Pale Moon 26 for Atom/XP doesn't start with POSReady registry hack

[Agorima]

Just updated Pale Moon browser to versión 26 and get the message:

 

Unsupported operating system.

 

They decided to block Pale Moon on Posready 2009:

 

http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=10830

http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=10829

http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=10831

When I read that the new version of Pale Moon for Atom/XP was available I did the update from 25.8.1 to 26, but when I have tried to start the program I've seen this message:

Unsupported Operating System

So I did go back to the previous version.

I have looked at their forum and I read that PM wasn't compatible with POSReady 2009, so I think that now the program check the registry before starting.

How can I run now the new version of PM?

http://forum.palemoon.org/viewforum.php?f=53

Edited February 13, 2016 by dencorso

[Mcinwwl]

Tried to turn off registry hack for a while?

[Agorima]

I can't delete the specific key within Regedit, it's somewhat protected.

[dencorso]

Yes. It is. You'd have to remove the hack from the cold (unbooted) system, by using a live CD.

That's described somewhere else here... found it! It's in  this post.
 
Then again, fact is Pale Moon dumped us. Here is the official notice:
 

Pale Moon 26.0 and later will not run on POSReady2009

This includes Windows XP versions that have been "hacked" to get updates from Microsoft (a dangerous thing to do, to begin with).
POSReady2009 has never been a valid target OS for Pale Moon. See also: http://www.palemoon.org/PM_end_of_WinXP_support.shtml

 
And for those who have no intention of removing the hack just to satisfy Pale Moon, here are two links for direct download of the offline installer of  Pale Moon 25.8.1.(Atom/WinXP): <Link1> <Link2>

[RJARRRPCGP]

Perhaps this is why browsers should be blocked from the registry! (I believe this kind of thing can be used as an exploit.)

[bluebolt]

So Pale Moon says that installing POSReady2009 updates on Windows XP is “a dangerous thing to do…”

 

Don’t you feel oh so very outré using the POS hack?  Really living on the edge, aren’t we?

 

After 20 months or so now, would anyone care to consider the actual number of ported POSReady2009 updates that have failed or had problems specific to use on an XP system?

 

The problem rate for updates is probably better with POSReady2009 ports than XP-for-XP updates were.

[LoneCrusader]

Yes. It is. You'd have to remove the hack from the cold (unbooted) system, by using a live CD.

That's described somewhere else here... found it! It's in  this post.

 

Then again, fact is Pale Moon dumped us. Here is the official notice:

 

Pale Moon 26.0 and later will not run on POSReady2009

This includes Windows XP versions that have been "hacked" to get updates from Microsoft (a dangerous thing to do, to begin with).

POSReady2009 has never been a valid target OS for Pale Moon. See also: http://www.palemoon.org/PM_end_of_WinXP_support.shtml

 

And for those who have no intention of removing the hack just to satisfy Pale Moon, here are two links for direct download of the offline installer of  Pale Moon 25.8.1.(Atom/WinXP): <Link1> <Link2>

 

You know, I had really started to like PaleMoon before they dropped XP compatibility in the main build line. What a load of rubbish that was to begin with; if there is nothing in the code that prevents it from working under XP, then the choice to not build the code in an XP-friendly environment is nothing but outright laziness (or arrogance/distaste for the right of others to use the OS of their choice) on the part of the developers IMNSHO. And now, apparently they are furthering their arrogance by deciding whether or not it is "dangerous" for users to modify their operating systems as they so choose. Why should Moonchild care (and what business is it of his anyway) what variety of XP users want to run PaleMoon on?

[roytam1]

As usual you can just hack around palemoon.exe for running.

[Drugwash]

You know, I had really started to like PaleMoon before they dropped XP compatibility in the main build line. What a load of rubbish that was to begin with; if there is nothing in the code that prevents it from working under XP, then the choice to not build the code in an XP-friendly environment is nothing but outright laziness (or arrogance/distaste for the right of others to use the OS of their choice) on the part of the developers IMNSHO. And now, apparently they are furthering their arrogance by deciding whether or not it is "dangerous" for users to modify their operating systems as they so choose. Why should Moonchild care (and what business is it of his anyway) what variety of XP users want to run PaleMoon on?

Ironically, I had a slightly older version of PaleMoon - 25.3.1 - installed on XP but due to certain bugs I haven't used it for more than a few tests at the time. Then, a month or two ago, I picked it up again, updated it to 25.8.1 when it got released, installed a few more add-ons (even modded a couple to get them running properly) and found it was actually a bit faster and less resource-hungry than the previously used Firefox 13.0.1. And now, just when I got used to it and was almost perfectly set up, there they go: new engine, dumped compatibility.

 

My question is: do they do this willingly (I mean all developers from major software projects) or is there something behind the scenes? Because real programmers could always work their way around such (non)issues.

 

In regard to PaleMoon, at least the source code is publically available but who has - or can build - a proper development environment to patch the code and release POSReady-compatible versions? Unfortunately I can't.

 

Anyway, I'm about to unpack the portable version of the Atom/XP v26.0 in a separate folder, duplicate the existing profile and see if it's gonna work on my XP-SP4 machine, because the unofficial SP4 does create that POSReady registry key (just checked and it's there).

 

EDIT :

Not working. So I saved myself HDD space and frustration by deleting ~24MB of "new" PaleMoon crap. Current version still works, I'll use that one for as long as possible. And then I'll switch over to KolibriOS.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Drugwash

[roytam1]

forget about it, POSReady2009 *IS* XP.

just patch around palemoon.exe and run as usual.

[heinoganda]

Here is equal to a Simple medicine for Pale Moon browser v26

 

What is needed is the tool "hexalter.exe" and "delcert.exe", as well as the file "palemoon.exe" from Pale Moon browser, which should be located in a directory. Now just create and run a batch file with the following code.

hexalter.exe palemoon.exe 0x274A=0x4E,0x00,0x4F,0x00,0x46,0x00,0x55,0x00,0x43,0x00,0x4B,0x00,0x50,0x00,0x4Ddelcert.exe palemoon.exe

So Pale Moon no longer looking for the POSReady entry in the registry.

 

 

Update:

 

Since dencorso means that the certificates it is better to remove from the file "palemoon.exe" I reworked the code of the batch file.

 

Thanks @Plosa for the Link of hexalter.exe, also @dencorso for the Info and Link of delcert.exe

 

 

Edited January 27, 2016 by heinoganda

[Dibya]

hi , i own hxd

Where can i have hexalter

[Plosa]

You can find an archived copy of the hexalter tool here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150430211221/http://kuwanger.net/misc/hexalter.shtml

A big thank you, heinoganda, for the fast and easy solution. No need to say that it works perfectly.

 

Regards.

 

 

 

[dencorso]

It's better, in this particular case, to run delcert.exe after hexalter, instead of PEChecksum.exe, because delcert will both remove the now invalid certificate and then correct the PE checksum. IMO it's better to have a non-signed file than one having an invalid certificate. Of course, that's just my 2 ¢.

[Drugwash]

The stupid check is in the sources at browser\app\nsBrowserApp.cpp (I got the Atom/XP sources):

#ifdef XP_WIN  HKEY hKey;  LONG lRes = RegOpenKeyExW(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, L"SYSTEM\\WPA\\PosReady", 0, KEY_READ, &hKey);  if (lRes == ERROR_SUCCESS) {    Output("Unsupported operating system.");    return 255;  }#endif

Thing is, heinoganda's patch may be quick and dirty but it only works for this version. Actually I haven't tested it on the portable version I had unpacked, which is UPXed.

We need a maintainer that can rebuild each new version with that check disabled and maybe tweak something more out of it, if needed.

Or just forget PaleMoon ever existed.