AstroSkipper

All that said does not mean I refresh my HDDs on a regular base. Sorry, I'm afraid I am too lazy to do that with all my HDDs. But from a physical or technical point of view, refreshing of disks makes perfect sense and can make its contribution as a data preservation strategy. Additionally, checking an HDD in form of data refreshing triggers the controller of such a disk to renew its S.M.A.R.T. values and to decide for example whether pending sectors have to be rated as defective or not. I already did that successfully by using Spinrite in the past. After performing such checks or refreshes, there is a positive side-effect. You will definitely know much more about the health of your disks and the condition of the data on it, including up-to-date S.M.A.R.T. values. AstroSkipper

Good to hear! But we have the theoretical knowledge to understand the instability of magnetic data. In such a case, one can certainly do without such data, even if it would be very welcome. And all this is not a question of belief. It is rather a question of reason. BTW, no one has claimed that data refreshing is a panacea for preserving magnetic information on an HDD. But it is one reasonable strategy, and that is what this thread is about. AstroSkipper

@UCyborg posted further sources in his initial post. And the language in which articles were written doesn't matter nowadays. We all can use Google Translator or much better DeepL And, you will find more scientific or technical information by using Google & Co, of course. Very funny! But to be honest, I actually prefer rather scientific answers. And I say that as an outspoken film lover. AstroSkipper

There is not a single article. The linked articles are just examples to inform users like you. Physics and how magnetism works is evidence enough. And that doesn't have much to do with opinions, either. Simply put, magnetic information can change and unfortunately be lost in its original state, which is simply unavoidable. No matter whether you want to believe that or not. Unfortunately, physics does not take this into account. AstroSkipper

Unfortunately, not! This thread is not about common failures in terms HDDs or SSDs. That's what the topic is about. And you are wrong, unfortunately. There are evidences and physical reasons that the newly written data is better than the previous ones. Read the linked articles and think about magnetism! In terms of HDDs, stored bits can reverse their magnetic polarity, unfortunately. AstroSkipper

Yep! That's riight. And we could list many other strategies for prevention of data loss and disk failures. But this thread is about the periodical refresh of disks to preserve the data on these media as long as possible. And this can be done indeed with tools like DiskFresh, Spinrite and presumably some others. However, the intervals at which something like this should be carried out are quite flexible and rather arbitrary. TBH @D.Draker, that was actually what @UCyborg wanted to discuss here.

There are many different reasons for failures and data loss in terms of HDDs and SSDs. But this thread is about refreshing data on disks. That's why I didn't mention other failures or problems which of course can occur at any time.

Unfortunately, you are wrong. There are indeed physical reasons for losing data. I'll give you a hint. It's called magnetism when it comes to HDDs. But even for SSDs, there are physical processes that can lead to data loss. Here is a German article to bring you a little closer to the subject: https://www.computerwoche.de/a/der-langsame-tod-von-festplatten-und-ssds,3549906 Use a translator if German is not one of your languages! Anyway! @UCyborg's concerns are fully justified and understandable. AstroSkipper

Yep, that's what I said. For transferring all passwords on the same machine and system, the file cert8.db is not absolutely necessary. BTW, I use a Master Password in my old, main NM profile, though. And the file cert9.db still exists, too.

In my main New Moon's profile, all three files key3.db, key4.db and logins.json still exist. The file key4.db was last accessed today. Copying these three files was sufficient for me to transfer all passwords from one profile to another on the same machine, system (Windows XP Professional SP3 fully POSReady updated) and New Moon (28.10.6a1 (32-bit) (2023-04-13) installation. Copying the file cert8.db was not necessary, though. Here are two screenshots, one from my main profile and one from the file properties of key4.db: But you are right, in more recent profiles, the file key4.db doesn't exist anymore. I only listed this file if the profile is an older one like mine. Best regards, AstroSkipper

Anyway! The files containing all passwords and associated data inside your New Moon's profile folder are: key3.db, key4.db (deprecated) and logins.json. Just copying them from one profile to another on the same computer and under the same operation system (and maybe same New Moon installation) works indeed. I already tested that. But copying them from one computer to a different one is supposedly not working, presumably due to encryption problems. I assume the encryption process is hardware- or system-dependent. Therefore, using one of the mentioned password tools in the last three previous posts is most probably the better way in your case.

Another option is PasswordFox from Nirsoft. I have never tried it, but it is supposed to work with all Firefox profiles (and hopefully with all Pale Moon/New Moon profiles, too). Here is a link: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/passwordfox.html

I use the extension QuickPasswords in addition to KeePass which actually is my main password manager. QuickPasswords offers a backup & restore feature. Here is a link: https://addons.palemoon.org/addon/quickpasswords/

Spinrite is a good tool for checking and refreshing old HDDs, presumably with a lower size. I don't know if there are any size restrictions. I already used Spinrite 6.0 in the past, and it helped me to refresh an old HDD and check a few pending sectors on it. The tool DiskFresh also sounds promising, though.

Okay! No separate dom.getRootNode.enabled preference anymore! Sometimes, it is really a good idea to read the official UXP changes.

Autoruns is one of the rare tools to get a complete list of all important entries in terms of autostart programs, services, drivers, tasks, handlers, codecs and so on, sorted by categories. To be honest, I never felt the need to remove such entries shown in your screenshot. Any regular entries will stay in my system as they are. For me, Autoruns is a perfect tool in finding remnants of already uninstalled programs or services. I use it regularly for this purpose and for additional control.

I also used to use Autoruns 13.98 as my main start-up manager. Nowadays, I only use it to get an overview of all entries of programs, services and drivers that are started when booting, and to delete obsolete remnants. If someone is still interested in StartupCPL, here is a link to its no longer existing homepage using the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20131106030702/http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml The download from there was tested by me and works.

FYI, unfortunately, the error did not disappear when closing the program window of SpywareBlaster. It still occurs unless you close the program window directly after updating the protection database. Only in this case, the error does not occur.

Anyway! I think it's great that a few startup managers exist for Windows XP that allow the user to delay the start of certain programs during the boot process. However, it should also be mentioned at this point that not every program can be started with a delay. However, such problems can sometimes be solved by modifying the autostart entry. You just have to try it out as is so often the case.

Off-topic: PDF24 Creator is a PDF suite. I use it mainly as a replacement for a printer. All print jobs are printed in PDF documents in my Windows XP system. And for this, PDF24 needs its own service in Windows. Therefore, a portable version would not make any sense. The program and its service have to be integrated deeply into the system just like a printer driver. As you may have noticed, most newer printers have not supported Windows XP for a long time. That's the reason for a missing, real printer.

No problem at all! It was just for your information.

Hello @nicolaasjan! This was already discussed here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183657-mypal-68-in-windows-xp-custom-buttons-and-extensions/?do=findComment&comment=1239390 and here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183657-mypal-68-in-windows-xp-custom-buttons-and-extensions/?do=findComment&comment=1239411 and previous posts in that thread.

A thread with such a request should only be created if something like this happens:

Cheers, AstroSkipper

@legacyfan! Have a look here: Old, offline Root Certificate Updater, all created by myself, you will find here in the section 11.1. Archived Downloads {obsolete}: In this main article, you will also find recent, online and offline Root Certificate Updater in the section 11.2.4. Downloads related to Root Certificate Updates.