AstroSkipper

Which Comodo Firewall version does your snapshot refer to?

@Dave-H When you open the original, unmodified loader in Resource Hacker 5.1.8, you will see that its content is listed in italics. This is a sign that you only have restricted access which occurrs if, for example, the file is UPX-compressed. BTW, there is a tool that can process the file immediately under Windows XP without a prior, separate decompression by the user. The tool is called Resource Tuner, but it is a commercial programme. But TBH, Resource Hacker 5.1.8 in combination with the UPX tool is totally sufficient.

However, this tool cannot be blamed for the fact that its results are not visible when you use 16-bit programmes that cause interference.

You can also do it with the UPX tool under Windows XP. The UPX tool can compress (different levels) and decompress, of course.

That's strange. Default Browser 1.8 did its job fine here. A good tool in my eyes! And everything it does can also be undone. The 360Loader and now ThoriumLoader is UPX-compressed. You have to decompress it first, as the last XP-compatible version Resource Hacker 5.1.8 can't do that. And without decompressing, the replacing of the Icon Group fails. It's as simple as that. In the screenshot, you can see that the file size is almost the old one, as I have again UPX-compressed it after replacing the Icon Group.

As far as I remember correctly, it imports automatically all bookmarks, for example, as selected in the picture, from the Internet Explorer. No further options.

Forget about this Import Wizard! Just copy all files of Mypal 68.14.3b about the old ones and open your last used profile when starting the browser! All data and also your bookmarks are inside your profile.

If Thorium works properly in Safe Mode, then your issue is definitely related to a driver or a service as only absolutely necessary drivers and services are loaded in this mode. Switch off first all drivers and services one by one starting with the third-party ones, and check in each case whether the issue has been solved! At least, I would do so. TBH, the Microsoft ones only need to be checked for proper function via the Event Viewer. They are rarely responsible for problems. And I have many Microsoft services started in my Windows XP installations without any problems.

@Dave-H For solving browser or other software problems related to drivers and/or services, you can use third-party tools. For example, the DriverView v1.51 tool from NirSoft to easily identify all third-party drivers. However, this tool can only list all drivers but doesn't let you delete or modify any of them. But you get an informative and quick overview. Contrary to it, the Service Manager 4.6 tool from foxplanet.de let you manage and delete all drivers and services. The latter is simply a great piece of software. You can list services and/or drivers in different ways to get a better overview. Try it and you will see yourself! Unfortunately, I hadn't installed it in my secondary, problematic Windows XP partition but only in my primary one. It would have been very helpful if I had consulted it regarding my Thorium issue.

@Dave-H When my Thorium problem still existed, and this browser was crashing permanently, I was still able to open it with a link from a document by a single left-click. And all internal pages were accessible at any time. Furthermore, the Default Browser 1.8 tool successfully made Thorium my default browser. I suspect that something in your Windows XP installation is preventing all this. These culprits or perhaps still problematic registry entries seem to be causing this. Have you tried the Default Browser 1.8 tool at all? I hadn't seen any feedback from you.

BTW, I have found in the c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\ folder other drivers that also originated from former security programmes and were not removed when their corresponding programmes were uninstalled. These are two SYS files, aswrdr.sys and aswsnx.sys, from Avast! Antivirus and the SYS file KeyCrypt32.sys from Zemana AntiLogger. They are all leftovers, i.e., these files were not removed by the uninstallers which came with their corresponding programmes. However, these drivers were not involved in the Thorium crashes. Nevertheless, they have absolutely no business in the Windows system folder drivers any longer. Thus, I removed them, too.

Reformating and reinstalling normally means doing all from scratch and avoiding settings, which were done in the previous Windows installation to not get the same issue(s) as before. The problem is that I have tonnes of modifications, special settings and many other things in my partitions. That's why I work exclusively with my imaging system Norton Ghost 2003, which runs great on old computers like mine. On more recent ones, I use Acronis.

Many people use computers to play games. For me, computer problems are like a game. And very often, I win.

Thanks for the tip! I will have a look at this internal site. However, regarding my permanent Thorium crashes, this wouldn't have helped me as the browser wasn't stable enough to let me use this internal feature. It would have closed still before I had a look at it. First of all, I always use Process Hacker, which provides a wealth of information and can also be used to remove drivers.

Revo Uninstaller Pro is great. I have the last XP-compatible version 3.2.1 installed. If I had used this tool and not just that junk uninstaller which came with Wise Anti Malware, then I probably wouldn't have had that problem with the driver corpses and the resulting Thorium crashes. That's a very good idea. @Dixel Thanks again for pointing to the more recent NVIDIA graphics card driver in the version 370.90! This one is now installed in my native Windows XP Pro 32-bit system. Runs great.

Thanks! I am glad, too. Especially after this Odyssey. In my many years of experience, anything that you have installed at any time can be uninstalled in one way or another. Antivirus or anti-malware programmes are therefore not a problem for me. I do not. Reformating and reinstalling Windows is only the very last measure for me when even my perfectly functioning imaging system can no longer help. As I have mentioned many times, both of my Windows XP partitions were created in 2004. Since then, there have been only very few cases where I have had to restore a partition image to restore Windows to an earlier point in time. Reformating and reinstalling Windows are a sign of helplessness and loss of control in my eyes. If I am the administrator of a Windows installation, then I want to have control over the system and not the other way round. Only when you identify the cause of a computer issue and solve it at its origin, you really get to know your system and are not helplessly at its mercy. And if this issue comes up again, you then definitely know what to do.

My investigation of all other drivers, which might be problematic in that partition, has been finally finished. After all these already performed measures and all this hypothesis stuff , here's now a little and in my opinion quite interesting proof (what else could you expect from me ): Prerequisites: A native Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit without any POSReady updates, Thorium SSE2 122.0.6261.171 WINXP x32, Total Commander and Process Hacker. Assertion: Driver remnants from previously uninstalled programmes can cause spontaneous, irregular crashes of the Thorium browser under Windows XP Professional 32-bit. Proof: The current status at the beginning of this proof: Thorium is still crashing spontaneously, sooner or later, without any recognisable pattern. After a thorough investigation of all installed drivers in this Windows XP partition listed in the prerequisites, I found three drivers in the c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\ folder in the form of SYS files, which are loaded correctly after system startup, though. These files are avgntflt.sys, avipbb.sys and avkmgr.sys whose manufacturer is Avira. They are automatically loaded at system startup and logged in the Event Viewer as properly loaded drivers. That's why I didn't notice them earlier as I only looked there for errors. However, there are no programmes of this manufacturer installed any longer in this partition. This was indeed the crucial hint. After checking and unpacking all installation files that could have installed these drivers in the past, I was able to identify the culprit. It was the crappy Wise Anti Malware 2.2.1, which was installed for a short time for testing purposes only. With the help of Process Hacker and Total Commander, I was able to stop the associated processes and completely remove all three driver files, but only after restarting the system. Immediately afterwards, I opened the Thorium browser, configured it completely and restarted the browser several times. No first launch crashes anymore! Various pages were called up. The browser did not crash even once, no matter what actions were performed. Now, Thorium is working absolute stably in this partition as it is in my POSReady partition. So, these three drivers or at least, one of them (probably the avgntflt.sys driver as it is a filter driver and was more difficult to remove), were definitely the cause of the permanent Thorium crashes. q.e.d. PS: So, forget about my formerly created hypotheses H0! They all have to be rejected with an empirically determined probability of type I error of nearly 0. There is no indication that Thorium requires POSReady updates under Windows XP 32-bit, at least at the moment.

Regarding my issue with sudden Thorium crashes, I performed the following measures so far: Checking the file system for errors. Checking the integrity of the partition structure. Purging the partition in terms of trash/temp files. Complete defragmentation of the partition. Offline defragmentation of pagefile and registry files. Clearing and reorganising of the prefetch files. Checking the registry for errors and fixing them. Checking for missing updates performed by Legacy Update. Adding a couple of Windows updates which weren't offered by WU/MU. Installation of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 - 2019 Redistributable Package as it is also installed in the POSReady partition. Verifying the integrity of the DirectX 9.0c installation. Verifying the integrity of all .NET Framework installations. Uninstalling or disabling programmes which are permanently loaded and don't exist in my POSReady installation. Checking all autostart programmes and services. Fixing of all errors from the event log. Configuration of all services corresponding to my POSReady installation. Updating of programmes, which are permanently loaded, to the same version as in the POSReady installation. Update of the root certificates. Fixing a network error and adjusting all network settings. Graphics card driver completely uninstalled, all leftovers cleaned and more recent driver version installed. Now, my Windows XP Pro SP3 installation without POSReady updates is completely error-free except the issue with sudden Thorium crashes . The good is this Windows XP installation is now even fresher and faster than ever. My next measure is the check of all other drivers in that partition which might be problematic.

I checked my Thorium processes regarding loaded modules, and on my Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit, the vulkan-1.dll is not loaded.

You should better use GPU-Z to see all features of your graphics card.

Today, I have installed Legacy Update 1.9 on my Windows XP Professional SP3 installation where POSReady updates have never been applied. It's just a pure Windows XP 32-bit. Due to the lack of POSReady updates, I decided to test Legacy Update in this XP installation. It was installed in seconds and calling up this service worked without any problems. It even offered to install root certificates and POSReady updates, which I didn't want and had to untick during the install process, though. The Windows Update search was performed in the Internet Explorer without any settings or actions by the user, and only few minutes later, it was done. Great service! I can definitely recommend it, especially to those who haven't use the POSReady hack. BTW, the result was the same I got in 2014 as all WU/MU updates have been installed at that time. I just wanted to be sure that no updates are missing.

The Vulkan feature is not an issue for me as my graphics card does not support this. It is simply disabled in Thorium.

I have installed all Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Packages up to the last XP-compatible version 2019. You can't really determine which packages are outdated or not as older programmes need very often older VC++ versions. And I don't think these package are responsible for the Thorium crashes as they all are also installed in my Windows XP Pro SP3 + POSReady partition. And there, all is fine.

TBH, so far I have been able to find and even fix every error in my Windows XP partitions. My personal statistics therefore clearly indicate that I will also eliminate this issue. The current, empirically obtained data from other users does not, of course, confirm my null hypothesis H0. As I said before, I am not willing to install POSReady updates in my Windows XP Pro SP3-only partition. So I need to take alternative options and investigate them in depth.

@NotHereToPlayGames You should not fall into the belief that @AstroSkipper is plagued by bias and narrow-mindedness. As a scientist and mathematician, it is a matter of course to open the mind in all directions. Hypotheses are made and either accepted or rejected. Assertions, on the other hand, have to be proven. Since I formulated the relation between Thorium crashes and the non-existence of POSReady updates in a Windows XP installation as a hypothesis from the outset, there is of course the possibility of accepting a hypothesis that is simply wrong, which is called an type II error in statistics. I made this clear from the very beginning. My investigations go in all directions. From the beginning, an alternative theory was that some loaded modules, programmes or drivers could be responsible for the Thorium crashes. I am investigating my problem in all possible directions as I always do.