Dave-H

I agree about the ridiculous version numbering nowadays, but I certainly hope Mozilla's ship isn't actually sinking! That would be a great tragedy, and an indication that effectively Google Chrome and Edge (also now soon to be Chromium based of course) have finally permanently won the "browser war", and will permanently control all of the web's browsing technologies. I'm sure you're right about "rapid release cycles" being all about "looking good". In the "old days" a "version 10" for instance, would last for years, going to 10.1, 10,2, etc., with sub-increments even between them. Nowadays there would probably be more than 20 full version increments where before the main version number would have only changed once!

I changed the screen in my Asus netbook as it was fitted with a highly reflective one which was like looking in a mirror! The matt finish one I replaced it with is much better. It wasn't too difficult to do, but obviously this varies a lot between different units. Its native resolution is 1024x600, which means that Windows 8.1 apps will not open as they have to have at least 768 vertical resolution to work. I used a registry hack to enable me to switch the resolution to 1024x768 to use the apps, but in this mode the display is not only blurry, but also compressed vertically so everything is distorted. That is preferable IMO to the image being the right shape but vertically cropped! This is tolerable for temporary use to read the mail or news app, but hardly ideal, and is a good example of the undesirability of using any display at anything other than its native resolution.

What is the native resolution of the display fitted in the laptop? Usually, displays only look at their best at their native resolution, so trying to go higher may actually produce poorer looking results.

Thank you again! And yes, point taken. Cheers, Dave.

Yes, I've noticed that as well. Not so much of an issue as there aren't that many of them, but it would be good to get them working if it's possible.

Thank you so much @mixit, it's now working fine again. I will keep your user agent string on Instagram just for hopefully some future proofing in case they start completely rejecting older Firefox versions, although it was almost certainly just my sloppy attempt to modify the userCustom.css code that was the problem, nothing to do with the user agent! Cheers, Dave.

Thanks @mixit! I now have this in userContent.css @-moz-document domain(instagram.com) { div._97aPb [role="dialog"] { display: block !important; } } How strange to have a trailing space in the div name! I had tried that div name before and it didn't work, but maybe it needs a different user agent string now as well, which it didn't before. I've tried several, and none of them make it work again. Could you tell me what user agent string you're actually using? Thanks, Dave.

I've tried using custom user agent strings on Instagram, which I've not done before, and all that seems to happen then is that the page won't load at all, just showing a blank white page with a camera icon in the middle of it!

Thanks. I've been trying to tweak @mixit's code to bring it back, but no luck so far. He did say that it might well break if they changed their "div" names. I guess we were lucky that it worked for as long as it did!

Oh dear, it looks as if this has happened again! Anyone else confirm?

Being pedantic, I should point out that Office 2010 isn't actually compatible with Windows XP any more, as recent security updates include a version of MSO.DLL with isn't XP compatible. It is therefore necessary to use an out of date version of MSO.DLL for the programs to run on XP, potentially opening up security risks. Microsoft have shown no sign of addressing this problem, despite being told about it, so I can only assume that as far as they are concerned, XP compatibility has been dropped. That's why I said "supposedly" in my post.

I would almost certainly be using Avast now if I could have got it working on my machine, but it absolutely refused to work, the main service would not start, cause unknown, so I ended up with Malwarebytes Premium, which I've been very happy with.

I'm sure the case will be fitted with plenty of fans! Thanks for the clarification about the expansion slots, still strange you can't see them in your picture though! Cheers, Dave.

That's a serious looking GPU you've got there, I wish I had the physical room in my system for something like that! Where are the other expansion slots though, does that motherboard not have any others?

Do you have the files for ProxHTTPSProxy? If not, the first thing you'll have to do is to PM @heinoganda to get his version, which he has ported to XP.

Well I already have ProxHTTPSProxy installed and in use on IE/Eudora, but routing the Sky sites through that doesn't seem to work, I just get the "insecure connection" page. I'm guessing this is because it's using localhost and therefore the HOSTS file? I also have a very old version (4.5 from 2003!) of Proxomitron installed, although I haven't used it for years. I'd rather not do it by having yet another program running in the background on the machine just to access a few websites which I don't visit that often anyway. A reliable online free proxy would be ideal. EDIT: I've now seen that the version of Proxomitron I've already got is the latest (and presumably last) version, over 16 years old!

That's right, all I need now is a free proxy server that I know will always work! Any suggestions gratefully received........

@jumper Thanks again, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to work. As I'm sure you gathered, I found that script on another forum, and modified it to meet my needs. It was offered to someone who wanted to use a specific proxy server for a specific URL, which of course it's fine for. My modified version makes Firefox use the stated proxy server for the domains that we put in the HOSTS file, which bypasses the HOSTS file for those domains so they work again without being blocked. All fine, but of course I am now relying on that free online proxy server always working, and I've already found, sometimes it doesn't! Even when it does work, it does considerably slow down access to those sites. Your suggestion, which I think I'm right in saying should make Firefox think that it's always using a proxy when in fact it isn't, and will therefore still make it bypass the HOSTS file for all sites, unfortunately doesn't seem to work, I just get the insecure connection error page on all the Sky sites.

I've now found another workaround which doesn't involve everything in Firefox using ProxHTTPSProxy, which might be a bit more elegant. I'm now using the "Automatic proxy configuration URL" option in the Firefox network settings and pointing it at a js file in my Firefox profile folder containing- function FindProxyForURL(url, host) { // use proxy for specific domains if (shExpMatch(host, "www.sky.com|assets.sky.com|helpforum.sky.com")) return "PROXY 51.38.71.101:8080"; // by default use no proxy return "DIRECT"; } This redirects the three Sky URLs in the HOSTS file to a proxy server at 51.38.71.101 which seems to work fine. Of course it does rely in that free proxy server always being online! Anyone any more thoughts on this? Cheers, Dave.

OK, I think I've found a workaround for Firefox 52. I read that using a proxy should override any settings in the HOSTS file, so I configured Firefox to use ProxHTTPSProxy, which up until now I've only been using in IE (and therefore in Eudora). This worked fine, but the Sky URLs were still blocked, presumably because it's a local proxy system and still using localhost? I then found that in the configuration file of HTTPSProxy you can set up alternative external proxies, so I found a working free UK proxy and added it to the file. [PROXY https://51.38.71.101:8080] *sky.com This seems to work, although the sites are a bit slow to respond. I also had to add skyid.sky.com, helpforum.sky.com, and myaccount.sky.com to the proxy exclusions in Firefox, or some elements of the sites still didn't work. Does this sound reasonable as a workaround?

OK, I've found a workaround that works in Firefox 68 on Windows 10 (I now have the same HOSTS file there). After some investigation, I'm using the option in the Firefox settings "Enable DNS over HTTPS". I'm using the default option, which is Cloudflare, and that has restored access to www.sky.com, and helpforum.sky.com. This will affect all sites in Firefox of course, so I'm wondering if this might have any detrimental effects. Unfortunately, I can't do the same thing in Windows XP, as that network option does not exist in Firefox 52.9 ESR!

Thanks @jumper! That doesn't work I'm afraid, the long delay comes back in Eudora with that entry. Is there any way of getting Firefox to bypass the HOSTS file? I don't need any sites (apart from MS Update of course) to work in IE, I wondered if it might be possible to get the sites working again in Firefox though, which would be fine. Incidentally, just for completeness, I got the Marks and Spencer e-mails working without the delay by adding - 127.0.0.1 int-asset1.marksandspencer.com 127.0.0.1 int-asset1.cxnmarksandspencer.com to the HOSTS file. That does not seem to affect the look or functionality of the main M&S website fortunately. Cheers, Dave.

LOL, this is true! Strangely, although sky.com is now blocked, helpforum.sky.com still works, albeit with the browser default font instead of Sky's font. I can probably live with that, especially if I change it to Arial! Of course what I need is some way of overriding the HOSTS file block just in Firefox, I obviously want it blocked in IE because that's what's causing the long display delay in Eudora.

You did indeed mention the storage>default folder before (twice), I should have made the connection then with my backup restoration, but I didn't! Being very pedantic, just deleting the "skype related folders" there would not actually have fixed the problem it seems, I tried that and it didn't work. It only worked when I deleted the entire folder. Anyway, as you say, all's well that ends well! Cheers, Dave.

I used this to finally see the back of ctfmon.exe. It does work! Office Ctfmon Remover 2.3.zip