mozilla based browser that uses the codebase of Firefox 38 ESR (such as Pale Moon and Roytam1's New Moon) or Firefox 45 ESR (i.e. Firefox 45 ESR SSE always by Roytam1), that is aimed at optimizing the browser to run on old machines and to consume less resources. Bear in mind that I developed the UOC Patch for my machine, which used to be a 800Mhz Coppermine and now is an overclocked 1.4GHz Tualatin, so it might perform differently on yours, but it should bring some improvement in terms of speed. The UOC Patch is a Defaults Override file, meaning that it goes in the following directory "C:\Program Files\{Your Mozilla based browser}\Defaults\Pref\". As soon as you put the patch into the "Pref" folder, the default about:config parameters will be replaced by the ones of the patch, unless you have modified the same parameters. If so, you can switch to the UOC Patch parameters by simply resetting them in the about:config. The UOC Patch is not compatible with Firefox Quantum. Use the new QUOC Patch if you have a Firefox Quantum or a third-party browser based on its codebase. The requirements? Surely it has them. Well, yeah. The UOC Patch requires at least a DirectX 9.0c capable graphics card. Even though it will work on a DirectX 8 card, I don't have one I can use to test it so it's pretty much untested. I tested the patch with a Geforce FX5500, an FX5600, a 6800GT and an ATI Radeon HD3850 and my current graphics card, an X1950 Pro, and the patch speeds up the browser as it should. Then, ideally, the CPU. A 800MHz CPU and higher can give you a better experience, again, I don't know how it does perform on a slower CPU. RAM wise, any system that can run New Moon 27 and derivatives or Firefox 45 ESR SSE will support the UOC Patch without issues. So, to recap, you need: A DirectX 9.0c capable graphics card with at least a 128 bit buss A 800MHz CPU or faster for better performance Enough RAM to support New Moon 27/Firefox 45 ESR SSE and other Roytam1's Mozilla based browsers Ok now that we know the specs, how to install it? Installing the UOC Patch is a very easy process. Just go in your browser folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox or Pale Moon or any other Mozilla based browser you use), then go in the "Defaults" then the "Pref" folder and extract the UOC_Patch38.js or UOC_Patch45.js you will find in their respective archive in the above folder and start the browser. The UOC Patch will be automatically applied alongside your existing preferences. But as a safety measure, do make a backup of your prefs.js file inside your profile folder, before launching the patched browser. In order to access your profile folder, you must make sure that the hidden folders are visible (if not, you must go in the Control Panel, then choose Folder Options, and tick the box that says "Show Hidden Folders"), then navigate to your Firefox/New Moon/Mozilla browser profile folder (i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\{Your Username}\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Your Profile Folder}), you will find a file called "prefs.js". Make a copy of the file and rename it to "prefs.bak" to back it up. For K-Meleon users, check out Mathwiz's post below: What about the Macintosh? Installing the patch on the Macintosh is as simple as doing it on Windows. You just unzip the patch and put the UOC_Patch_Mac.js file into the following folder: Applications\[Browser folder]\Contents\Resources\Defaults\Pref The UOC Enforcer for 38 ESR browsers is the version that must be used with the Macintosh one. You can install the Enforcer on the Macintosh by putting the user.js file in the following directory: Macintosh HDD\Users\[Username]\Library\Application Support\[Browser Name]\Profiles\[Profile Name]\ In this way, you will have the UOC Patch for Macintosh and the Enforcer (38 ESR version) up and running on your Macintosh system as well. Enough with the words! I want to download it! Okay, okay. There you go. These are the download links for the UOC Patch. Remember, you must not absolutely use the UOC Patch for a particular codebase with a browser that uses a different one. You might experience issues. These two versions are conceived for the Firefox 38 ESR and 45 ESR codebases, so any fork of Firefox that uses those codebases, will work with their respective version of the patch. The new QUOC Patch, on the other hand, is conceived for Firefox Quantum and all the other browsers that use its codebase, including the latest version of Firefox itself, so, it's meant for those old and low-spec machines that can (poorly) run stock Firefox Quantum and forks. Choose carefully. QUOC Patch for Firefox Quantum based browsers (i.e. the latest version): Click Here QUOC Patch GL for OpenGL systems (i.e. Linux, Macintosh): Click Here UOC Patch for Firefox 38 ESR based browsers (i.e. New Moon 27, K-Meleon Goanna): Click Here UOC Patch for 38 ESR-based Macintosh and Linux browsers (i.e. Arctic Fox, Iceweasel 38): Click Here UOC Patch for Firefox 45 ESR based browsers (not compatible with Quantum): Click Here UOC Patch for Firefox 52 ESR* based browsers and upwards (not compatible with Quantum): Click Here PowerUOC Patch for TenFourFox: Click Here Introducing the UOC Enforcer UPDATE: The UOC Enforcer is now required if you want to enjoy the full optimizations for your old machine. The UOC Enforcer is a custom "user.js" file that acts as an add-on for the UOC Patch and must be placed into the browser's profile folder and tells the browser to change the "stubborn" entries in the about:config that are hardcoded by the developer, making the UOC Patch work even better. In order to install the UOC Enforcer, you must put the user.js file into your Firefox/New Moon/Pale Moon/Sea Monkey profile folder, that you can usually find at C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\{Your Browser}\{Browser Name}\{Profile Folder} on XP and at C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Roaming\{Your Browser}\{Browser Name}\{Profile Folder} on Vista and above. You must remember though that the UOC Enforcer doesn't let you change the edits from the about:config, so if you want to change a "stubborn" entry, you must edit the user.js file directly in your profile folder (you can do it with Notepad). UOC Enforcer for Firefox 38 ESR based browsers (i.e. New Moon 27, K-Meleon Goanna): Click Here UOC Enforcer for Firefox 45 ESR and 52 ESR based browsers and upwards (i.e. Firefox 45 ESR SSE, SeaMonkey, Basilisk/Serpent and upwards. QUOC Patch compatible): Click Here A Final Note Please, by all means, test the patch on as many systems as possible! The more the configurations, the better will be. Due to space constraints and lack of money, I don't have access to different systems I can test the patch with, and my Tualatin is the computer I used as a testbed for its development and so, I made it focusing on the hardware I had and currently have. The UOC Patch is not strictly limited to single core systems, but it can be used on any old and slow computer that runs Roytam1's Mozilla forks, it would be interesting to see if it can bring some benefits even on faster systems, or even slower ones: I don't have a Pentium II or an AMD/Intel Socket 7 system to test the patch with, otherwise I would have tried it on those too. There are some extensions I heartedly recommend to use alongside the UOC Patch to make the experience much better. These are: NoScript (I recommend v2.6.9.32 or v2.6.9.27 for New Moon, and v2.9.0.9 for Firefox 45 ESR SSE) Decentraleyes 1.4.2 Bluhell Firewall 2.5.3 UAControl 0.1.3.1.1 (To change the user agent on the fly, per website) uBlock Origin 1.10.0 And this one is optional, Youtube 2 Player, a nifty plugin that turns Youtube links into redirects to VLC, so whenever you click on a Youtube link, the video will be loaded automatically in VLC, thus saving resources and CPU cycles. Okay, that's all folks. Now if you want to throw rocks or tomatoes or veggies at me, feel free to do so. I developed this in my free time with a desire of curiosity and experimentation, to see if I can push my old machine to its extreme limit, and so far, at least personally, I'm quite satisfied. But as always, it's up to you to judge whether the UOC Patch is actually useful for your system, or it's an utter piece of garbage. Be aware I'm not responsible of any pandemy, nuclear warfare, space/time continuum and so on caused by your system. I upload the UOC Patch for experimental purposes, and it's provided AS IS. Happy RDD'ing! *: I do not recommend people to use Firefox 52 ESR based browsers (Serpent/Basilisk/Pale Moon 28/New Moon 28) on old computers, because the Mozilla developers have broken tiled compositing and nobody has ever bothered to fix that issue. So, if you want better performance with the UOC Patch, use Firefox 45 ESR SSE (which I recommend), New Moon 27, SeaMonkey (with the 52 ESR version of the UOC Patch) or K-Meleon Goanna. Particularly, I recommend Firefox 45 ESR SSE because it has fully working implementations of tiled compositing and APZ. the latter broken on Goanna based browsers. SeaMonkey uses the 52 ESR version of the UOC Patch due to a broken implementation of APZ.

OK, not XP, but POSReady 2009 still going strong in my local Marks and Spencer store today, obviously oblivious to its imminent demise!

A question about the future of Pale Moon came up over at the PM forum ( Pale Moon topic ) : Here's Matt Tobin's reply: "There is a partly declared alliance now and none of us have any intention of stopping any time soon because there just wouldn't be anything left if we did... now more than ever we have to work together to preserve our past and build our future based upon the foundation we inherited."

I just "refreshed" my memory by doing some tests with Release Firefox v53.0.3 32-bit (patched the executable so it would launch under Vista) and it turns out things are a bit different to how I remembered them in the Nightly 52.0a1 branch: 1. By default, Fx 53.0.3 does not ship with the "plugin.load_flash_only" hidden pref; instead I find the following ones: plugins.flashBlock.enabled;false plugins.navigator_hide_disabled_flash;false 2. Default "pluginreg.dat" file has version string "0.18t"; of the NPAPI plugins, only Flash is enabled by default (the rest are marked as [INVALID]). 3. In "about:config" I create a boolean pref named "plugin.load_flash_only" with value "false". I restart the browser! 4. New "pluginreg.dat" file is generated, with version string "0.18f"; all available NPAPI plugins are enabled; I did not have to delete previous version of the file (?). So, it seems at some point the Mozilla devs lifted the restriction that made the deletion of previous "pluginreg.dat" file mandatory in order to restore full NPAPI support in nightly-52.0a1... As to what it actually was that prohibited @Mathwiz's Serpent55 copy from detecting all available NPAPI plugins in his system, I am still questioning myself; one thing is sure: if you start transplanting existing profiles into other Mozilla forks, things are bound to break; Serpent 52.9.0 != FirefoxESR 52.9.x and, to a greater extent, New Moon 28.5.0a1 != FirefoxESR 52.9.x or even New Moon 28.5.0a1 != Serpent 52.9.0 ! (despite sharing the same platform). Likewise, Serpent 52.9.0 != Serpent 55 and Serpent 55 != FirefoxESR 52.9.x People changing browsers should always start with new, clean profiles, then selectively migrating parts from their previous profiles (bookmarks, passwords, etc) - extensions should be transferred with extra caution; what worked in one browser (e.g. FxESR 52) might not in the new one (e.g. St55); this is the cumbersome/tiresome way, but the safest way!

Well, the past few days have certainly been an adventure for me. It all started with @DanR20's post that made me aware of a FF/NM/Serpent feature - container tabs - but only because the PM team had removed it! The concept sounded useful, so I activated it (in the pre-removal version of Serpent/UXP), played with it a bit, and found it was indeed useful but needed some improvement - which led me to the FF add-on that not only activated the same feature but improved on it, only to discover that the add-on didn't work at all in FF 52 ESR or Serpent/UXP - but did work in Serpent/Moebius. But I didn't want to switch to Moebius, because I couldn't get plug-ins to work - only to learn there's a workaround for that too! (Whew!) So now I'm trying out Moebius, and only ran into a few minor snags so far: Moebius doesn't seem to respect the app.releaseNotesURL pref, so the "What's new" link in the Help / About Serpent dialog is going to the Basilisk release notes page again (I had pointed it to http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/search/label/browser). I had trouble with one legacy add-on: Enhanced Extended Statusbar. Serpent/UXP had updated it to v2.1 and all was well, but Serpent/Moebius kept losing the enhanced status bar with that version! I downgraded to Enhanced Statusbar v2.0.5, and it's working fine in Moebius now. Edit: Instagram videos need the same userStyles.css fix as FF 52.9 (the CSS fixes made to the UXP browsers last July never made it into Serpent/Moebius because the PM team had already abandoned development of the Moebius platform). Edit: The Tab Mix Plus add-on seems to cause issues with Moebius; in particular, the browser customization page is completely blank. So far, pretty minor stuff. I expect I'll find more minor glitches like those, but as long as nothing more serious crops up, I'll probably stick with Moebius for a while. At least I won't have to worry about updating it as often as UXP

Beta/Release Candidate builds are routinely purged from the GitHub repo... If you want to install the WE flavour of uBlock Origin in latest Serpent55/moebius, then the latest available beta build (1.18.17b1 at this time of writing) is compatible with it; click the .XPI download link, allow "github.com" to install addons and you're good to go... However, to save anyone unnecessary trouble, recent uB0 versions have lost compatibility with FxESR 52+Serpent 52/UXP browsers (cosmetic filtering is broken, possibly other aspects of the extension), because the author has started using APIs present only in Firefox 53+ (despite the addon claiming it needs Fx 55.0 or higher); so, even if you force-install the addon in St52 (by modifying "strict_min_version" to "52.0"), it will underperform... There is a somewhat convoluted manual fix, which involves substituting .js files with their versions found in previous, compatible, uB0 versions, but that might be posted at a later time I find convenient; if you're on St52, you had better switch to uB0 legacy (currently at v1.16.4.10) ...

When I first read the report by DanR20, I thought it was due to Serpent 52's WE APIs limitations (being somewhat inferior to the stock set of WE APIs found in FxESR 52); but then you went on to post: I did that test myself only to, of course, confirm your findings... But then I wondered... WTH would AMO label v4.0.1-4.0.2 as being Fx 52 compatible (51.0a1 to 56.*) when in reality, when installed, they don't work at all? Come @DanR20: So it was a Mozilla c*ck-up after all ... Sanity restored...

Currently running Roy's moebius build from last Saturday and all four of my webextensions are disabled, with no option to enable. Is there a setting in about:config I'm missing? This supports the container tabs extension so it would make a good backup when I need it. Edit: ok reinstalled them and now they're back, so that's good news. I'm actually using this version on W2k at the moment and it handles nicely.

I'll rephrase and expand that to: Since the moebius platform was initially forked from a Mozilla 53.0a1 platform snapshot, it comes with more Web Extension APIs than the Mozilla ESR 52.6.0 platform snapshot that UXP was forked from; so Serpent 55 supports more WEs than Serpent 52; FWIW, both browsers support a smaller subset of WE APIs than their Mozilla counterparts (Firefox 53.0 and FirefoxESR 52.9.x, respectively...); so while a WE may say it's Fx 52 compatible on AMO, it may not install (or perform poorly/if at all when it installs) in St52, while at the same time it installs and works OK in St55; in a similar vein, not all Fx 53 compatible WEs on AMO install and work as expected in St55 (e.g. latest Stylus 1.5.3 works OK in Firefox 53+, but is half-broken in Serpent 55; you need revert to Stylus 1.4.23 instead...). ... I've seen you post this previously and I let it go by, but for clarity's sake it simply isn't true: NPAPI Flash player plugin is still supported in Quantum (although not for long), so it'd have been odd if it weren't supported in a 53.0a1(+minor parts of 54.0+55.0) fork... As for the rest of the NPAPI ecosystem, I'd say St55's support is on par with FxESR52/St52; just make sure the following hidden pref defaults to false: plugin.load_flash_only;false If it's set to true (it's possible if you transferred a previous Firefox profile and did not create a fresh one), then toggle it and exit Serpent 55; locate its profile directory and delete file "pluginreg.dat" inside it. Restart St55 and it'll scan and discover all available NPAPI plugins...

@DanR20 is about right. Moebius was forked from an alpha build of FF 53. Later on many changes were backported from FF 54 and 55; hence its identification as Basilisk version 55. (Serpent is just the name for unofficial builds of Basilisk, including @roytam1's XP builds.) Unfortunately the PaleMoon team ran into problems with Moebius and was forced to start over with FF 52 ESR; that became Basilisk/UXP. (And again, @roytam1's XP build is Serpent/UXP.) UXP's identification is version 52.9 (although the latest versions pose as Firefox 60.9 in compatibility mode). Main differences between the two that I've noticed are: Moebius supports more / newer add-ons; however, it does not support most plug-ins (Java, Silverlight, Flash). Edit: if you have trouble with plug-ins see @VistaLover's post below for the fix. Moebius still relies on Firefox sites for add-ons, sync, etc. UXP uses PaleMoon's sync and Basilisk's new add-ons page. Both browsers get updates from @roytam1, but UXP also gets updates from the PaleMoon team. Therefore UXP is updated weekly, while Moebius is updated less often and less regularly. Both browsers are reasonably secure but UXP is probably a bit more secure, due to the current attention from the PM team and the greater frequency of updates. Also, over time I expect Moebius will have more compatibility issues with newer Web sites (e.g., GitHub, Instagram), although it's fine for now.

@Ruan, my understanding, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong is that Serpent/moebius is based on a newer version of firefox, 55 or 56 while uxp is 52esr. I can't use moebius since they ripped out webextensions. Roy restored that feature in uxp and it works good so I'm staying with it.

Yes absolutely (just rename inside user_pref to pref) but important to understand: - prefs.js (and user.js) are USER values, stuff inside always has priority over default values - but prefs.js only contains prefs that are NOT default (or would contain 2000 lines) - after changing default values by adding this file, if prefs.js did already contain the same setting (user set), it will now be considered 'default' and the line vanish inside prefs.js Very easy and safe to test: if you make a backup of prefs.js Then just add your new defaults file in preferences folder and restart. For testing, it could contain anything, your real contents, and/or for example: pref("permissions.default.subdocument", 1); pref("permissions.default.subdocument__INFO", "INFO: 1=load all iframes / 2=block iframes / 3=same domain"); (that pref and siblings are global default values, working natively, but probably conflicting with certain addons for the same stuff) PS: I'm not a programmer either, far from it (except KM macros), just also a user who loves customizing ;-) And find this basic pref knowledge far too unknown, which is a major pity. Heard of that stuff myself far too late, only after years of having missed especially startup prefs - while it would have been so easy since decades already. Just didn't know until some day stumbling about it accidentally, sigh. And not sure if you're interested, perhaps for comparing notes, but actually such projects (optimized pref collections) are posted from time to time in various forums, or blogs like ghacks.Everyone has a slightly different approach, most focussing on speed, or privacy, and guess yours adds a new twist - old machines.

Was the message something like "Windows Product Activation can't check the activation status of winlogon.exe" after attempting to logon? I've gotten that after messing around with the OS identifier of NT 5.2 x86 VLK (Server to Professional). Perhaps applying fcwin2k to winlogon.exe would have caused this. I don't think Yandex could affect WPA in any way. if so, you can still access Windows in safe mode, where you can delete all the associations made by fcwin2k. If not, a backup of the registry that dates back to before using fcwin2k should fix it. P.S. this method should also work on Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64). This program must be one of many that block NT 5.2 (or Server 2003 specifically).

An excellent post by Matt Tobin over on the PM forum : https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21772

Strange that the extension didn't work for you, but as you say you don't actually need it anyway unless you want to switch between locales regularly.