AstroSkipper

Did it cast you a 'pretty penny'? I have a few pennies that are pretty and shiny. It's a longer story. Oddly enough, I've had various problems with Avast! this year. Will probably write about it at the weekend. Then I will have time for it. One thing I can say: Although I had some concerns about the country of manufacture, WiseVector StopX is a great AV program and requires only few resources in terms of used disk space, RAM usage and CPU load. It's just perfect for an old box like mine! And the software is constantly being developed and maintained, is Windows XP compatible and free of charge. But, you have to configure it very carefully!

If you're talking about X-Chromium, version 49.0.2605.0 rev16 is the last to run on XP. But of course such a version makes no sense at all, as it is far too old. Besides, in this age category, Advanced Chrome Custom Build 54.20.6530.0 is by far the very best.

Interesting! But, these versions including older ones are not compatible with Windows XP, of course. Therefore, only for Windows 7 and higher.

You're welcome! On my computers, I do have a perfectly working imaging system to restore important partitions in a very short time if they are damaged and not recoverable. Has saved my a** a lot of times! Just a tip!

Looks like something has changed in memory management compared to older Chrome or Chromium versions. Hopefully for the better! Hope dies last!

Hope you've got a backup of this partition for recovering if nothing helps. Try to boot into safe mode to see if it works in this mode. Use chkdsk to look for file system errors. Delete all temporary files before. Try to boot again in normal mode. If booting in normal mode is impossible, go back to a previous, working state by using recovery console. In case of recovery is not possible anymore, you should restore your previous, hopefully existing backup. I know much more possibilities to repair a damaged partition but it is too complicated to describe here, and you need appropriate knowledge to perform such interventions, of course. And truth be told, a black screen never bodes well. In most cases, I got a black screen when there was some hardware defective.

Thanks a lot! That are unbiased and objective findings. Same as mine. I think there is nothing more to say.

I see, 360Chrome v13.5 always does something different with one empty tab opened. Today, it uses 100 MB and tomorrow, it will use 500 MB. Sorry, no, your facts and values are useless if they only apply in your system. My little proof shows the inadequacy of your statements. And, who cares how much this browser consumes in your system. Much more important is how it behaves in general. By the way, capital letters are always used by those who shout, and there is absolutely no reason for that. It is rather impolite. There is a nice saying in Germany: "Wer schreit, hat Unrecht." Translated: "Who shouts is wrong."

I am not necessarily a fan of the Chrome browser by nature. On my Android tablet, however, there is no getting around the Chrome browser. I use the latest versions of Opera, Brave and Kiwi there. The original Chrome browser from Google, however, is a real disaster and a data slinger. In Windows XP, I usually try to avoid Chrome browsers if possible. A pure Chrome 102 browser would be a no go for me in any case. I would prefer only good forks or mods of Chrome which consume less resources and are cleaned in terms of telemetry and privacy.

I am glad that with 360Crome 13.5, there is a browser in Windows XP that can load many Googlized and heavy web pages the UXP browsers cannot handle in terms of JavaScript & Co. You did a great job in removing telemetry crap and translating Chinese strings in the past. Thanks for that again, @NotHereToPlayGames! Frankly, I hate to bring you down to earth in your praise of 360Crome 13.5. But, I'm a mathematician, I am always trying to find true statements, verifying or falsifying them, and I'm very good in any calculation. In order to disprove your statement, I use the principle of a counter-example. Your statement: I'm showing 360Chrome v13.5 with only the start tab open to consume 126 MB RAM. My assertion: 360Chrome v13.5 with only an empty tab opened consumes more than 450 MB. Proof: I disabled all my extensions in 360Chrome v13.5 and closed all tabs except one empty tab. I restarted the browser. Here is a screenshot while 360Chrome v13.5 is running. Here is a screenshot of CleanMem after closing 360Chrome v13.5: The RAM usage is shown in two different ways, by CleanMem and Process Hacker. My calculation: First method: Determination of RAM consumption by subtracting two RAM consumption values (360Chrome opened and closed) MEM1 = "Memory used while running 360Chrome v13.5" MEM2 = "Memory used after closing 360Chrome v13.5" RAMUSAGE = "RAM usage of 360Chrome v13.5 with all extensions disabled and only one empty tab opened" RAMUSAGE = MEM1 - MEM2 = 990.70 MB - 522.38 MB = 468.32 MB > 450 MB Second method: Determination of RAM consumption by adding all process usage values There are five processes: 360Loader.exe 4.75 MB 360chrome.exe 124.11 MB 360chrome.exe 113.60 MB 360chrome.exe 115.07 MB 360chrome.exe 119.43 MB Total: 476.96 MB > 450 MB Conclusion: With only one empty tab opened and all extensions disabled, your little darling tragically consumes more than 450 MB. Therefore, your statement is wrong, and my assertion is true. q.e.d. Unfortunately, the truth is this browser is a RAM eating machine at its best. If I enable a few extensions and open one or two more tabs, everything gets much worse, RAM consumption increases enormously, and my system is blocked and no longer responds. For users, having a huge amount of RAM in their computers, no problem at all, of course, but for the others ... Truth be told, I don't know where you get your values from, but in any case, they have nothing to do with reality. Such "facts" are meaningless! Sorry to say that! For me, and I speak only for myself here, 360Chrome v13.5 is not really a no-brainer win. But, using this browser with only one tab opened is possible, of course. And no offence, only real facts and the truth! Kind regards, AstroSkipper

Not using any AV program isn't a good idea, unfortunately. Nowadays, you can't avoid bad code, Drive-by-Download, Drive-by-Infection or malware and so on by using your brain only while surfing the internet. Anyway, I always use an AV program. And also its real-time protection, of course. Otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense. And to be fair, Avast! indeed protects the user in any case. I used Avast! Premier for many years without any infection. There are reasons why I changed from Avast! to WiseVector StopX, though. I will write something about it soon.

Thanks, @mina7601! But, social distancing is actually not my problem. It was my first infection despite triple vaccination, and I couldn't avoid the viruses at home.

In the manual and on the QuickHeal homepage, it is claimed that the programs are compatible with Windows XP. Here is a quotation taken from the website of QuickHeal Total Security: Here is the link: https://www.quickheal.com/quick-heal-total-security/ Do they lie? I do not hope so.

Thanks! I will do my best! But life has its own rules!

Never, of course! And I hope it will always stay that way!

Thanks again for your compliments! No problem! Any distraction is welcome! I'm feeling a bit better, but the cough is so persistent, unbelievable!

GitHub works like a charme, for example in New Moon 28, latest edition of 2022-10-27, with palefill 1.23 installed. There are browsers working with GitHub, others not. All is already described above.

Unfortunately, this is not quite correct. All Saints' Day is not a public holiday everywhere in Germany. Germany is divided into federal states, and there are state-specific differences for some holidays. Where I was born, in Lower Saxony, it is not a public holiday, but it is in North Rhine-Westphalia. It's all very complicated and has a lot to do with the federal government and the federal states here in Germany. Some holidays are obligatory nationwide, others are regionally dependent. This has partly to do with the majority religious beliefs in the different federal states.

This is a quotation from Wikipedia: Where I was born, Frisian people speak "Plattdeutsch". It doesn't make any sense to translate it into the English language. You would get the translation "Low German". For me, a bit pointless. See above the quotation from Wikipedia! Anyway, the Frisians don't really call their language Frisian directly. Frisian was a more general and more original language. But, you're right, English is much closer to Frisian than German. Truth be told, I do not really speak Plattdeutsch. Only a few words.

To use a light and working AV program I installed WiseVector StopX 3.0.7. It works great and consumes less resources than Avast!. And the best of all: it's free of charge. The best choice on my old computer at the moment! K7 is commercial, unfortunately. When the trial period is over, you have to pay for it.

That's unfortunately not all. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.2.1.1043 won't get definition updates anymore, either. It was discontinued in May of this year. I have used that version because Malwarebytes Premium for Windows 3.5.1.2522 doesn't work properly on my computer. Anyway, I already uninstalled Malwarebytes completely and removed its remnants.

@jaclaz, thanks for the links and further recommendations! In my series "My essential tools for solving problems in Windows XP", I listed my favourite tools I use for years and helped me a lot. Here is the link to the list of all parts: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183498-general-and-specific-solutions-for-problems-regarding-auwumu-in-windows-xp/?do=findComment&comment=1216513 Most of them are well-known, easy to use, and quite up-to-date. Tiny Hexer is a good and useful tool, no doubt. And, you are right, the newer does not necessarily mean better. And of course, there are other programs which really need regular updates. But, Tiny Hexer was abandoned in 2007, the last version is 1.8.1.6 of July 2007. No further development since that time! I fear that compatibility with all newly created binaries will sooner or later suffer from this circumstance. In other words, I don't like to entrust important files to such an old tool for modification anymore, at most very old files. Spoken for me only, of course! Apart from that, the presentation of the files to be edited is much clearer in WinHex, especially the customization of the text area on the right which represents the text interpretation of the hex values. All in all, Tiny Hexer seems very old-fashioned, but nonetheless, it worked with the files I tried to edit. So everything is fine. Cheers, AstroSkipper

Just to clarify that! I am not against Halloween. I couldn't care less. My other statements are much more important for me.

No, BTW, I am not a believer and a practising atheist. Children used to collect sweets on St. Martin's Day in our region. And if you want to dress up as whatever, there is carnival every year. And there are also many other traditions. What I ultimately mean is that Germans don't have to ape everything that other countries do.

I could say a lot more about this and nothing would show the Russians in a good light, but we have to abide by the forum rules. Any political discussion or debate on the subject of war is not allowed.