I'm trying to bring new life into an old XP laptop. Tried a few browsers without success.

K-Meleon does seem to work - somewhat. But I receive a message about lacking a security protocol for many sites.

I could very well be missing something. Any ideas would be appreciated.

BTW, the version I have is 1.5.4 running on an old IBM Thinkpad.

Thanks,

Pauley

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davisingp
I'm trying to bring new life into an old XP laptop. Tried a few browsers without success.

K-Meleon does seem to work - somewhat. But I receive a message about lacking a security protocol for many sites.

I could very well be missing something. Any ideas would be appreciated.

BTW, the version I have is 1.5.4 running on an old IBM Thinkpad.

Thanks,

Pauley

do you use my TLS updated version?

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do you use my TLS updated version?

Sorry, I don't know what or where that is.

If you think that will help, and can point me to it, I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

Paul



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2021 03:26PM by davisingp.

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davisingp
I'm trying to bring new life into an old XP laptop. Tried a few browsers without success.
K-Meleon does seem to work - somewhat. But I receive a message about lacking a security protocol for many sites. BTW, the version I have is 1.5.4 running on an old IBM Thinkpad.

In case you're real, what I'm not sure at all, why would anyone install KM1.5.4 today on XP?
And which other browsers did you try?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2021 03:41PM by siria.

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siria

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davisingp
I'm trying to bring new life into an old XP laptop. Tried a few browsers without success.
K-Meleon does seem to work - somewhat. But I receive a message about lacking a security protocol for many sites. BTW, the version I have is 1.5.4 running on an old IBM Thinkpad.

In case you're real, what I'm not sure at all, why would anyone install KM1.5.4 today on XP?
And which other browsers did you try?

LOL, I'm not sure at all why you wouldn't think I was real.

I searched for "browsers windows xp" and got several lists of "The Best Browsers for old PCs." Example:

https://appuals.com/the-5-best-browsers-for-windows-xp/

One was Opera - didn't work at all. There were two others. If you notice there is a "Download" button for k-meleon on that page. I'm not sure if that's the one I clicked, but that's the process I went through.

If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2021 04:42PM by davisingp.

Okay, starts making sense So you're only completely unaware that versions are crucial.
Opera runs too of course, just an older version, for older systems.
Your example page is innocent, it just links to this official KM domain here, and their screenshot shows a newer KM version too.

But wherever you downloaded that 154 version, if not from here I wouldn't trust them. Too many shady sites out there, bundling unwanted stuff with all their downloads. Better run it through some malware checker if you have.
Note that KM1.5.4 is prehistoric, it has the same engine as Firefox2 (!), and it was the last KM version running on vanilla Windows98, without needing KernelEx! If anyone really needs KM154 today (=not you), get roytam1's fork with TLS1.2 (from http://o.rthost.win ) instead of the ancient official version from here. Otherwise half the web or more is blocked now due to broken ciphers (https) KILLER-catch: to unzip his builds, a newer 7z-version is needed as most win98 users have. Next KILLER-catch: the 7z-update cannot be downloaded anymore due to SourceForge blocking access too. Next killer-catch: RT's build is lacking some crucial msvc files necessary for starting it, because back in 154 times those were only contained in KM-setup versions, so he sees no reason to add them either... there are complicated workarounds for all this too (if anyone needs, search on MSFN), and there's also RETROZILLA for vanilla win98 with TLS1.2 too (fork of old Seamonkey, FF2 engine too but contains a mail client too), and KernelEx for 98 allows to run a few much better browsers, etc. but long story and offtopic here.

Okay, so back to BEST BROWSERS FOR WINDOWS XP in 2021 :cool:
(just a few I heard praised by users last year, at any rate 100x better as your current KM1.5/Firefox2 engine )
There are some quite active retro-XP topics in the MSFN forum. Most discussed browsers there are all forks based on Firefox engines, actually forks of forks (of forks...), more or less modern. I just keep forgetting which system requirements are needed for which browser and which version, too many puzzle pieces:
- some browsers run on XP SP2 (Mypal), others need XP SP3 (KM76? or needs at least a kernel file from sp3),
- some need a CPU with SSE2 (prob for old Athlons), others only SSE, or even just MMX or how that's called ;-)

The last official Firefox for XP is version 52.9

If you want to try K-Meleon, would start with RT's newest KM-Goanna76 build on https://o.rthost.win/kmeleon/
If it doesn't run on your specific system, try last official KM75.1 from here, or 75.0 (IIRC KM75.0 was last for Win2000, engine generation Firefox 31 ESR)
Frankly, KM is a niche browser for tweakers, not mainstream. Not very intuitive, some useful features do exist but hard to find. Strongly recommand to take a look at FAQ for some starter tips.
Sadly the engine in KM76 is dragging behind now too. It was originally based on Firefox38 ESR, missing some "modern" features needed on big mainstream sites now. Acc. devs it seems near impossible to wrap KM around any newer engines

But roytam1 made quite a bunch of other firefox-fork-forks too ;-) His specialty is to backport browsers like palemoon to run on older systems again and update their TLS ciphers. For example NewMoon27+28, Firefox 45 (47?), etc. His builds are posted and discussed in the MSFN forum. Mostly here:
https://msfn.org/board/topic/180462-my-browser-builds-part-2/

Another very popular browser for XP SP2 is Mypal, which has a much younger engine as KM
https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal/releases
(no forum?)

And Basilisk browser too (fork of PaleMoon), it's said to be fully functional on modern websites. Not sure which system it needs. At any rate roytam also forked it for older systems, named now... Serpent?

Congratulations to your Thinkpad BTW, I keep reading those are nearly indestructable, everyone loves them



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2021 12:00AM by siria.

Thanks for all that info - I will pursue and hopefully will be able to make it back and report.

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davisingp
Thanks for all that info - I will pursue and hopefully will be able to make it back and report.

Yeah please do.

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davisingp
I searched for "browsers windows xp" and got several lists of "The Best Browsers for old PCs."

Whenever I come across such "Best of..." lists, most seem to be quickly thrown together by people who are not using the listed programs themselves, just did a "quick test". Very superficial. And often even without a real interest other than "need some random content to deliver with my Ads"
While other sites, like MSFN, where e.g. retro browsers are actually discussed by real users, are rarely listed by such search terms. Oh well.... Couldn't resist, have now emphasized such a phrase above, BIG+BOLD, perhaps this will now show up on page 47 of search hits, LOL!
Oh, now see this phrase actually does list some useful hits, great



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2021 12:40AM by siria.