The Windows device sticky thread...

[Steve A.]

With very little interest in Windoze computers these days this thread will be devoted to the lumbering dinosaur.
• Please click on Reply with Quote or otherwise identify a specific post to which you are referring. Thanks!
Let the games begin!

Steve Ahola
Moderator

P.S. If I can ever figure out how to use my powers as Super Moderator I would like to replace these sticky computer/device threads with actual subforums, with the main forum devoted to Linux and renamed accordingly.

[loudthud]

I'm still lumbering along with XP. I know I should breakdown and buy another computer, but I'm just tired of the fight to keep the OS running and them having to get a whole new computer. As I understand it, the OS is considered a service, not an actual thing that is supposed to work.

Anyway, there is a script on MEF that will choke my CPU if it's on the page I'm looking at. I can see on Windows Task Manager that it uses 100% of CPU time.

Edit: I'm using Firefox 52.8.0

[Steve A.]

I'm still lumbering along with XP. I know I should breakdown and buy another computer, but I'm just tired of the fight to keep the OS running and them having to get a whole new computer. As I understand it, the OS is considered a service, not an actual thing that is supposed to work.

Anyway, there is a script on MEF that will choke my CPU if it's on the page I'm looking at. I can see on Windows Task Manager that it uses 100% of CPU time.

Edit: I'm using Firefox 52.8.0

You might try installing Pale Moon as an alternate browser to Firefox... it uses the same code from Mozilla so it is essentially a stripped-down hot-rodded version of Firefox and shares the same bookmarks and passwords.

Before switching to Pale Moon on my Windows 7 desktop I was running an older version of FF, like 3.5 when the current version was 13 or 15. At that time many sites did not load properly if at all with FF3.5 and the newer versions were too darned busy and/or sluggish.

I update Pale Moon regularly and it still works great for me (it is up to version 27.9.2)

https://www.palemoon.org

Steve A.

P.S. Can you post a link to the page the next time that script runs? It looks like it is something that doubleclick.net is running, making calls that confuses your XP computer. BTW you can get a refurbished Windows computer from Fry's for under $100 but they are usually upgraded to Windows 10 so you'd have to learn a new OS.
Perhaps some of the vendors might allow you to downgrade to Windows 7 no charge... I run a shell applet that makes the user interface of Win 7 more like XP which I prefer.

[loudthud]

Thanks Steve! That script seems to be part of the ads. Right now the ad at the top says "Secure Connection Failed" and the bottom ad is for something called "Cats Pride". It occurs at random, sometimes I just kill FF and restart or actually reboot the OS if it's using too much memory. Funny, my customers computers ran on Unix and could go years without problems until the power failed, but they didn't go on the web. I'll inquire at Fry's, I have to go there to solve a television problem.

[big_teee]

Thanks Steve! That script seems to be part of the ads. Right now the ad at the top says "Secure Connection Failed" and the bottom ad is for something called "Cats Pride". It occurs at random, sometimes I just kill FF and restart or actually reboot the OS if it's using too much memory. Funny, my customers computers ran on Unix and could go years without problems until the power failed, but they didn't go on the web. I'll inquire at Fry's, I have to go there to solve a television problem.

If you're running FF?
You may want to try uBlock Origin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...ublock-origin/
I've run it for a couple years now.
Love it!
No more ad issues!
T

[big_teee]

Windows Built-in Antivirus Gets Secure Sandbox Mode

I don't use windows, but thought this might aid those that do?
https://thehackernews.com/2018/10/wi...s-sandbox.html

[big_teee]

Apparently Windows still not happy with its browser.
Microsoft building Chrome-based browser to replace Edge on Windows 10.
Read all about it here.
https://thehackernews.com/2018/12/ed...-chromium.html

[big_teee]

Some like G1 are still on Microsoft Vista.
I was curious if was still supported.
Mainstream support ended in april 2012, extended support ended april 2017.
Looks like there is way to retro it to Win 10?
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-u...sta-windows-10
T

[g1]

I bought a refurb windows 7 machine last winter. I've yet to migrate over to it.
I guess I've been waiting for support to end for 7, then I'll feel ok about it.
I have about 30 Firefox tabs that I need to tend to first, maybe there's a way to transfer them.

[big_teee]

I have about 30 Firefox tabs that I need to tend to first, maybe there's a way to transfer them.

Tell me more about that, are they bookmarks at the bottom of the header, or tabs at the very top?
If they are bookmarks, they are easy to save.
T

[g1]

Tell me more about that, are they bookmarks at the bottom of the header, or tabs at the very top?

I found out there is an option, when firefox starts, instead of showing homepage, you can choose 'show my windows and tabs from last time'.
So you can close firefox with tabs open, and next time you start it, it will put you back where you were. It just doesn't load the actual pages til you click on a tab. So it doesn't waste time and data until you actually want to look at a tab. But it's sitting up there (or down, wherever you have your tabs) with it's title showing.
So I have it set to open everything in a new tab, and if I don't get a chance to read it that day, it's still there waiting to be loaded. It saves me from making bookmarks for articles I'll probably only read once.
But now I've got a lot of tabs to deal with, and I'm not sure if they can be transferred or not.

[big_teee]

I use bookmarks, and close all tabs each time.
I have everything on the bookmark toobar.
You could save each tab, to a bookmark on the toolbar.
Then once they are all closed and all bookmarks saved?
You go to the top and make a backup file.
I do that often, and transfer my bookmarks to each new linux I add.
T

[big_teee]

Windows 7 support is ending Jan. 14 2020.
Are you ready?

https://thehackernews.com/2020/01/wi...port-ends.html

[big_teee]

Does anyone that runs windows have an old usb stick lying around to reformat?
I don't have windows so I can't try this.

This is the procedure that I would like someone to try.
It can be done with a gui, but we want to try the command line equivalent.

You can use Windows Diskpart to re-format a USB key and re-partition it.

Open a Command Window (cmd)
Enter diskpart.
Enter list disk (it is important you KNOW which disk is the USB key you are formatting)
Enter select disk x where x is your USB key.
Enter clean.
Enter create part primary.
Enter select part 1.
Enter active.

Here are the layout instructions.
https://www.easeus.com/partition-mas...using-cmd.html

[nosaj]

Does anyone that runs windows have an old usb stick lying around to reformat?
I don't have windows so I can't try this.

This is the procedure that I would like someone to try.
It can be done with a gui, but we want to try the command line equivalent.

You can use Windows Diskpart to re-format a USB key and re-partition it.

Open a Command Window (cmd)
Enter diskpart.
Enter list disk (it is important you KNOW which disk is the USB key you are formatting)
Enter select disk x where x is your USB key.
Enter clean.
Enter create part primary.
Enter select part 1.
Enter active.

Here are the layout instructions.
https://www.easeus.com/partition-mas...using-cmd.html

Done it several times recently, why do you ask?

nosaj