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Windows 9x Web Helper (9xweb) - Discontinued


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Thanks for the youtube links. Yep same for me, all 3 are forbidden to download. Meaning the yt-script contains only the various download properties but the URL itself is obfuscated. It's probably possible with some sophisticated tricks, but probably a bad idea and anyway over my head. Oh well.

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Speaking of youtube, just came across this:
https://ruclip.com/video/xxxxx/ (xx=youtube-ID)

Have not tried yet if videos run or whether their download links work,
preferred to keep my JS disabled, but all the rest looks great in ancient browsers too:
video preview pic, title and data, full descriptions - and Comments.

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Thank-you siria for the information. The site ruclip[dot]com is not supported by youtube-dl, not a biggie but it would help with testing. Lots hiding behind JavaScript, on my test browser the page's search feature didn't work with JavaScript disabled.

Using the YouTube video ID, followed by a trailing slash loads the video page (not the video):
https://ruclip.com/video/iuzyA5gDa4E/

May play later to see if this site can successfully access these types of videos. If it's just mirroring YouTube then probably not, it still appears to be served by VEVO.

Since my other systems can fully access videos via youtube-dl, not being able to access 'forbidden' videos via 9xweb in Windows 98 isn't a dealbreaker, bummer but not a big deal. Many videos are still accessible, for example retro computing and gaming.

Sidenote, keepvid[dot]works has not been updated since early 2019, probably explains why some VEVO type videos are failing. Will monitor to see if they are still actively updating.

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  • 2 weeks later...

YouTube page loading and YouTube searches started failing in RetroZilla. Will play around with user agent strings and such to determine if there is a simple solution, if so will post on the RetroZilla Community Edition thread.

Regardless the 9xweb script can still access YouTube videos without actually visiting YouTube. Just right-click and select 'Copy link location' from the desired search result to pass the YouTube URL to the clipboard for 9xweb. If using the RetroZilla Search Engine Collection, the DuckDuckGo-Lite or Startpage engines work well, using the search string below.
site:youtube.com search_term

Note Duck Duck Go occasionally obfuscate's YouTube URL results, this can be cleaned up using the [t]rim option of the 9xweb main screen. It is, however, just easier to avoid this hassle by using the Startpage search engine.

These work-arounds are unfortunate and sad, as they will eventually fail, but for now YouTube can be limped along. As long as you have the YouTube URL, then many (not all) YouTube videos still work using the 9xweb script.

# RANT

Funny quotes from the about YouTube page.
https://www.youtube.com/about/

Append each corporate statement with '... unless you're using Windows 98'.

"Our mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world."

"We believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories."

"Our values are based on four essential freedoms that define who we are."

"Freedom of Information"

"We believe everyone should have easy, open access to information and that video is a powerful force for education, building understanding, and documenting world events, big and small."

# END

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struggling along too... they are breaking layouts faster than one can look, and workarounds too, GRR
Someone explained that a classic youtube addon simple sets the UA to googlebot.
Funnily it vanished from Chrome's addon repo.

Now tried that googlebot UA too - and YES! At the moment that seems my only chance to see the homepage (without search access), or search results - but only if URL is known, called e.g. from bookmarks.
And isn't it funny: They CAN still show a NICE, simple layout, no prob at all, but only allow it to search bots!

Access to Youtube Search:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cats&search_sort=video_date_uploaded

Youtube last working USERAGENTS:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot 2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm

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Hi siria, thanks for your help, you're wonderful!

My YouTube search engine for RetroZilla uses similar, Sports Car GT example:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sports+car+gt+scgt+%2Cshort

... appending +%2Cshort (%2C = comma) returns videos < 4 minutes.

... similarly +%2Clong think gets > 20 minutes.

Figured it was just a UA issue as RetroZilla connects to the site, just doesn't load functionally. Had some success with an Opera v9 string, until it failed. Your Googlebot UA string works well. Will updated the RetroZilla Community Edition thread with this valuable tidbit. Thanks again :)

Edited by Wunderbar98
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Great! Thanks to you too.
Let's hope it keeps working for a while, but sadly not very optimistic. Too bad google and all major browsers makers announced last year in a surprise coup to replace this simple UA-fake method with a stealth one deep under the hood, unfakeable and with even more data secretely transferred, by a new server pull method, known only to newest browers of course. And everyone shouted Hurray, sigh. Then they'll know 100% for sure which browser is used and no such blocking-workarounds possible anymore.

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Just updated my personal GNU/Linux YouTube script (Bash youtube-dl front-end) with the Googlebot UA, this has temporarily fixed the breakage there too. Without the proper UA string, noticed YouTube now serves the HTML data page using a different, more obfuscated, format. As the Cygwin-Lite install has access to awk, sed and such, it is likely possible to parse the new data page format if the UA string work-around starts to fail, effectively turning 9xweb in to a rudimentary command line YouTube searcher/browser. Not sure how far i want to go with this, however. Of course if Cygwin-Lite's old release of wget no longer connects, then 9xweb's YouTube functions are dead anyway. For now all is good, keep limping along fellow Windows 9x users.

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VistaLover found that another old trick still works too, at least partly!
Not on homepage anymore, only on single video pages:

https://msfn.org/board/topic/181184-yt-may-not-work-on-old-browsers-anymore-starting-march-2020/?do=findComment&comment=1183860

VistaLover said:
> classic style is not restored, but still works for independent video URIs:
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-z7hoEWaH4&disable_polymer=1
> A Google-bot SSUAO however does, as of this writing, work in both cases...
> [I'm using just "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)"]

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Hi siria. Thanks again for more information. Thus far the 9xweb script is working quite well without any of the workarounds. No User Agent string has been specified for the Wget executable, thus far churning nicely, even without adding '&disable_polymer=1' to any YouTube destination URLs. The next 9xweb release will, however, have the updated Googlebot User Agent string plus the polymer addendum noted in the comments section, in case it's required for a future release.

Just did some quick testing, checked the first 10 hits in YouTube Trending (https://www.youtube.com/feed/trending). Eight out of ten videos were successfully retrieved, although one required the assistance of keepvid[dot]works. So 9xweb is batting 70%, keepvid[dot]works helped out a bit and the two that failed outright i believe were VEVO music videos.

So just like mentioned before, it really depends on what you want out of YouTube. If you're looking for informative videos, retro computing and gaming, etc the success percentage should exceed 70%. If you just want to watch the latest pop/rock type videos, not so good. Note adding '&disable_polymer=1' to the failed YouTube URLs did not make a difference for either 9xweb or keepvid[dot]works.

Think the next release will incorporate keepvid[dot]works as a USER CONFIG variable, that will ask the user if they want to open a new keepvid[dot]works tab in the configured web browser for videos that fail with the dreaded 'ERROR: 403 Forbidden'. With any luck keepvid[dot]works will be able to update their site to keep up with YouTube's changes.

To me using 9xweb first, then keepvid[dot]works as a fallback is preferable, as 9xweb:
- Auto-names the MP4 file
- Provides playback preview
- Allows viewing the video description

1. GOOD - 9xweb
BLACKPINK -How You Like That 20200704
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2cxVV5JAms

2. GOOD - 9xweb
WATCH LIVE: Trump holds July 4 celebration at Mt. Rushmore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQpWydz7J1Y

3. GOOD - 9xweb
Clash Royale: CLAN WARS 2 UPDATE REVEAL! ?? TV Royale Special
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw0AFLsTLDE

4. GOOD - keepvid[dot]works
POP SMOKE - GOT IT ON ME (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPnnX7hOcQM

5. GOOD - 9xweb
When you're trying NOT to look dumb in front of your smart friend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pRxp2FKq_U

6. FAIL
Pop Smoke - For The Night (Audio) ft. Lil Baby, DaBaby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9pjm4cNsfc

7. GOOD - 9xweb
2020 Austrian Grand Prix: FP1 Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT3I_OdHVew

8. FAIL
Pop Smoke - The Woo (Audio) ft. 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24cbJedcfsc

9. GOOD - 9xweb
An American Pickle | Official Trailer | HBO Max
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBC0pTh6GDM

10. GOOD - 9xweb
AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST PUMPKIN Vs. GIANT AXE from 45m Tower!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7suCsa1kzM

Edited by Wunderbar98
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Just to follow-up siria, the YouTube URL you provided above also did not require the '&disable_polymer=1' addendum to work with 9xweb.

Cute Baby and Cats Playing Together...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-z7hoEWaH4

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A new $AskKeepvid variable was added for 'ERROR: 403 Forbidden' YouTube videos.

# Ask to open https://keepvid.works/ in configured browser tab for
# failed 'ERROR: 403 Forbidden' YouTube videos, use 'yes' or 'no':
AskKeepvid="yes"

During script runtime, if a 403 error is encountered the dialogue below will be displayed. Note keepvid[dot]works does not require any JavaScript to be running to work, just paste the clipboard's URL into the keepvid[dot]works browser page, then click Download. The page will refresh, then just click the 'Download video' button, slightly obscured in RetroZilla but clearly visible and works fine. The video's description can then be read via 9xweb as desired.

Just going to test it out for a few sessions before issuing a formal release.

*****

ERROR 403: Forbidden

Error retrieving file, note 9xweb does not process 403 Forbidden errors.

Open retrozilla.exe tab to https://keepvid.works/ for manual download attempt,
note the URL is already in clipboard for quick pasting, [y/n]? y

Display video description [y/n]: y

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Since Windows 98 browsers now have problems connecting to YouTube without jumping through extra hoops, primitive YouTube search functionality was added directly to the 9xweb script. This will allow the user to query YouTube for 'Trending' results or a custom search (eg. 'DOS games'). The video titles are dumped to screen in 9xweb's command.com window, select the video you want to add to clipboard, then use 9xweb as normal.

Not interested in wasting a lot of time on this so [c]ache is limited to the last search performed, replaced by a new search. First page search results dumped to screen typically number 20-30 titles depending on the query, and a 'YouTube Trending' search usually fetches 85 results. The 'less' command, similar to DOS's 'more', is used when the list exceeds command.com window rows, so results can be scrolled (up/down arrow, page up/down, [q]uit to exit 'less').

Will resist the urge to add additional cache, search history, next page type functionalities. It's all possible but takes effort and time. Since hardly anyone is using this script anyway, it's just a hobby project and future YouTube changes could cause it to fail anytime.

If internet bandwidth is an issue consider any/all when using 9xweb:
- Set video quality to 640 x 360
- Set a 5 - 10 second Wget preview to determine if the video is worth the bandwidth
- End search query with ' ,short' (space comma short) for < 4 minute duration videos

Hopefully YouTube, forum members and forum admin will be okay with this. If an objection is received, at least this component of the 9xweb project will be abandoned (took snapshot before adding search). Will upload work in progress screenshots shortly and release script after some test and polish.

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