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Ryan VM's Site is no longer (from what I can see), which was formerly a great place to find out about MSFN status. Is there anywhere we can go when MSFN is down to get reliable updates on its status?

Any thoughts @Tripredacus @Tommy?

The subsequent discussion about alternatives to the deceased RyanVM forum for discussion if MSFN goes offline move to here.

There may be other reasons. I have been recommending Norton to anyone with a too fast machine for years, it does (did) miracles in slowing down to a crawl any machine, including high end ones. jaclaz

When? In 1986? Here's some from 2023. Kaspersky Antivirus detecting a Medal file as a trojan Reddit Jan 30, 2023 GameOverlay.dll https://www.reddit.com/r/MedalTV/comments/10pdotr/kaspersky_antivirus_detecting_a_medal_file_as_a/ Kaspersky causing Internet connection problems and blocks almost all games https://www.reddit.com/r/KasperskyLabs/comments/upe4p6/kaspersky_blocking_internet_connection_to_almost/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/20o92k/kaspersky_causing_a_no_internet_access_flag/ Kaspersky false positive on Reddit (just use any search engine, it's literally millions of 'em). https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Kaspersky+false+positive+Reddit "the file is 12 years old", yet they didn't bother to fix it. https://www.reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/vu6axu/kaspersky_false_positive/

To everyone: First of all, everything AstroSkipper says - you're demanded to have no doubts about it! Don't you dare to think otherwise. To the the wise scholar AstroSkipper: The bloody "free" Norton's licence-burden came on the CD disk with my Siemens PC, and I had the same terrible experience. I would never advise anyone to buy a licence from them also, of course. To everyone, again: Norton is on the same level of terrible experience along with Kaspersky. Kaspersky even dared to find a "virus" in the famous MKVToolNix programme by the famous German author Mosu - Moritz Bunkus. For those who are in bed with Kaspersky, confirmed by Kaspersky itself: the original setup.exe was a false positive. (of course!): https://mkvtoolnix.download/allegedly-backdoor-in-windows-installer-v2-4-1.html 1 - His spelling is indeed considered correct in the the whole World (minus one country), not only in the UK. 2 - Yes, read the above, it was not "effective". Never was, never will be. Yes, I don't wanna hear about it ever again, I think AstroSkipper agrees with me.

OK, back from my holiday, I can't find where I got it from, but here's my launcher program folder. It doesn't actually need installation, just unzip it to a folder and run it. I've removed all my data. Cheers, Dave. Launcher.zip

I would never advise anyone to buy a licence (note UK spelling please, your spelling is American English) for Norton. But I would always recommend Malwarebytes Premium, whose licence could be used in newer operating systems without problems, if necessary.

New build of Serpent/UXP for XP! Test binary: Win32 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.8.win32-git-20230603-3219d2d-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z Win64 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.8.win64-git-20230603-3219d2d-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z source code that is comparable to my current working tree is available here: https://github.com/roytam1/UXP/commits/custom IA32 Win32 https://o.rthost.win/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.8.win32-git-20230603-3219d2d-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod-ia32.7z source code that is comparable to my current working tree is available here: https://github.com/roytam1/UXP/commits/ia32 NM28XP build: Win32 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.6a1.win32-git-20230603-d849524bd-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z Win32 IA32 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.6a1.win32-git-20230603-d849524bd-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod-ia32.7z Win32 SSE https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.6a1.win32-git-20230603-d849524bd-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod-sse.7z Win64 https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-28.10.6a1.win64-git-20230603-d849524bd-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z Official UXP changes picked since my last build: - Issue #2256 - Implement Object.hasOwn(object, property) (77bd81595) - Issue #2257 - Remove rematerialized frames after bailouts and exceptions. (2a7ff7ce1) Official Pale-Moon changes picked since my last build: - [Pale-Moon] Issue #1925 - Add pref to control history menu length. (e3d51b39b) - [Pale-Moon] Issue #1925 - Follow-up: Don't show link items when pref is less than 1. (075eebec1) - [Pale-Moon] Issue #1925 - Follow-up: Throw errors on invalid values. (1768eb193) - [Pale-Moon] [SSUAO] Update chase.com override after breakage. (4b0e27bb4) No official Basilisk changes picked since my last build. My changes picked since my last build: - [Basilisk] [SSUAO] Update chase.com override after breakage. (765a6434c) Update Notice: - You may delete file named icudt*.dat inside program folder when updating from old releases. * Notice: From now on, UXP rev will point to `custom` branch of my UXP repo instead of MCP UXP repo, while "official UXP changes" shows only `tracking` branch changes.

That was probably a wise choice! I have held my tongue about Panda for a long time because my own dreadful experience with it was several years ago, and frankly because XP diehards might have very little choice in the near future. But since criticism of antivirus software that one doesn’t actually use is such a popular pastime at MSFN, I think it’s time for me to speak out against Panda. I installed Panda Free near the end of 2014 (which is evidently quite recently in terms of “XP time”). Only paid versions were supposed to include a firewall, but Panda Free nevertheless installed a nonfunctional firewall, which I thought was terribly amateurish. I should’ve gotten rid of it right then and there, but unfortunately I did not. On March 11, 2015, something quite remarkable happened: Panda attacked itself! I was on my PC at the time. I recall opening Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of a message that Panda had deleted something - at which point Panda attacked Snipping Tool! I wouldn’t blame anyone for doubting my story, but it wasn’t just me: It was a worldwide debacle for Panda users! https://www.theregister.com/2015/03/11/panda_antivirus_update_self_pwn/ You people think an antivirus is bad if it slows down your browsing or throws an occasional false positive? You ain’t seen nothing unless you were using Panda on March 11, 2015! I will grant that the company made a good effort to reverse the damage - but there were still system files in Panda’s “Lost and Found” folder after the fix. In the end, I performed a factory restore, thereby eliminating Panda’s junkware once and for all!

No problem. Back on topic now.

Thank you so much Dave, you're a legend.

That would seem like a good fit. I'm not talking about us continuing all our thread conversations there, all we need is a thread, probably in their 'Chit Chat' section, where we can discuss the status of the MSFN forum as a whole. As long as they don't object to us discussing what they would probably consider to be a 'rival forum' there of course!

I don't think we should use a board that's specific to any operating system. There is still an active XP forum of course! Another general PC system support forum would be best, assuming that MSFN isn't now the last one standing!

No problem here in the third pre-release of Mypal 68.13.0. I use uBlock Origin 1.49.2, and it works without any problems. And from now on, even without changing the minversion in the file manifest.json. Thanks to @feodor2! Here is a screenshot: I assume either your installation or your profile is faulty or misconfigured. And be aware of possible incompatibilities to other extensions or scripts! I still didn't observe such incompatibilities until now, though, but they are possible, of course.

Such comments should actually be beneath you. Here, in this thread, it is about antivirus programs for Windows XP and not about personal sensitivities. Malwarebytes Premium 3.5 didn't have the top score results in the tests at the time, but it does work exactly as you configure it. No such problems with Malwarebytes as I have observed with Norton & Co. Here is a better overview and shows how Malwarebytes has developed up to the latest (not XP-compatible) version, which has very good scores, though: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/manufacturer/malwarebytes/

October 2018 seems appropriate (not much point in looking at more recent tests since none of these products support XP/Vista anymore). I never used Kaspersky, but that doesn’t mean I never got any false positives. Note that Malwarebytes Premium got the lowest score by far: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-10/october-2018/

That's because Unity has a well known Tripple engine DX9/10/11, on XP it will always downgrade itself to DX9, but you already knew that, with your Expérience, didn't you ?

Even though I have a clear and incontrovertible opinion of Norton, there may well be others who prefer software that makes every decision for them. All I can say is: to each their own! And of course the population is larger in the USA (than in the UK), but the English language was only imported. It originated somewhere else. But honestly, I mix British and American English very often, rather unconsciously. Don't forget, I am not a native English speaker, either!

Yes, of course, and I'm not sure why he didn't understand it, I mean, with his Expérience.

My apologies! I looked that up while MSFN was unavailable and your spelling is indeed considered correct in the UK (although not in my small country of 334 million people). I would’ve edited my post if I could’ve, but it’s rather late now. I have no particular axe to grind with respect to Norton (or Kaspersky). Sure, I’ve seen tests by independent labs showing that Norton (along with Kaspersky) was among the most effective antivirus products in the world; but if XP users at MSFN would rather not hear that, then I won’t mention it again.

The latest Microsoft Office 365 (v2307) also works on 8.1 I'm surprised there haven't been compatibility issues since EOL was with 2301/2302 For Windows 7, compatibility was broken with v2003 already

I had a PM from xper saying he'd fixed it. I guess that was how he fixed it!

You're kinda right though, I don't use XP, no GPU or USB drivers. At first I wasn't so sure about the idea, but thinking about it, having the 68 style UI with the 78 engine is actually pretty nice. Might try using this on my PC with 8.1 to see how it fares with the sites I use.

The term "disenfranchisement of the user" cannot be used often enough with regard to Norton. I have used Norton Antivirus several times in the now more than 20 years of Windows XP experience. Again and again, files were deleted and actions were carried out that were not authorised by me. Norton Antivirus is simply the very worst. And by the way, I am someone who always makes up my own mind and articulates it. People who only repeat what others say make me want to puke.

New build of BOC/UXP for XP! Test binary: MailNews Win32 https://o.rthost.win/boc-uxp/mailnews.win32-20230603-ef491d91-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z BNavigator Win32 https://o.rthost.win/boc-uxp/bnavigator.win32-20230603-ef491d91-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z source repo (excluding UXP): https://github.com/roytam1/boc-uxp/tree/custom repo changes: - [SSUAO] sync with my UXP's Basilisk SSUAO (ef491d91) * Notice: the profile prefix (i.e. parent folder names) are also changed since 2020-08-15 build, you may rename their names before using new binaries when updating from builds before 2020-08-15. -- New build of HBL-UXP for XP! Test binary: IceDove-UXP(mail) https://o.rthost.win/hbl-uxp/icedove.win32-20230603-id-656ea98-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z IceApe-UXP(suite) https://o.rthost.win/hbl-uxp/iceape.win32-20230603-id-656ea98-ia-93af9a0-uxp-765a6434c-xpmod.7z source repo (excluding UXP): https://github.com/roytam1/icedove-uxp/tree/winbuild https://github.com/roytam1/iceape-uxp/tree/winbuild for UXP changes please see above.

Okay everything is working now after applying the patched wuaueng.dll file.😱 I would also add the Internet Explorer settings to the "Restore_WU_XP_DE.7z" tool too. 😏 The slider bar to set the Trusted Zone to High was not visible for me. Only after i pressed on the "Default level" it showed up. 😒

I went to Texas one time, spent a month in Chase which is outside of Houston. Looking at that town on a map is one thing but in person it is completely different. It had the same amount of stuff as other towns as you'd expect but everything is just spread out. Not having a car meant I had to walk everywhere. Not a great experience really.

What presumably @feodor2 means by this statement is the fact that the JavaScript engine has already reached the level of version 78, and thus a port to this version is no longer necessary. Furthermore, I think that preserving the single-process mode is of utmost interest so that the browser runs stable and well on older systems.

Unity_Crash_Handler_64.exe, is what he means, I think.

Oh, that's sad, because from what I remember last year, it was your plan to port version 78 and 91 (maybe at least 78, if 91 would be too much work for you) to XP (correct me on this though, but I remember seeing that), but I respect your decision, and I am still grateful for all your work. I'm still thankful with version 68 in any case.

To answer the very first sentence of your opening post, Yes, Windows 11/Pro/64 can be made to install regardless of TPM or any other MS imposed restriction. The secret, which is actually no secret anymore is: Once you've downloaded the Windows 11 ISO from a trusted source, you must use "Rufus" (latest ver.) to burn ISO to a Flash Drive, accepting the options that Rufus gives you. Then the Flash Drive can install Win-11 to just about any PC, even those way too old to meet Microsoft's parameters. I've done this many times already, and it works just great.

New release https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal68/releases/download/68.13b/mypal-68.13.0.en-US.win32.zip @mockingbird Screensaver thing is fixed

I don't have the power to remove this spam content, which has probably been there for a long time unnoticed. https://msfn.org/windows-10-update-will-intentionally-break-some-bluetooth-connections/ Hopefully @xper or @Tripredacus will be able to do it.

Totally agreed! So far about the Windows 8.1 Extended Kernel! No need for such an Extended Kernel! I personally would never use any Extended Kernels. If an OS does not work anymore due to its age, or the implemented functions are no longer sufficient, the user will have to change the operating system by necessity. Although I am not a fan of Microsoft and what they did in the past, I would only trust such changes to the system to programmers with a great deal of experience and in-depth knowledge of the source code, i.e. programmers as they work for Microsoft, the actual manufacturer of Windows OSs. And now a word about this thread! This thread has gone completely off the rails and is pretty much the most unworthy I have ever seen. It's totally uninformative, and most of the posts are just off-topic. I don't understand what this is all about.

I've never been a Palemoon fan, regardless there's been chatter on this forum regarding recent developments. Anyway, MSFN you're not alone. Didn't want to hijack the 'My Browser Builds thread' so just dumping this link here. Palemoon drama has gotten bad http://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4548

It does, but elements specific to newer OS are ignored. Which is a thing since XP. Applications have to require this version via manifest if they want it, which is located only somewhere in WinSxS folder, otherwise, they get v5.82, which is located in System32 folder. v6 supports new theming features of XP.

Volume control ¬

That's true, I just assumed the possibility of using a different sound card when I said that. No, there's also AC97 and SoundBlaster 16 in VirtualBox, the point is just to see the HDA in action. Oops, I wrote "HDA Audio" in my previous post when I really meant "HDA Sound". Advanced tab was renamed to Devices on Windows 98. There, the audio driver appears like on Dave-H's screenshot. Not that I know of. It appears under System devices. I wonder if choppy audio under VirtualBox with HDA is just a simple configuration issue. AC97 works OK. I only know about the volume application that comes with the driver. Its Readme only says it may not work on some computers. And it really doesn't on that virtual computer. I see there's the volume setting in HDAcfg.ini at the end. How to interpret the value?

The Win3x HDA-driver is working nice in my WIN98se system, even better than under Windows 3.1 (playback only). You can find the driver here: http://turkeys4me.byethost4.com/programs/ You can install the driver manually, or you can use following INF-file I wrote for easy testing. The INF-file has following functions (quasi Plug&Play): 1. Recognizing a PCI-Card with yellow exclamation-mark in Device Manager as a HDA-controller and name it as such. 2. Copy four files from the folder "HDAFILES" to their respective directories. 3. Write strings for HDA2.DLL and HDATSR.EXE in SYSTEM.INI/AUTOEXEC.BAT. I added an uninstall-string to remove everything related tot this driver. The System Device "High Definition Audio Controller" is not affected by uninstall, it has to be deleted manually in Device Manager (if one prefer the PCI-card with yellow exclamation-mark, but can be left to give information about this specific device). ----------------------------------------------------- GENHDA16.INF ---------------------------------------------------- ;; GENHDA16.INF ;; 2018/03/26 ;; "Watlers World" 16-bit High Definition Audio Driver ;; INF-file Win9x only ;; (c) Copyright 2018 [Version] Signature=$CHICAGO$ Class=System ClassGUID={4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Provider=%W_W% DriverVer=12/23/2017,9j [Manufacturer] %GEN%=GEN.Mfg [GEN.Mfg] %GEN_HDA.DeviceDesc%=HDA2,PCI\CC_0403 [HDA2] DelFiles=HDA2.DelFiles CopyFiles=HDA2DLL.CopyFiles,HDAHLP.CopyFiles,HDA2Inf.CopyFiles UpdateInis=HDA2.UpdateInis UpdateAutoBat=HDA.UpdateAutoBat AddReg=HDA2.AddReg Reboot [SourceDisksNames] 1="HDAFILES",,0 [SourceDisksFiles] hda2.dll=1 hdarun.exe=1 hdatsr.exe=1 genhda16.inf=1 [DestinationDirs] HDA2DLL.CopyFiles=11 HDAHLP.CopyFiles=25 HDA2Inf.CopyFiles=17 HDA2DLL.DelFiles=11 HDAHLP.DelFiles=25 HDA2Inf.DelFiles=17 WATLERInf.DelFiles=17,Other [HDA2.DelFiles] drvidx.bin,,,1 drvdata.bin,,,1 [HDA2DLL.CopyFiles] hda2.dll,,,1 ;;hda2.dll,hda2.dll,hda2.000,1 [HDAHLP.CopyFiles] hdarun.exe,,,1 hdatsr.exe,,,1 [HDA2Inf.CopyFiles] genhda16.inf,,,1 [HDA2.UpdateInis] system.ini,drivers,"wavehda=*",,0 ; deletes existing system.ini,drivers,,"wavehda=hda2.dll",1 ; adds new [HDA.UpdateAutoBat] CmdDelete=HDATSR ; deletes existing CmdAdd=HDATSR.EXE ; adds new [HDA2.AddReg] HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\High Definition Audio 16-bit" HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\High Definition Audio 16-bit",DisplayName,,"High Definition Audio 16-bit" HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\High Definition Audio 16-bit",UninstallString,,"rundll.exe %11%\setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection HDA2.Remove 132 %17%\genhda16.inf" [HDA2.Remove] DelFiles=HDA2DLL.DelFiles,HDAHLP.DelFiles,HDA2Inf.DelFiles,WATLERInf.DelFiles UpdateInis=HDA2.DelInis UpdateAutoBat=HDA.DelAutoBat DelReg=HDA2.DelReg [HDA2DLL.DelFiles] hda2.dll,,,1 ; deleted after reboot [HDAHLP.DelFiles] hdarun.exe hdatsr.exe hdacfg.ini,,,1 ; deleted after reboot hdalog.txt [HDA2Inf.DelFiles] genhda16.inf,,,1 ; deleted after reboot genhda16.pnf [WATLERInf.DelFiles] WATLER~1.INF [HDA2.DelInis] system.ini,drivers,"wavehda=*",,0 ; delete [HDA.DelAutoBat] CmdDelete=HDATSR ; delete [HDA2.DelReg] HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\High Definition Audio 16-bit" [Strings] ;Localized strings W_W = "Watlers_World" GEN = "GENERIC" GEN_HDA.DeviceDesc = "High Definition Audio Controller" SystemClassName = "System Devices" ; ENG ;;SystemClassName = "Systeemapparaten" ; DUT ----------------------------------------------------- By trial and error I found a new 'class' of wave devices accepted by the Drivers-section of SYSTEM.INI, the so called "wavehda"-devices, so other wave-devices remain untouched. Installation: 1) Place the four Sourcedisk files in a directory named "HDAFILES". 2) Go to Device Manager and try reinstalling yellow exclamation marks, mostly named "PCI-Card", by pointing to GENHDA.INF, or delete PCI-Cards and do the installation after reboot while Windows is detecting new hardware. If you hear a plopping noise during startup, the driver is connecting to your codec. If you don't hear the Window s Startup Sound, you have to place HDAICOUT.HDA in your Windows directory. The problem is that the "Widgets" (programmable function blocks) in the codec have default values. HDA2.DLL does not change these values (except a few). This can be done with the textfile HDAICOUT.HDA. If the file exist, HDA2.DLL sent the so called "Verbs" in this file to the addressed Widgets and change values at start-up. Try the one below. Worked for me in case of three different codecs (digital playback only). Copy the file to your Windows-directory and reboot. BTW in case of stability problems set MinFileCache=8192 & MaxFileCache=8192 (or both lower). Latest versions of HDAICOUT.HDA: https://msfn.org/board/topic/178295-audio-driver-for-realtek-hd-audio-hardware/?page=10&tab=comments#comment-1163305