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Maybe it would be a good idea make backups also at http://archive.is/

Has anyone checked out these: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/913086/security-updates-are-available-on-iso-9660-dvd5-image-files-from-the-m They appear to only go back to 2006, and they include all kinds of superfluous updates for later versions, but it could be useful for something? c

Wanted to revisit this issue briefly, but only to point out that the above rigamarole isn't needed with @roytam1's builds of FF 45 ESR (for SSE-only CPUs); SSUAOs work right out of the box (or out of the .7z). Not certain if that's also true of "stock" FF 45 ESR, if roytam incorporated a fix at some point that re-enabled SSUAOs, or if they're only enabled in "Nightly" builds (roytam's builds are based on nightly builds; the Firefox button even reads "Nightly" vs. "Firefox"); but I suspect the latter. According to info gleaned from @Sampei.Nihira's link above, SSUAOs were disabled way back in FF 25 (!) for performance reasons, yet they work in FF 37 beta 4, but not in FF 54 (or 52.9, of course). So I suspect they're enabled in beta and nightly builds, but not in regular release or ESR builds since FF 25. (Info at the link above did hint that they were originally intended for testing.) SSUAOs work in all of roytam's browser builds; the code above is only needed to enable them in "stock" Firefox versions.

Very much like MSE 4.4.304.0 (manually) installed on Vista SP2, the native anti-spyware implementation, aka Windows Defender, ceased receiving definitions update via Windows Update itself sometime after the July 9th deadline; as posted here, the last def update (v1.297.531.0) I got through WU was on July 6th... Similarly, invoking a manual definitions update via the WD GUI: always results in So, currently, the ONLY way of updating WD def files on Vista SP2 is by manually downloading file mpas-fe.exe and then running it (probably "as administrator", but I wouldn't know differently, as I am already the unique admin of the machine!). The location for fetching the file is again https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/definitions but in WD's case, it's the "Windows Defender in Windows 7 and Windows Vista" entries... Have you noticed the "Windows Vista" mention? Unlike Windows XP, M$ have still kept file mpengine.dll (inside file mpas-fe.exe) Vista compatible, so they kinda "silently" have continued to support Vista even past its Extended Support EoS, so I was genuinely taken aback (and then miffed) they broke automatic updates for Vista's WD... I have Vista SP2 Home Premium x86 (without the very recent ".6003" WS2008 updates) and hovering over the win32 link I see the following URI: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121721&clcid=0x409&arch=x86&eng=0.0.0.0&avdelta=0.0.0.0&asdelta=0.0.0.0&prod=925A3ACA-C353-458A-AC8D-A7E5EB378092 What's really weird is that clicking that link (during the last 2 weeks or so) has not always fetched the version claimed to be the latest in the page; e.g. the page may announce v1.299.301.0 as available, but downloading from the win32 link may get me an older version on disk (usually 3-6 "units" older, e.g. 1.299.296.0 etc.). To mitigate this, I have found the link in article https://www.askvg.com/how-to-update-windows-defender-offline-install-latest-virus-definition-files-manually/ to be very reliable in faultlessly fetching the version advertised as the most current : https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=70631 Alternatively, I would manually construct https://definitionupdates.microsoft.com/download/DefinitionUpdates/VersionedSignatures/AM/1.xxx.xxx.0/x86/mpas-fe.exe getting the "1.xxx.xxx.0" string from the downloads page... @dencorso: Many thanks indeed for your .cmd file ; however, be advised you only considered the x86 flavour of the definitions update file; it won't do for MSE 64-bit, the preferred default on Vista x64 installations... I also took the liberty of mimicking it for my own purposes, creating a WDUPD_Vista.cmd variant: @echo off ::pushd %temp% if not exist mpas-fe.exe start /min /wait wget -O mpas-fe.exe http://definitionupdates.microsoft.com/download/DefinitionUpdates/x86/mpas-fe.exe if exist mpas-fe.exe start /min /wait mpas-fe.exe del mpas-fe.exe ::popd I commented out your second line, because that way one doesn't have to place wget.exe in the %PATH% variable, just leave it be adjacent to the .cmd file, both in a user writable directory! Again, this is for the 32-bit architecture only... Thanks a bunch !

I like debian. Not some derivative distribution, but plain vanilla debian. Now, regardless of what linux distribution one uses, I think the best desktop environment is Trinity, hands down. If not that, then xfce. All others are too much fireworks and eye-candy for my taste. Of course, just my 2¢. YMMV.

I think you're good! There's no harm in leaving MSE installed along with Malwarebytes (especially considering what a pain it is to remove). Just remember with Malwarebytes free, you have to set aside some time for it to scan your system each day. Perhaps at the end of the day you can start a scan, then see the (hopefully all clean) results the next day.

Mozilla's no longer on our side, so you have to advocate for yourself. Download Waterfox or Seamonkey, start it to enable the new profile, then copy the contents of your old profile folder into the new folder. I've kept all my 30 extensions, and I've even added 2. My Waterfox looks exactly as FF did when I left it a month ago. If you want to try one just temporarily, use the portable version. You can always go back to something else. Chrome is just a huge piece of spyware.

I have no idea why they don’t just bundle Chrome in new versions of Windows 10 with Microsoft branding and no other changes since the start. The fact they’re even trying to rebrand things like this is pure desperation and it’s not even like they can get anything out of it other than sharing the collected data with Chrome if anyone is insane enough to download this at all. A lot of the bad things that’s happened now like legacy XP-era tech still being used in corporate environments is mostly MS’s own fault for their early 2000s monopolistic behaviour, as well as the way they jumped from XP to Vista in terms of overall resource usage. Had Longhorn not been so ambitious at the start (they’d barely done XP), maybe things would have been a lot different. Vista and its successors gave no time for hardware upgrades in enterprise, everyone stuck to XP, and then when 7 came it was time to either continue using XP forever or change hardware, since it had been obsoleted by then already anyway...