Mathwiz

Since M$ screwed up KB4494528, I decided to check what it's supposed to do: OK, haven't run in to that one, but now I'm wondering... what did KB4486464 do? Geez - can't M$ even manage to put all the relevant info into one Web page? CVE-2019-0636 is: Is the "specially crafted application" called notepad.exe, by any chance? M$ rates it as "important" but that "vulnerability" doesn't sound too serious to me.... KB4486464 was part of February's Patch Tuesday. Perhaps we should remove that one too?

I got the same message. I think the "server" it's referring to is the Windows Installer service, broken by KB4494528. Pretty sneaky of M$ to give us an update that breaks Office 2010 along with another update that breaks the ability to uninstall the first update. Edit: on the very last Patch Tuesday, no less!

I do find the PC security center pretty useless. Mostly it just (incorrectly) reports that Windows Firewall isn't turned on, or that I have no AV software enabled, for a few minutes during boot-up. As for automatic updates, I still need them for Office 2010, but have long had mine set to "Notify me but don't automatically download or install them." Seems like a reasonable compromise: when the rare update appears, I get the yellow shield, then I click on it and see what's available. Then if I want it, I just download & install it via Microsoft Update; if not, I hide it and the yellow shield goes away.

Well, now there is a replacement (KB4462223), but it doesn't work on XP either: So I'd say, sadly, no; we'll never see a fix for MSO.DLL that runs on XP. Many of the previous updates to MSO.DLL had to do with the Japanese calendar, so they weren't a big deal unless you live in Japan or do business with folks there; but this latest broken update "resolves a remote code execution vulnerability ... when Microsoft Office does not correctly handle certain files. To learn more about the vulnerability, see Microsoft Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVE-2019-0801." Luckily, it doesn't sound like the vulnerability is particularly easy to exploit: Since we can't patch the vulnerability, XP users just need to be wary of downloaded Excel or PowerPoint files. I would hope your favorite antivirus or anti-exploit software gets a definition update to check for the new exploit.

That explains this: I made the mistake of installing POSReady updates first, then trying to install Office updates. As a result, my installer was broken. Removed & hid 4494528, and 4464520 installed straight away.

Two new Office 2010 updates today. 4462223 replaces previously released security update 4462174. Naturally it updates MSO.DLL so I was suspicious and didn't install it. 4464520 "resolves a remote code execution vulnerability that exists when the Microsoft Office Access Connectivity Engine incorrectly handles objects in memory," according to M$. However, I couldn't install it via Microsoft Update. Now trying a manual download & install; stay tuned.... Edit: Manual install failed also. The update seems to be failing when trying to access a Microsoft server

Well, I thought we'd seen the last of this, but I just hit the svchost.exe at 99% bug again. Guess I'll have to download & install the IE8 cumulative update manually, just like the old days Edit: Sure enough, that fixed it; as soon as I installed it and rebooted, I got offered the other 13, plus a couple of Office 2010 updates. @Dave-H, have you taken a look at today's Office 2010 updates yet?

I think it's less a matter of updates than of software. You can put an XP system behind an external firewall and make it very tough for a hacker to compromise, but if Web sites start using ECMAScript 2018/2019 features in their JavaScript and there isn't a compatible Web browser that runs on XP, then it'll be game over for a lot of folks. That's what eventually killed Win 98 for most intents and purposes. There have also been a lot of non-browser software packages that have stopped supporting XP in the last several months. PotPlayer was the most recent example. But that doesn't drive obsolescence the way the Web does. Older versions of other software don't gradually stop working over time the way Web browsers do.

Found a problem (don't know if I'd call it a bug, but it's a problem for me): the installer uses wget, and wget doesn't use system proxy settings. As a result, downloads fail on my work PC and I just get an empty folder. (Of course I can download the "old-fashioned" way just fine, since my browsers do use system proxy settings.) Luckily there's a simple workaround, by setting some environment variables. The following batch file does the trick for me: set http_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:8079 set https_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:8079 "Roytam Browser Installer.exe" Of course, others will need to change the http/s_proxy settings according to their own needs. (Actually I think the installer just uses http, so the set https_proxy line probably isn't needed; but just in case....) HTH

Whew - 230 MB? No thanks. I'll just stick with PotPlayer Mini. Too bad you can't just install Korean without also installing Chinese & Japanese.

It wouldn't surprise me if Primetime requires considerably more CPU horsepower than the built-in ffvpx decoder. If so, ffvpx would be the preferred choice unless you're having issues with it.

Very unusual to support Vista but not XP. Most developers just drop both at once and jump to Win 7. My guess would be that they started using Windows Media Foundation, which was introduced in Vista. The funny thing is, if you open the installer .exe with 7-Zip, there's even a PotPlayerXP.exe packed within the installer! Which doesn't crash, but looks like this:

Advanced Chrome does the same thing: about page claims copyright 2019. I'm not seeing any Internet access when the about page is accessed, so I guess it isn't downloading it. Must be just plugging the current year. I'd guess they were assuming that no one would remain on an outdated browser for three years Rest assured, the "true" copyright date is 2016, regardless of what that page claims....

I would guess that portions of the about page are downloaded, and that the copyright notice reflects the copyright date of that downloaded content. Which is misleading, of course. But since copyrights last 95 (!) years anyway ("thanks" Disney!), it's not as if the difference between 2016 and 2019 matters much.

Strangely, on one of my PC's, those prefs were already present and defaulted to 2. Also the one I mentioned, media.gmp-eme-adobe.visible, was already present and defaulted to true. So all I had to do on that PC was update Serpent/Moebius and Primetime automagically appeared. Edit: Scratch that. I had downloaded the wrong update! Turns out Serpent/UXP has all three prefs set by default; thus you wouldn't ordinarily have them as user prefs. That explains why, when you migrate your user prefs to Serpent/Moebius, they aren't set and need to be set after migration. (BTW, this is one of the advantages of an installer. Makes it easier to download the correct version into the correct directory.) A while ago there were some reports of problems with the built-in decoder. IIRC the biggest problem was distorted audio. Sometimes a simple user-agent spoof would fix it by causing the site to use a different codec, so Primetime wasn't always needed. @roytam1 has been good about keeping the built-in media libraries up-to-date on Moebius, so maybe that audio issue has passed.

ICYMI: IOW, with his latest updates to Serpent/Moebius, you can now install the Adobe Primetime CDM and use it for HTML5 video, instead of Serpent's built-in support. You may want to try this if you run into issues with the built-in support, such as distorted audio. If you "cheated" like I did and copied your Serpent/UXP profile over to Serpent/Moebius, and had Primetime installed on UXP, you're probably 90% of the way home. All you need to do is recreate the media.gmp-eme-adobe.visible boolean pref and set it to true. Primetime should appear in about:addons since the other prefs from your UXP install should still be there. Of course, if it doesn't work, check all the prefs mentioned in the Primetime thread. As with UXP, you'll need to set media.ffvpx.enabled to false to force Moebius to use Primetime for HTML5; otherwise Moebius will use its built-in support by default.

Well, mostly, I was just confessing that I cheated, and got away with it ; and opining that, if you're moving from FF 52.9 to Serpent/UXP, or from Serpent/UXP to Serpent/Moebius, that's a small enough jump that you'll probably get away with "cheating," as long as you know what might go wrong and how to fix it. But I agree that yours is the right way to proceed, especially if you're making a more substantial jump (to NM, for instance). I just think it's ridiculous to expect most users to go through that. You don't get good at something like that unless you've done it several times, and most folks don't migrate to a new browser very often. So it's going to take most folks hours, and who wants to spend hours just migrating to a new Web browser? A lot of folks will just throw in the towel, stick with FF, and say goodbye to all their plug-ins and XUL add-ons. Really, the "correct" procedure should be automated and included in the PM and Basilisk installers, but neither installer does that (and I certainly don't expect @roytam1 or @i430VX to!) I think MCP could get a lot more converts to their browsers if they would invest a little programming effort simplifying migration from FF. Of course, that would also imply not removing features that break existing FF installations, which they've already done at least twice (thrice if you count moving Basilisk away from AMO). So I have little hope they'll follow my advice. Just wanted to clarify that Extended Statusbar is a legacy (XUL) add-on, not a WE one. So both version 2.05 and 2.1 should be compatible with FF 52, NM 28, and Serpent - even with Moebius, there's no chance of version-dependent code being misled by Moebius's reported version 55. Unfortunately, that means it's no longer on AMO. v2.0.5 is availiable in the Classic Add-Ons Archive, but FF 52.9 users will need to download v2.1 from the PM or Basilisk add-on site (or from GitHub: https://github.com/kustodian/extended-statusbar, although I don't see any .xpi files there; don't know if you can just download the .zip and rename, changing the extension to .xpi, or if you need to compile something). Also, those versions probably aren't signed, so you'll need to flip the pref (forgot which one) that lets unsigned add-ons be installed (and it'll show in about:addons with a warning) in FF 52.9. I think v2.1 has a bug. I had similar trouble adding it to NM 28, although I was able to fix it by toggling a new pref, from Web Protocols to All Protocols: (Web protocols is the default and is supposed to mimic the v2.0.5 behavior, so it doesn't appear on, say, about: pages.)

I removed these two prefs from my copy: pref("browser.newtab.url", "about:blank"); pref("browser.newtabpage.enabled", false); These prefs cause new tabs to open with a blank page instead of thumbnails of recently-opened pages. If, like me, you prefer the thumbnails, you can remove these prefs from your copy too.

For an update, you merely need to replace the contents of (whatever) program folder with the contents of the new .7z file. Or you can use @i430VX's installer. But to migrate from one platform to another, the "proper" procedure is: But - manually reinstall every add-on, user pref, and bookmark? Cumbersome/tiresome is an understatement! "Impractical" comes closer to the mark. I just re-migrated Serpent from UXP to Moebius to make sure everything would be the same as before, to the extent that's possible. The method I used was simply to copy my two profiles from the old browser profile folder to the new browser profile folder, then create new profiles in the new browser, specifying the folders I just copied. Back in the day, that's also how I migrated from FF 52 to Serpent/UXP in the first place. IOW, I did exactly what @VistaLover said not to do! It may be that going directly from FF to Serpent/Moebius this way is what caused my plus-ins not to work. But I didn't run into any plug-in issues this time; the main problem I did run into was WE add-ons falsely being flagged as incompatible. Luckily there's a fix for that. From this thread's first post: In my case, I didn't need to copy my extensions folder first; I just dragged the .xpi files from the extensions folder of old browser profile onto the about:addons page. Going in the "forward" direction (FF to UXP, or UXP to Moebius), almost everything should be compatible; in my case it all seemed to work except for Tab Mix Plus (which I don't need anyway). Going in the "backward" direction, you're more likely to find incompatible add-ons when you drag and drop; if that happens, you'll have to find and download an older version of the incompatible add-on. Yes; the PM team has made several fixes to UXP that aren't in Moebius, including some security fixes. UXP browsers (Serpent and NM 28) are probably the most secure browsers available for XP and Vista. But Moebius is still pretty secure, and a bit better in terms of add-on support.

It looks like you may be using an extension which alters the operation of the "+" button. Try disabling it and see if long presses start working. If so, your only hope is to let the extension developer know about the issue. It wouldn't surprise me if (s)he didn't even know about the container tabs feature! BTW (I'm pretty sure the OP already did this, but just for the benefit of others): the privacy.userContext.longPressBehavior pref doesn't exist by default; you have to create it with right-click / New / Integer. Then enter the new pref name (privacy.userContext.longPressBehavior) and value (2). Long-pressing the "+" will then bring up the "New container tab" menu so you can easily choose a container for your new tab.

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

Kinda wish you hadn't let it go by; not only do I appreciate the correction, I could've used the fix! But better late than never.... I knew about that pref, because it was how you re-enabled plug-ins in FF 52 (not 52 ESR). By FF 53, it no longer worked; but I tried it in Moebius anyway; I figured it was originally forked from an alpha version, possibly before the pref was disabled. Apparently that is the case; yet it didn't work when I tried it, thus reaffirming my conclusion that plug-ins (except those provided with the browser) simply didn't work in Moebius. But I was still a bit confused, because if that was the case, one plug-in that "shouldn't" have worked was indeed working (Adobe Acrobat Reader, of all things....) Ah; apparently that was the missing piece of the puzzle! Thanks! Now that everything is working, I'm going to give Moebius a thorough workout. I may even prefer it to UXP, at least until the Web manages to break it.

That happened to me too, when I first tried Moebius. But I was able to reactivate them by reinstalling. There must be some database that needs updating in order to migrate WE add-ons to Moebius.

Did you happen to see my second post edit? This is a good illustration of the differences between Moebius and UXP. Moebius supports the add-on; UXP only has the built-in support (same as FF 52 ESR). So for now, Moebius might be the better choice if you use containers heavily. If you only use them occasionally, you might prefer to stick with UXP.

@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.