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K-Meleon TLS 1.2 in vanilla Windows 98 SE


Wunderbar98

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Trying to get a TLS v1.2 K-Meleon running on vanilla Windows 98 SE. Trialed the newest and oldest releases from https://o.rths.ml/kmeleon/ (KM-Goanna-20171215 and KM76.2.1-Goanna-20200725) and both reportedly require a newer version of Windows when attempting to launch the executable.

Next trialed K-Meleon1.5.4en-US.tls12.7z from:
http://o.rths.ml/gpc/files1.rt/K-Meleon1.5.4en-US.tls12.7z

Unzipping and executing k-meleon.exe or k-meleonW9x.exe result in an MSVCR71.DLL not found error. This file does not exist in the Windows 98 SE operating system but there is a same-named file in the Open Office v2.4 installation directory.

MSVCR71.DLL
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft C Runtime Library
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
version 7.10.3052.4
348,160 bytes

Copied MSVCR71.DLL into both C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and the unzipped K-Meleon root directory, rebooted. Now clicking k-meleon9x.exe results in an illegal operation error, invalid page fault. Clicking k-meleon.exe indicates k-meleon.exe is linked to missing export ADVAPI32.DLL, CreateRestrictedToken. This file is present in vanilla Windows 98 SE C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.

AVAPI32.DLL
Microsoft Corporation
version 4.80.1675
65,536 bytes

Copying AVAPI32.DLL into the unzipped K-Meleon root directory. Clicking k-meleon.exe results in the same missing export ADVAPI32.DLL error.

Assistance appreciated, is this the correct version of K-Meleon to test? Are the DLL files not properly recognized? Does a Windows 98 SE friendly K-Meleon need to be installed first, then over-zip the @roytam1 release? Does it just not work on a vanilla system?

Edited by Wunderbar98
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This version sounds cool but it needs KernelEx with Windows 2000 compatability. Can't remember which forum member runs retrosystemsrevival, thank-you. Unfortunately downloads from the site via RetroZilla do not work. The site has a nice KernelEx tutorial YouTube video, may try it some day. Yes @siria, my next Windows 98 install may include KernelEx applications :)
https://retrosystemsrevival.blogspot.com/2018/05/k-meleon-74-windows-9x-edition.html

Wanted to download official K-Meleon v1.5.4 from sourceforge[dot]net. Their site was temporarily down, returned but don't think they provide old releases here.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kmeleon/files/

Last working version of K-Meleon for vanilla Windows 98 appears to be v1.5.4. Got it from below via Internet Explorer v5 (not HTTPS site) but had to manually rename the download file (eg. k-meleon_v1.5.4.exe, 5.76 MB, no JavaScript needed).
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/download/k-meleon-1-5-4

Installed into system. Browser first run good but couldn't even load ssllabs[dot]com for checking.
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

Notice the formal install has MSVCR71.DLL, this is good. Over-zipped @roytam1's K-Meleon1.5.4en-US.tls12.7z release in to the installation directory (C:\Program Files\K-Meleon). Now clicking the k-meleonW9x.exe executable launches the browser fine and the ssllabs[dot]com site indicates TLS v1.2.

Very good, the RetroZilla Community Edition thread will be updated appropriately, one of the "only" browsers that supports TLS v1.2 in vanilla Windows 98. Will have some fun with K-Meleon, overall a slick and lightweight browser. Changing the default skin from Phoenity to Klassic is nice. Not sure yet if the menu bars can be changed to text only instead of icons, minor. This browser almost has too many configurable options.

Similar to recent discussion on the RetroZilla Community Edition thread, this browser can also be set up from a fresh Windows 98 installation using only Internet Explorer v5 to get the HTTP only downloads.
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/k-meleon-1-5-4
http://o.rthost.win/gpc/files1.rt/K-Meleon1.5.4en-US.tls12.7z
http://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/sevenzip/7-Zip/9.20/7z920.exe

1. Is this the latest vanilla Windows 98 compatible release from @roytam1?
http://o.rths.ml/gpc/files1.rt/K-Meleon1.5.4en-US.tls12.7z

2. Are RetroZilla and K-Meleon the only TLS v1.2 capable browsers for vanilla Windows 98 SE?

[posted via K-Meleon]

Edited by Wunderbar98
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Using the above install method, the resulting desktop, system tray and start menu shortcuts point to k-meleon.exe not k-meleonW9x.exe, used by Windows 98. Either back up or delete the existing k-meleon.exe file and rename k-meleonW9x.exe to k-meleon.exe OR modify the shortcut properties to point to k-meleonW9x.exe.

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Fantastic, great job! Thanks :-)

But must say I'm shocked -again- how near impossible such "easy" installations have meanwhile become for vanilla systems.
And especially weird: KM154+TLS cannot run out-of-box?? Not even if the dll's are added manually?
UH OH... yet another killer prob for people with only IE5, additional to the 7z killer-prob, and the blocked KM-Forum with IE5 (due to UA), and the blocked MSFN-forum (due to TLS), sigh...
Makes me wonder, what else is missing in 7z, but contained in the exe?
For example, would a fresh RT-KM154 work too when the old exe was not "installed", only unzipped??

Here's a working direct download link for K-Meleon154.exe (exe is just zipped, contains the missing dll's):
http://iweb.dl.sourceforge.net/project/kmeleon/k-meleon/1.5.4/K-Meleon1.5.4en-US.exe
(iweb or netcologne or netix or .... more on mirror list:)
https://sourceforge.net/p/forge/documentation/Mirrors/

A few starter tips:
1) To use profiles inside, as portable mode, one can simply add an empty file in its root folder:
profile.ini
2) have you found the Privacy Toolbar already? Killer feature hidden by default, handy buttons for quick-toggle javascript, cookies etc
3) To open middle-clicked links in background, switch Tools > Mouse Accelerators > Firefox
4) Hit F2 to quickly find most configuration
5) When some day visiting the KM-forum and it's broken with some WEIRD error: that's just SF blocking visitors with "Win98" in their useragent string! Can be switched in Tools > UserAgent > Custom...
6) CATCH: javascript alerts/prompts by MACROS secretly switch on global javascript permanently, and the toolbar button state makes this visible only after next page load!
7) CATCH: KM has no View > Page Style! Get macro StyleKiller from KM-Forum (but posted version can't toggle inline styles yet, only my private unfinished update)
8) For fans of buttons and content blocks recommend my priv3buttons macro (KM-forum)
9) For manually injecting single scripts and css tests from clipboard content, get macro testinjectcode
10) Oh, and some buttons come with a handy menu on right-click, NOT marked with a tiny down arrow. Just right-click all buttons to check which ones. Goodie: the buttons defined in toolbars.cfg can easily get custom menus added, either native or a macro menus. Just use the visible menu name (if it's a popup menu), and place "&" before underlined characters.

More details in FAQ:
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/faq.php

But better don't get too excited about KG74 on Win98 yet - this is MUCH advanced compared to KM154 (above), extremely buggy yet and crashing all the time, at least on KernelEx2016

A much more stable KM version, for stable basic KernelEx (installed with default OFF) is KM1.6beta2.6 (must be puzzled together from pieces) plus roytam1 TLS-package for Netscape9, and KernelEx compat to XP - but that's not vanilla of course.

Edited by siria
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Thank-you for the tips siria. See some of your old K-Meleon posts >10 years ago, no wonder you know the browser inside/out.

Old school, since uninstallers don't usually do a full job, after running the installer this system is no longer considered K-Meleon virgin. For an executable unzip only test i would use a fresh Windows 98 install, can't do right now, maybe someone else can comment. This forum has too many posts indicating just do this and this, which frequently does not work on a true vanilla installation. For me the method utilized was adequate. The formal installer is very nice and provides useful install time options. The system is getting old when half the software installs require helper software and/or keeping notes.

Random responses. The privacy toolbar is good, activated. Still don't see how to get text only menu bar instead of small icons or even how to make the icons bigger for older eyes. The open middle-clicked links in background via Tools -> Mouse Accelerators -> Firefox good. Never would have thought to look there, couldn't find anything in preferences or about:config, was driving me crazy.

The User Agent change is also necessary. The browser comes with useful pre-defined bookmarks for the K-Meleon forum and such, changed Tools -> User Agent -> SeaMonkey 1.1 and now it works. The 'CATCH' lack of View -> Page Style -> None is a REALLY big deal, couldn't get a visible link to log out of my MSFN forum session, in RetroZilla this makes all required navigation links visible. So for now back to posting from RetroZilla. Will search for 'macro StyleKiller' and test, more learning curve. Noticed the right-click button options, fun to explore although to me traditional mini-down arrows are more intuitive.

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K-Meleon Macro Library
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/wiki/MacroLibrary

StyleKiller macro download (3 KB, no JavaScript needed):
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?9,146712

From the Macro Library:
In order to install a macro module, open Edit > Configuration > User-Defined Macros and create a new text file for the module you want to install. Copy the macro's code from the Wiki and paste it into this file. Save your changes, close your editor and rename the file according to the provided information (the file extension must be 'kmm'). The new module will be loaded when you've restarted K-Meleon. Installed macro modules can be enabled and disabled individually in Edit > Preferences > Macro Extension.

Wunderbar98 note:
The downloaded StyleKiller macro already comes as a *.kmm file, just drag and drop, restart browser. Toggle Tools -> Style Killer (Toggle CSS) as needed. Good stuff siria. Probably asking too much, can a keyboard shortcut be configured for this function (RetroZilla can't)? Can now properly use MSFN with my shiny new K-Meleon :)

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"New shiny" - KM154 from Firefox2 era, LOL! :D Thanks for the giggle, and glad you like :)

Yeah of course I agree, toggling STYLES is a matter of survival now, at least in ancient browsers. But you're the first to care for style toggling at all, in K-Meleon, aside from myself! Since years I often wonder why no one seems to have any needs for stuff which is absolutely essential in my eyes. And not all of it only matters for old browsers. For example my priv3buttons macro, or Blockeria macro, find such stuff highly useful for all versions.

Yeah, as you quickly noticed too, the learning curve is one of several probs with K-Meleon :(
It's very configurable, but a browser for TWEAKERS, many things not intuitive at all. And there's no easy manual either, and worse, some documentation is twenty years old and long since obsolete, now just confusing users. Usually it's simplest to take at least a look at the FAQ, which gets at least occasionally a few updates, though far from complete either, and if nothing found, ask in the KM forum. No account required.

For example in KM1.x toolbar button images are not zoomable.
To get bigger ones, one must choose a skin (folder) which simply contains bigger BMP images (later also PNG possible - since KM74?)
The upside is: those images can be freely exchanged or modified as a user wishes. As long as all buttons inside the same toolbar have the exact same size.

Since KM75 a new toolbar system was introduced, which probably (?) automatically can change icon size if images exist in *.ico format, guess rodocop had figured out howto. But personally I don't have experience with that "modern" system, being stuck on old KM anyway. Just glad that old skins still work too, in modern KM :-)

Also in old K-Meleon before KM75, buttons can only be EITHER images OR text.
Since you prefer "only text" anyway, that's fine :-)

MY TIP FOR YOU:
first switch to default skin "Phoenity(Large)", to get BIGGER icons:
F2 > GUI > Skin > Phoenity(Large)
Restart the browser to see if you like it.

Now here's a trick:
make your OWN skin variation, by simply copying the folder
../skins/Phoenity(Large)
to
../skins/Phoenity(yourname)

This ensures that your modifications will NOT accidentally get overwritten when unzipping a new KM-version some day.
(If anyone tries that in modern KM-versions: make sure to manually copy toolbars.cfg to that folder too, along with skins.cfg)

Now start the browser again, chose YOUR skin in F2 > GUI, and restart again. Looks OK?

By the way Skin variations with () in the name work this way:
the browser looks for skin stuff in the folder defined in F2>GUI, and whatever is not found there (e.g. certain images), KM looks it up in the "family" folder, without () in the name.
If not found there either, it looks into folder skins/default/ (create this manually if doesn't exist yet)
If not found there either, KM75+ looks into folder skins/shared/ (or before "default"? not sure)
Actually, the highest priority folders for skins are in the current PROFILE, just hardly anyone puts them there.

Those variations folders name() can contain as little as just a back.bmp, or just a toolbars.cfg, if all else is already defined in those related folders!

Now lets make a StyleKiller-button (if macro exists), as a simple TEXT button:
Edit > Configuration > Toolbars (or just open toolbars.cfg manually)
Near the bottom, create your own toolbar, which currently has only 1 button, but you can always add more later:

 &My Text Toolbar{

	StyleKILL{
macros(stylekiller)|&Privacy
Kill CSS style, or re-enable. Right-click for Privacy menu
}

} 


The name "StyleKILL" ist just an example, you can rename it.
Also, the Privacy menu on right-click is just an example.
You can put almost any other menu there too, just by name. Or none.
Another menu example: .... |Tool&bars
Now restart browser again, find the new toolbar and StyleKILL button (hopefully ;-) and move it around.

Okay, next trick:
now lets get the Privacy Toolbar with big, readable TEXT instead of icons.
A bit pity that it looses the red/green marking this way, in pre KM75-versions, but that's the price.

In toolbars.cfg, find the definition block for Privacy Bar.
It contains about a dozen buttons.
Now add a comment sign # before all the image lines (privhot.bmp.... privcold.bmp...)
Make sure to do this for ALL buttons in THIS toolbar.

Save and restart....

Looks okay? Just WAY too long buttons now??
That's sadly another catch in KM, all buttons inside the same TOOLBAR can only have the same length.
For plain text buttons that means, the LONGEST button name sets the length for all others too.

Next trick:
shorten the long Privacy names in toolbars.cfg :-)
The visible text is the first line of each button.
Change "Javascript{" to "JS{" or "JavScri{" or whatever.
Change "Clear Cookies" to something like "Cl.Cook" or whatever.
Etc....

Restart and check again...

Oh, and a keyboard shortcut for StyleKiller?
It's prepared in the macro, just open the kmm in a text editor and read it.
The one thing I never know, WHICH shortcuts would be best?? So I happily leave that choice to users *whistle*

In general, if not prepared in a macro already, users can always create shortcuts in file accel.cfg themselves.
For StyleKiller that would be such a line:
(your shortcut) = macros(stylekiller)

Attention there are 2 files "accel.cfg", a long one for the defaults list, and a short one in profile for user additions.
DEFAULT shortcuts (but not all) are found in KM/defaults/settings/accel.cfg
This file is not meant to be modified by users, better use the accel.cfg in the profile to override the defaults.
(Edit > Configuration > Accelerators)
But catch again: profile-accels may not always work due to old bugs either, in that case make a backup of the default file and modify the original... Best add own lines at the bottom, to easier recognize own stuff.

KM also contains an old overview page with most DEFAULT command names and SHORTCUTS:
Edit > Configuration > Commands List
Little bug (again!) for countless years: the macro-menu looked for it in the wrong path, sigh. Just not sure in which KM-versions.
At any rate in ancient KM154 the file is "commands.txt", in the skins (!) folder.
But would prefer to get the html version "commands.html" from a younger KM-version and copy it over.
In KM1.6 it's in KM/defaults/commands.html
In KM76 it's in KM/browser/defaults/commands.html

Oh, and most important, in case of accidentally creating a mess and errors:
The Error Console, in Tools menu! Or as toolbar button, named Javascript Console (how misleading)
If menu already broken, one can open that direct link:
chrome://console2/content/console2.xul
Enable ALL errors.
If no line numbers, create in about:config:
kmeleon.plugins.macros.debug = true

(_HOWTO_ How to modify toolbar buttons and shortcuts)
Edited by siria
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Thanks for the detailed reply siria, saved days of research but wasting too much of your time. Will review FAQ and wiki, lots of fun and learning. For anyone new like me, skins are easy to import, use what you want for a customization template. Button bitmaps are easy to modify even with Microsoft Paint. Hover text can be changed, etc. Maybe too hackable, agree maybe that's why the browser hasn't gone more mainstream in this plug and play era.
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/wiki/K-MeleonThemes15

Temporarily switched to Phoenity(Large), a built-in skin, best icon set for me. Then decided on text only. Most won't want this, to me it's a functional and efficient interface. In the K-Meleon 'skins' directory, copied Klassic directory to KlassicHacked. Then commented out ( # ) all *.bmp entries in toolbars.cfg. Commenting out Privacy Bar bitmaps also made these text buttons larger. Instead of creating another toolbar, just added the StyleKILL button to the Privacy Bar, again via toolbars.cfg. Disabled the 'throbber' via preferences. Probably the plainest K-Melon of all time, pure awesome :)

For a styleKILL keyboard binding added below to Edit -> Configuration -> Accelerators. Will probably modify to a two key command later.
x = macros(stylekiller)

Thus far the installation has been stable with one exception. Upon first using the browser was probably messing around with too many settings or critical Preferences -> K-Meleon Plugins. Whatever i did the browser crashed and would not restart. Fixed by deleting and auto-generating a new profile. This may, however, also have been due to creating a new profile on first launch of the regular K-Meleon install, then re-using this same profile after over-zipping @roytam1's files. To make the next install cleaner, will create a new profile after over-zipping the @roytam1 files.

These are currently the only enabled K-Meleon Plugins:
Netscape Bookmarks
History
K-Meleon JSBridge (query disable)
Macro Extension
Privacy
Rebar Menu
Toolbar Control

Everything is good, time to back up the profile, thanks again siria.

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For those using vanilla Windows 98 it's nice to have choice. Not sure yet whether my preference is RetroZilla or K-Meleon, solid choices, will keep both installed. K-Meleon has more online resources with an active community. The RetroZillas are based on SeaMonkey v1.1.19 and Firefox v2.0.20, most of these online resources were left behind long time ago.

K-Meleon is by default a pretty browser, screenshots if anyone is interested.
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/shots.php

Below is my custom text only toolbar browser showing the Privacy Bar and custom StyleKILL button.
https://i.postimg.cc/MTmTW4SJ/K-Meleon-v1-5-4-Modified.png

Edited by Wunderbar98
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K-Meleon Toolbars stuff

Wunderbar, I see you're having fun :-)
Yes, makes sense to put the Style-button into the PrivBar too, if it shall be readable. Actually mine is there too (text as icon)

Your screen seems giant (compared to mine), no wonder you don't mind space-eating text buttons. Otherwise, for smaller screens, the longest button names could be shortened a bit, or the toolbar could be divided into two parts, one for the shorter names and one for the extra long Clear+Kill names.

The Clear-buttons are a bit dangerous: people naturally expect them to show some confirmation first before deleting, but won't happen. The moment such a button is clicked already POUF - everything deleted, and no restore! Ooops...
A dialog box only pops up for menu Tools > Privacy > Clear Data > Clear Automatically...
Was glad that in one of Dorian's last official versions he finally decided to hide by default especially the Clear-All button. All buttons are still there now, just some commented out in toolbars.cfg. Now guess only 1 Clear button is visible out-of-box, and the other Clear-functions are on its right-click menu. If anyone prefers that too, it's very easy to add that menu to buttons in old versions as well. HowTo:

X Cache{
privacy(ClearCache)|&Clear Data
Clear Cache. Right-click for more options. Also see F2 > Cache, and Tools > Privacy > View/Clear Data
privhot.bmp[8]
privcold.bmp[8]
}

The Klassic skin, yeah my own was based on it too, ages ago. Just liked the familiar look. But in hindsight am not sure if it makes such a great template, since it's really extremely old. Haven't compared, but suspect it contains less functions as the toolbars.cfg in younger skins (visible or hidden). Much worse yet are some of the equally old skins in the wiki or some in KM-Pro, many are only partial skins with just a few functions, and don't even contain the Privacy toggles in toolbars.cfg. Not just hidden, but not there. Of course, can all be copied over from any other skin (some of the youngest just have other command names), but it's not intuitive: everyone assumes of course that "skin" only changes looks, not functions.
Most of the wiki wasn't updated since many years, younger stuff is often only found in the KM-Forum (skins in Graphics part)
I'm still using the tiny Klassic icons myself, but its PrivBar text is definitely FAR too tiny. Some day I finally painted their TEXT bigger and their button width smaller, with Paint, ugh:
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?10,130588
There are also a few image-icons posted for Cookies etc.

Extra tip for color fans: the (top) toolbar backgrounds can be filled by a background image, named "back.bmp", in current skin folder. Can be anything you like, from a plain color shade to a nice photo. A very tiny collection in KM-Forum:
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?10,96991

PS: Removing the "v" in the topic title might be better for finding TLS 1.2 searches....

Edited by siria
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Hi siria. Thanks again for feedback. Heck fun, most new (to me) software is exciting. My screen resolution is only 1152x864 on a 19" CRT, probably should have shrunk the screenshot.

Don't mind no delete confirmation, i clear my privacy frequently, before/after logins, sometimes just switching domains, just want it gone. Thanks for the auto-clean tip, activated. One thing that impresses with old browsers, search about:config, especially 'http' filter, no calling home or a lot of background processes and extra "features". Disable JavaScript and you're pretty safe.

May tweak my K-Meleon a bit but overall very happy. Will probably not post much more here, for now anyway, everything's working well.

Removed the 'v' (version) from title. Not sure how this forum works, maybe a moderator could move this to member projects so it doesn't get as buried. For most a working browser is now the most important aspect of day to day computing. Nice for future visitors to have easier access to this information. Personally think some of these browser posts should be stickied. Won't hurt my feeling either way, just a thought.

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> Heck fun, most new (to me) software is exciting.

Hehe, sure understand. Just yesterday my whole evening was over in a blink after seeing this post from Jaclaz and testing a bit:
https://msfn.org/board/topic/181730-anyone-else-remember-vlb/?do=findComment&comment=1185185
A teeny, free, portable proggie Spread32, basically Excel light for Win98 - still can't believe it ;-)

Regarding choice, I used to think that roytam1 special Firefox 3.6+TLS1.2 build (fx36) would run on vanilla Win98 too.
Until it didn't for you. But then, RT-KM154 didn't work at first either, surprisingly, only after you first installed the old setup-version. Still wonder why, which additional files may be culprit. Would it have worked after creating a profile.ini switcher file, and copy over msvcr71 +msvcp71 from the exe-package, or possibly more needed? Any registry stuff perhaps, or anything? Especially interesting that you got an Advapi error, what I always regarded a hopeless killer message even with KernelEx. But this setup certainly didn't replace the advapi-file nor messed any kernelex stuff, so that dead end may have a magic workaround?!

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Hi siria. Well i don't know much about Windows DLLs and @roytam1 builds. The only ADVAPI32.DLL file on my system is in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. Based on byte count and version it was unchanged from the formal K-Meleon installation. A quick check with regedit.exe does not reveal significant registry entries aside from installation directory pointers.

Unzipped and quick checked official installer vs @roytam1's zip file, the zip file does not have:
MSVCP71.DLL
MSVCR71.DLL

My vanilla install does not have either of these files in the Windows installation, only in the Open Office and K-Meleon installation directories. So my guess is @roytam1's *.7z should include these two files. Someone with a virgin K-Meleon vanilla system could test and provide feedback.

Couple other noteworthy. Using the install method described many posts up, my profile directory is in the K-Meleon installation directory, although a new empty K-Meleon directory is created in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data every time the browser starts.

Also renaming the directories below and rebooting still loads K-Meleon. To me this is crazy, it's looking for a directory that starts with K-Meleon, not strictly named ONLY K-Meleon. So when i create backups like this query whether it creates runtime instability. I'll start saving my backups somewhere else, not in Program Files.

C:\Program Files\K-MeleonGOOD.b1_ORIG_B4FirstRun
C:\Program Files\K-MeleonGOOD.b2_GoodTempDisable

Browser still launches on reboot, even though there's no 'K-Meleon' only directory. This is sloppy, probably old bug long since fixed :(

Edit: Don't know about Firefox v3.6, if you provide link i can check it out too.

Edited by Wunderbar98
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Thanks for investigating!

> Someone with a virgin K-Meleon vanilla system could test

Have some doubts if a "virgin KM" system is necessary, especially for testing portable versions. Perhaps RT-build would start working on your vanilla98 system after just adding those 3 files? (2 dll + ini) And then you could try again without msvcp71 for comparison, if it breaks again. There's also a slim chance that during initial tests you accidentally started it once with the normal exe instead of k-meleonW9x.exe, since the setup had installed the wrong target exe for Win98.

> Browser still launches on reboot

That's definitely not usual.... unless you enabled that old LOADER relic in installation options?
In the far past that thing confused quite some users in the forum, before it became useless anyway and was removed completely about 5years ago.
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/wiki/TutorialLoader
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?1,132094

Have never used that loader thing, but if enabled, there should be an icon in the bottom right corner, with options on right-click. And a shortcut to loader.exe in startup folder, acc. Wiki.

Roytam1's Firefox 3.6+TLS1.2 (fx36) for ancient systems is here, but guess you tried it already:
http://o.rths.ml/gpc/files1.rt/fx36vc71-20171108_newnss.7z
It contains a "run.bat" to start it in portable mode, then it will use the already included profile, otherwise will start non-portable with the profile in global appdata or such.
The included profile contains a "xul.mfl", that's the startupCache of browser components, to improve startup speed. After major changes in extensions it's usually a good idea to delete it occasionally, then it gets refreshed automatically. But in case of startup probs not sure what's better, keep or delete it, would try both...

And interesting.... just notice RT-Fx3.6 comes with the same two msvc-files as for KM154 already included, but dating from 2006, younger versions as those in KM154-setup package (dll from 2003). Might be better....

And also just notice that my KM1.6, which matches the engine in Firefox3.5, contains the next generation msvc+r80 dll's, which require KernelEx. That supports again my previous impression that Fx3.6 is indeed meant for the same old systems as KM1.5 and Firefox2...

By the way do you know Dependency Walker? A very popular, tiny old tool to figure out which referenced system files are missing or buggy when a new prog doesn't work right. The screenshots may look a bit scary, but basically for us non-dev users all that matters are which files are marked red, as errors. Often just missing or outdated dll files. Mine is v2.2.6000 from 2006, and just see it's still valid for old systems:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_Walker

Edited by siria
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Hi siria. You 'have some doubts if a "virgin KM" system is necessary'. To me testing on a non-virgin system is not definitive even if it works...lol. As mentioned, there are many posts on the forum that indicate things should work, often don't. Someone coming to this post fresh with a vanilla system should attempt the unzip only method first, then just update the thread, probably will work, it will be better confirmation.

The K-Meleon loader was not installed or active, don't like these features. Figured out the issue creating program backups in the same Program Files directory, not a K-Meleon bug but a Windows Quick Launch "feature", personally a bug. A failed Quick Launch application shortcut automagically finds the "correct" executable, seems based on similar named directory with the most recent date stamp. This is the slippery slope where we let the AI take over :)

For example, create a Quick Launch shortcut to Open Office, points to C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.4\program\soffice.exe. Rename the install directory to C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.4DISABLE. Upon system reboot, the Quick Launch shortcut will no longer display the proper program icon. Click the Quick Launch shortcut anyway and Windows automatically searches for the program, finds the directory renamed DISABLE and auto updates the Quick Launch shortcut to C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.4DISABLE.

Profiling firefox.exe with Dependency Walker, nice program, flags GDI32.DLL and KERNEL32.DLL. This probably makes sense, stock Firefox v3.6 never ran in vanilla Windows 98, stopped at Firefox v2. Failed launch of firefox.exe from a command.com window or click gets an illegal operation popup, stack fault in module KERNEL32.DLL. Dependency Walker indicates the MSVCP71.dll and MSVCR71.dll files are okay.

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