Windows XP EoL Security Rollup...or similar?

[hasefroch]

You may use WSUSoffline: https://www.wsusoffline.net/

Used to use it to update PCs without connecting them to internet. IIRC, the very last version to support XP was the 9.2.1 but last time used it was somewhere around 2016. YMMV

FWIW, there is a web browser still updated in 2020: https://mypal-browser.org/
It's bases in Mozilla Firefox pre-Quantum and compatible with said 'old' extensions.

Hope this helps.

[stj]

you can use old browsers with this proxy layer:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=67165

[Heihachi_73]

Firefox 52 doesn't even work with some sites. I run that on my older XP/Vista PCs and I can't even view a public transport timetable because the site's timetable section is entirely based around JavaScript that only seems to work on the latest Chrome/tablets/phones etc.

See for yourself with Firefox 52.9.0 ESR:
www.ptv.vic.gov.au/timetables

If for whatever reason you have a dinosaur PC with an "unsupported" browser like the above, you can't even download a bus timetable as the JavaScript doesn't work properly on it and fails to load anything at all except for a blank page (and of course, they made sure that you couldn't use NoScript for faster loading either, as it will give an error telling you to enable JavaScript, as the site doesn't work without JS enabled anyway). You can't get paper timetables either, because they stopped issuing them due to COVID-19. Not so long ago the site had a "classic" version which retained the older HTML-based pages (with PDF timetables, route maps etc.), but the classic site was shut down last month with everything deleted.

Also, YouTube on Firefox 52 runs like molasses in a New York winter, causes the browser to get slower and slower with every video watched until it hangs (with 4GB of RAM installed), and some of the new videos don't even load because it errors out telling me "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available." (but at least Neutral Drop still works so all is not lost yet).

As for the first post, why not just dual-boot? Run modern Windows/Linux etc. for internet access, reboot into XP for Nero.

[noppa]

I'm using MyPal on my XP machine, and it's working really nice.
It's receiving updates too.

https://www.mypal-browser.org/

[noppa]

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

Firefox 52 doesn't even work with some sites. I run that on my older XP/Vista PCs and I can't even view a public transport timetable because the site's timetable section is entirely based around JavaScript that only seems to work on the latest Chrome/tablets/phones etc.

See for yourself with Firefox 52.9.0 ESR:
www.ptv.vic.gov.au/timetables

If for whatever reason you have a dinosaur PC with an "unsupported" browser like the above, you can't even download a bus timetable as the JavaScript doesn't work properly on it and fails to load anything at all except for a blank page (and of course, they made sure that you couldn't use NoScript for faster loading either, as it will give an error telling you to enable JavaScript, as the site doesn't work without JS enabled anyway). You can't get paper timetables either, because they stopped issuing them due to COVID-19. Not so long ago the site had a "classic" version which retained the older HTML-based pages (with PDF timetables, route maps etc.), but the classic site was shut down last month with everything deleted.

Also, YouTube on Firefox 52 runs like molasses in a New York winter, causes the browser to get slower and slower with every video watched until it hangs (with 4GB of RAM installed), and some of the new videos don't even load because it errors out telling me "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available." (but at least Neutral Drop still works so all is not lost yet).

As for the first post, why not just dual-boot? Run modern Windows/Linux etc. for internet access, reboot into XP for Nero.

The above URL seems to work correctly on MyPal.

[RJARRRPCGP]

About that text telling you to enable JS, that means you blocked too much in NoScript. (or eMatrix in Pale Moon)

Same when you get an error message from a player, like "required source could not be found".

[Heihachi_73]

Actually, I just disabled JavaScript in about:config (javascript.enabled = false) to get that message. It's still ridiculous that a website is 100% dependent on every single thing being JavaScript. Whatever happened to plain old HTML?

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

Actually, I just disabled JavaScript in about:config (javascript.enabled = false) to get that message. It's still ridiculous that a website is 100% dependent on every single thing being JavaScript. Whatever happened to plain old HTML?

IIRC on this site, the only things that won't work with Java disabled are the inline image scaler and some of the dropdown menu functions. The site is otherwise 100% functional & usable.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by hasefroch

FWIW, there is a web browser still updated in 2020: https://mypal-browser.org/
It's bases in Mozilla Firefox pre-Quantum and compatible with said 'old' extensions.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!
I haven't tried it yet, but downloaded it and will likely set it up on a test system soon.

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

Firefox 52 doesn't even work with some sites. I run that on my older XP/Vista PCs and I can't even view a public transport timetable because the site's timetable section is entirely based around JavaScript that only seems to work on the latest Chrome/tablets/phones etc.

See for yourself with Firefox 52.9.0 ESR:
www.ptv.vic.gov.au/timetables

Wow, that website is pure script garbage. Who would design a public transport website like this? Just for giggles, I tried running it on my Opera 12 (Presto engine) browser. Normally, poorly-coded pages full of scripts tend to either crash it or make it very slow. The one you posted didn't do either - Opera 12 got fully stuck and unresponsive, pinning one CPU core to itself and sat there eating CPU cycles without moving for 10 minutes. Eventually, I just had to close it with Task Manager - it was that unresponsive.

Glad that at least most government websites here still work (for the most part) even on older browsers.

And yes, I use Firefox 52.x ESR on most of my old PCs as well. Indeed there are a number of websites that don't run properly... but for the most part, FF 52 ESR is still somewhat viable option for those who choose to stick to XP and Vista. Well, better than nothing, anyways.

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

you couldn't use NoScript for faster loading either, as it will give an error telling you to enable JavaScript, as the site doesn't work without JS enabled anyway).

I never found a use for NoScript - seems to break almost every website I try it on, nowadays.

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

Not so long ago the site had a "classic" version which retained the older HTML-based pages (with PDF timetables, route maps etc.), but the classic site was shut down last month with everything deleted.

Which reminds me... Yahoo! Mail and Google Gmail still also have a classic HTML version (which is what I use.) It loads very fast and actually doesn't look bad (well, outdated for sure, but very easy on the eyes, at least.) I hope they never remove that option, because I can't stand "modern" webmail layouts with endless scrollbars and counter-intuitive design.

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

Also, YouTube on Firefox 52 runs like molasses in a New York winter, causes the browser to get slower and slower with every video watched until it hangs (with 4GB of RAM installed), and some of the new videos don't even load because it errors out telling me "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available."

Yeah, FF pre-Quantum doesn't make good use of systems with multi-core CPUs. It relies on 1 (or max 2) core to do all of the rendering. So heavy scripts will bog it down easily. Not only that, but older CPUs that don't support the newest instruction sets will struggle even more. Hence the reason an old CPU will run even slower than it should. But that's just poor optimization/coding on the web "designers".

As for YouTube... it's become quite a hog these days. I can still run 1080p @ 60 Hz videos on my Athlon II X4 PCs, but high-end Core 2 Duos will stutter somewhat - even on the new FF Quantum engine, which is optimized for multi-core systems. And from what I notice, most of the bloat/slowness is from the streaming part. That is, once a portion (or the whole video) downloads and streaming stops, YT won't be taxing the CPU as much. The worst is when you first load a YT page - all of the ads (even if you're using an ad-blocker) and the panel with "related" videos on the side, along with comments, tends to bog down CPUs easily. Just way too many poorly-written scripts loading at once.

Originally Posted by Topcat

The site is otherwise 100% functional & usable.

That's a mild understatement.
This place is golden!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by hasefroch

FWIW, there is a web browser still updated in 2020: https://mypal-browser.org/
It's bases in Mozilla Firefox pre-Quantum and compatible with said 'old' extensions.

I just tested this Mypal browser on an old trash-picked Sony Vaio laptop with 1.7 GHz Pentium M Dothan CPU and 512 MB of DDR RAM.

My impressions so far... holy molly! This browser actually works very well! I tried as many websites with it that I know Firefox 52.9 ESR has trouble displaying, and it was no sweat for this browser. Everything worked just like it would on modern Quantum FF.... just a tad slower, given the machine I was using... but still way quicker and more responsive than FF 52.9 ESR, even on a slightly newer PC.

Moreover, the resource Mypal uses is similar to what Firefox 3.6 did back in the day - i.e. fairly light on RAM and CPU use. I was actually able to go on Youtube and watch 1-2 videos on this slow laptop without issue. Sure it was 360p, but it worked fine. CPU wasn't even at 100% with that. Only after I switched to 480p, it hovered near 100%. Memory-wise, I didn't even think I would be able to browse any modern page without hitting pagefile first with that puny 512 MB of RAM. - Not true. The RAM usage wasn't too high on most pages - around 400-450 MB... and stable at that. With Youtube front page loaded, it went a little past 450 MB and started climbing around 500 MB after watching 1 video. After watching a 2nd video, memory usage was going a bit over 512 MB and into pagefile. But that is still very impressive. This Vaio laptop uses about 200 MB of RAM on the desktop. So Mypal really wasn't taking that much more RAM. In fact, starting Mypal on home page brought RAM usage to only about 300-ish MB. Compare that to Firefox 52.9 ESR, where I can't even get the browser to start on a machine with 512 MB of RAM without hitting the pagefile (i.e. going over 512 MB.) And I tested this even on an old P3 laptop that sits at 80 MB of memory while on the desktop - same deal (I hit pagefile / over 512 MB just starting FF 52.9 ESR.) I suspect 1 GB of RAM would be plenty for general basic browsing with Mypal.

I am very impressed with Mypal so far.
The only thing is I still haven't done is find how to get Adblock Plus to work properly - most likely just have to look for a download of the last version that supported whatever engine Mypal is based on off of FF. I tried an early version of ABP, and it didn't quite work. So I still need to experiment and test things in regards to that. But otherwise, it looks like I might be able to stay on XP for a few more years. Holy crap, this is getting ridiculous - when will I abandon XP?!

[SluggerB]

I've been looking for an updated old school browser, I will be trying this in a VM shortly

I play some XP only PC games, to date running them in an XP VM has worked fine. You need to reboot the VM in safe mode to install DirectX but after that they run fine.

[televizora]

I will repeat myself...
Dual core x64 capable system with 4GB+ can be found even for 50$
Everything is becoming heavier and older machines are becoming obsolete.
Win7 is not so far away from WindowsXP and most machines can be upgraded.
About Win10 - I don't like it either. If the browsers stop supporting Win7, most likely I will completely switch to Linux, unless Microsoft fixes this garbage, which they call operating system. And I don't see this happening any time soon.

[hasefroch]

Originally Posted by momaka

The only thing is I still haven't done is find how to get Adblock Plus to work properly - most likely just have to look for a download of the last version that supported whatever engine Mypal is based on off of FF. I tried an early version of ABP, and it didn't quite work. So I still need to experiment and test things in regards to that. But otherwise, it looks like I might be able to stay on XP for a few more years. Holy crap, this is getting ridiculous - when will I abandon XP?!

If you don't mind changing your ablocker, I would suggest Ublock Origin Legacy:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock-fo...egacy/releases

Works like a charm and is more light in resources (back in the day was the reason for which I replaced ABP).

Also, I will suggest the Classic Add-ons Archive:

https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive

As per description:
This catalog contains 93,598 versions of 19,450 Firefox add-ons created by 14,274 developers over the past 15 years using XUL/XPCOM technology before Mozilla decided to ruin the classic extensions ecosystem and go exclusively to WebExtensions.

[SluggerB]

I tried that mypal browser on a Windows 7 VM and it looks great! I'l going to do a test across the sites I use most and it if works well so long Chrome.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by SluggerB

I tried that mypal browser on a Windows 7 VM and it looks great! I'l going to do a test across the sites I use most and it if works well so long Chrome.

Well, if you have Windows 7, you can just use FF Quantum instead, as that still supports 7. Mypal is really meant more for XP, since no other modern browser supports it anymore. The only reason I suggest FF Quantum over Mypal, at least on a "modern" OS that can run something that is still supported, is simply because modern FF will actually run faster on a multi-core PC. In contrast, Mypal is based on Pale Moon, which is based on the old Firefox code that doesn't scale too well on multi-core PCs. In fact, any pre-Quantum FF is majorly single-threaded and will not benefit from a anything more powerful than a fast dual-core CPU. Thus, overall performance with these legacy-based browsers will not be as fast as more modern browser. On an old slow clunker PC, however, it would be the opposite.

Originally Posted by hasefroch

If you don't mind changing your ablocker, I would suggest Ublock Origin Legacy:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock-fo...egacy/releases

Works like a charm and is more light in resources (back in the day was the reason for which I replaced ABP).

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind. I didn't update back, but I found out that since Mypal is based on the same source code as Pale Moon, AdBlock Plus for Pale Moon is what was needed to get it going. But being that ABP for Pale Moon is an old version, I still haven't used it enough to confirm that it fully blocks everything like an updated and still supported ABP for Firefox. So if it doesn't work, I'll probably try Ublock.

Originally Posted by hasefroch

Also, I will suggest the Classic Add-ons Archive:

https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive

Went to bookmark it and I found that I had bookmarked this a long while back ... but just had forgotten about it. All this browser switching and updating has made me loose track of some long-time bookmarks. Gotta sit down one day and organize them.

Originally Posted by hasefroch

As per description:
This catalog contains 93,598 versions of 19,450 Firefox add-ons created by 14,274 developers over the past 15 years using XUL/XPCOM technology before Mozilla decided to ruin the classic extensions ecosystem and go exclusively to WebExtensions.

Yeah, that's nice for finding legacy add-ons that have long been removed from elsewhere online. However, I have found that some of these extensions and add-ons don't always work as intended anymore - especially anything related to YouTube. For example, a lot of the YT add-ons that let you download the video no longer work as YT constantly keeps updating their "engine"/site to prevent exactly this from happening. But apart from that, there are still a great number of useful addons there.

[SluggerB]

Originally Posted by momaka

Well, if you have Windows 7, you can just use FF Quantum instead, as that still supports 7. Mypal is really meant more for XP, since no other modern browser supports it anymore.

I dislike the current UI of Firefox and much prefer the older UI, and mypal has it.

[momaka]

^ That I can't argue with. I like the old UI better too.