AstroSkipper

Linguistically a little curious, but if the function "define" is simply not defined, it still makes sense.

Thank you! So far all is good. All my four IDE hard disk in my Windows XP computer are in an excellent condition. And I have two Dawicontrol SATA PCI cards on reserve. But I hope I do not have to use them. I think I would even rather change the motherboard.

DreamMail Pro - Update information! DreamMail Pro has been updated again and is now available in version 6.6.6.8. It is still XP-compatible, and the development is ongoing! I have not been able to find a version history on their homepage. Therefore, I generated an official version history and provide it here: And here is the download link of DreamMail Pro 6.6.6.8: https://dl.cy-email.com/dm6/Download/dmpro_setup6.6.6.8.exe To force the updated installer of DreamMail Pro 6.6.6.8 to use English instead of Chinese as the installer language, I updated again my small loader that does this when it calls up the setup program. It must be executed in the same directory in which the setup file is located with its original file name dmpro_setup6.6.6.8.exe. Here is the download link of my loader Force_En_Install_DM_Pro_6668.exe: https://www.mediafire.com/file/1bdbimf2eq6m21l/Force_En_Install_DM_Pro_6668.7z/file Although some virus scanners detect this file as malicious, it is just a false-positive as always. Use my loader to force an English install, only if you trust me, of course! Cheers, AstroSkipper

To all real (no VM) Windows XP SP3 (32 Bit) Professional POSReady users! Is anyone else here in the forum who can or can't confirm this issue described in the quoted posts? I am still interested in a confirmation in terms of the issue described in the quoted posts above to decide whether it is POSReady related or not. This request is addressed to all members using a real (no VM) Windows XP SP3 (32 Bit) Professional, fully updated including all POSReady Updates. Or am I the only real XP (32 Bit) user here? Thanks in advance! Greetings, AstroSkipper

Of course, not! The last years, only from time to time. All for nostalgic and rather sentimental reasons! It's just contemporary history. And I have always been an Atari fan.

Unfortunately, a lot of problems. No space for additional PCI cards. Quality of IDE-SATA adapters, lack of space, compatibility problems, IRQ incompatibilities and so on. I've already bought IDE-SATA adapters and expansion cards, but I'm happy if my old computer doesn't need any further modification. This cheap electronic stuff has burnt me out before. I am not really a friend of such adapters.

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as you describe here. You can't buy a new PATA meaning an IDE hard disk anymore, and that for years. They are not produced anymore. In old systems, there is no SATA controller or can no longer be retrofitted so easily. Old systems lack of PCIe slots, they have PCI only. Therefore, it could be important to maintain and take care of old IDE hard disks and their data as long as possible.

Yep, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be as much fun. And here, members meet who don't necessarily follow the maxim "Brevity is the soul of wit".

Well, sarcasm is unfortunately a rhetorical stylistic device that tends to backfire. Isn't it? AstroSkipper

For installing unsigned web extensions in Serpent 52 and 55 (moebius! ) they have first to be compatible with these browsers. Deleting any files from the folder META-INF of a xpi file does not do anything, and is therefore no solution. Furthermore, only setting the preference xpinstall.signatures.required to false, which is already the default setting in Serpent, is no solution, either. To install such an unsigned web extension permanently (there is no META-INF folder in its archive, or it has been removed) in Serpent, the file manifest.json has to be modified to assign a unique ID to this extension. For testing purpose, I did that in the case of the web extension save-as-ebook 1.4.2 loaded from https://github.com/alexadam/save-as-ebook/tree/master/web-extension which lacks of such an ID in its file manifest.json. After assigning a unique ID to it, I packed the complete extension into a zip file and renamed it to save-as-ebook-1.4.2.xpi. If done, it can be installed then as usual, works as it should and also survives the next browser restart. Without enabling add-on debugging which would only result in a temporary loading of the web extension anyway! As a unique ID, I chose user-save-as-ebook@email.com. Here is a screenshot as a proof: Cheers, AstroSkipper

OT: My first computers were an Atari 800 XL with 64 KB RAM from 1984 and an Atari 1040 ST with 1 MB RAM (upgraded to unbeliebable 4 MB) from 1986. One year later, 1987, I bought an external Quantum HDD for my Atari 1040 ST. This HDD is now an unbelievable 36 years old and still working. And both Atari computers, too. A Quantum hard disk was something like a Mercedes at that time and of the very best quality. I am quite sure that you won't get any HDDs in these days which last such a long time. And I should mention that this Quantum HDD never got any data refreshing in all the 36 years. It seems that hard disks of such quality probably don't need that either.

Right! That's why I included it in my collection of emergency programs years ago. I have a bag with many CDs and DVDs for emergencies (more than 100). With these programs, I can access my hard drives, partitions or hardware from the outside of my Windows system partition at any time. BTW, all repairs in terms of computers I do myself, if it is still repairable at all, and have a lot of special tools and measuring instruments for this. All of my computers are built, modified and maintained by myself. AstroSkipper

If I had the need to refresh a more recent HDD, I would give DiskFresh a try. A tool similar to Spinrite is HDD Regenerator. And defragmenting a partition or restoring an image has also the effect of refreshing data. So such a special tool like DiskFresh is rather targeting HDDs which were stored outside as a backup or are used rarely. And there are certainly many other tools that perform read/write operations as one of many features. Therefore, probably no need for more such specialized tools.

Just for clarification! I use Spinrite 6.0 only on old PATA HDDs. I would never think of using such old hardware-related software on current disks. Such considerations would be simply absurd. All has to be sensible or in some cases even time-period correct and has to match the necessary system requirements. However, the HDDs in my anchient Windows XP computer (year of manufacture 2000 and BIOS from 2002) are all very old and match the system requirements for using Spinrite. Newer hardware means logically more recent tools for such measures. And I already stated: AstroSkipper

Glad you like my suggestion! The tools from Nirsoft are simply great, and this has been the case for many years. I used the tool MZCacheView in the past, and the path to the cache folder of the browser profile directory has to be adjusted there, too. Nirsoft offers such tools for all major browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Opera and the old IE.

As I already wrote in previous posts, I used Spinrite 6.0 in the past, and it helped me to refresh old HDDs and to check a few pending sectors on them which were then remapped as good. This program has served me well. And I wouldn't hesitate to use it again if there were problems on my old disks. HDDs that don't survive this tool wouldn't last much longer anyway. A backup of their data is mandatory, only if possible, of course. Just to be on the sunny side of the street!

FYI: And that means information about our TLS proxies and certificates can be easily found in my main article and in this thread without any problems in seconds. Kind regards, AstroSkipper

Thank you! TBH, I always do what I consider to be sensible and right.

OT: Maybe, you perform a statistical investigation to get data in terms of correlation. That would be very interesting for me as a mathematician. AstroSkipper

Just for clarification! To get information about our TLS proxies does not necessarily mean to read the whole article "ProxHTTPSProxy and HTTPSProxy in Windows XP for future use". This article is well-structured, comprehensive and up-to-date. It contains all about our TLS proxies and certificates, especially targeting Windows XP. You won't find anything comparable. A lot of my sections can be read separately. And as I already mentioned, browsers have a site search function. And anyone can actually use it these days. Right?

There is no need to do that. I don't want to have a small FAQ. People seeking information should be prepared to read, otherwise they will unfortunately have to be content with trivial knowledge. I am not a friend of the unwillingness to inform oneself comprehensively. In today's youth, it is common practice to get information quickly. But then they don't know anything.

If you want to avoid that, make something short and easy to understand, not Wikipedia (even if it's complete and we have all details, not everyone is able to read all of that and understand, or even choose the right section to get the information they're looking for). Or make a section "Frequently Asked Questions", with the common questions about this. If you want to reply, send me a private message, this is kinda polluting the thread (which does not make the search easy for people who are trying to find a specific post). My post is a complete article containing everything about these proxies. At the beginning, there is a table of contents. And you have a site search in nearly all browsers. If that's not enough, there's unfortunately nothing I can do to help. Those seeking information should be prepared to read, otherwise they will unfortunately have to be content with trivial knowledge. In such a case, however, one should not spread information about such things. You are referring to the TLS 1.2 proxies from @heinoganda and @Thomas S.. These proxies are no longer up-to-date, either. Oh my dear! I gave you the link and the sections. What more do you need to find information? Once again: Here is the link to my article: Have a look at the sections 8. The TLS 1.3 proxy ProxyMII and 9. The TLS 1.3 proxy ProxHTTPSProxy's PopMenu TLS 1.3! Hope you will find it finally!

For me, very important data, though. I have been dealing with hard drives since the late 1980s. Therefore, I have a lot of experience. Thank you! I am happy, too. Yep! And I will do so as long as my HDDs exist. It helped me a lot in the past as I already mentioned.

And that has been the case since the very beginning!

Where did you see that? Did you do a research first? Unfortunately, you are wrong and not up-to-date. The most recent ProxHTTPSProxy TLS 1.3 1.5.220717 does not require a CPU with SSE2 instruction set anymore, SSE only is sufficient. I thought you read my article "ProxHTTPSProxy and HTTPSProxy in Windows XP for future use". Have a look at the section 8 and 9: ProxHTTPSProxyM v1.3a is unsecure and only needed in very special situation but definitely not under Windows XP. And BTW, there are big differences between both proxies that is all described in detail in my article. In any case, providing such information is rather misleading and should be avoided.