Best Gecko-based browser for Windows 9x

The latest and last versions of Gecko-based browsers to run on Vanilla Windows 98/Me (and 95, with updates and other reservations) are

• Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.20 (Gecko 1.8.1.20, 20081217),
• K-Meleon 1.5.4 (Gecko 1.8.1.24pre, released on 05.03.2010) and
• SeaMonkey 1.1.19 (Gecko 1.8.1.24, released on 16.03.2010).

If there were a competition between the three, then the winner would be SeaMonkey.

The reasons are thus:

• Under similar limited circumstances, SeaMonkey 1.1 is more responsive than Mozilla Firefox  2.

  Here's why: SeaMonkey 1.1's XPFE/XPToolkit-based user interface (UI) technology dates back to Mozilla Application Suite (v1.0 released 05.06.2002, but pre-releases were usable since a year before), while Mozilla Firefox 2.0 (2006) is completely based on a newer toolkit (XUL).

• SeaMonkey 1.1.19 has a newer and more secure Gecko layout engine than Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.20 and K-Meleon.
• SeaMonkey 1.1 has been supported by the two most important extensions to grace web surfing: Flashblock and NoScript.

  K-Meleon also uses the native Windows API for its UI, meaning that it can't run extensions which normally work in SeaMonkey or Mozilla Firefox.
  
  While K-Meleon comes close with its quick UI responsiveness and its rendering engine, it's only good for websites that are safe and are known to not be resource-intensive. Most of the latter still exist as they are, but the most popular sites (for webmail and news) are regularly redesigned to include more fancy features and are therefore made more demanding by way of including extensive JavaScript and AJAX technologies and often embedding multiple manifestations of the Adobe Flash plugin.

Which is why SeaMonkey 1.1.19 adorned with NoScript and Flashblock extensions is about the best Gecko-based browser solution that there is for Windows 9x, even Windows 95.

The only caveat is that SeaMonkey requires at least 64 Mb of RAM to run passably and at least a 266 MHz CPU. Well, a Navigator-only one-window/one-or-two-tab solution works in a PC with just a slightly lesser CPU.

K-Meleon is best for computers with 32–48 Mb of RAM (certainly less than 64 Mb).
Some words of caution: Java and JavaScript could only be allowed for safe and non-demanding websites. Because of a lack of NoScript or like extension for K-Meleon, JavaScript should be turned off for casual browsing (sometimes even a Google Search result may cause a hiccup). Keeping Java on is only recommended when a user consciously recognizes a real and pressing need to use that plugin (maybe a map application over the web).

On Plugins

Although Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0.6 (released/updated last in 2003) is about the last version for Windows 98 as far as I know, it is still outdated and so more vulnerable to attacks that use the Reader.

While older computers might best handle even older versions of Acrobat Reader, it's most important to disable Acrobat (Java)Script in the Reader's preferences, no matter the version. This should somehow prevent malicious websites using the Reader as an attack vector.

A complete alternative to using Adobe Reader in old computers is muPDF: It's much less resource intensive, supports the newest PDF document display standard (PDF 1.7) and does not use AcroScript. muPDF does not support interactive PDF elements; this is both a caveat and a security/speed measure. muPDF does capture the file type association in Windows, so when using the app, then it's an either-or situation between it and Acrobat Reader. It should still be a no-brainer in old computers.

msn connectivity of Pidgin 2.6.6 in Windows 98

I very recently attempted to connect with Pidgin IM 2.6.6 (the last to run on Windows 98, AFAIK) to the .NET Messenger Service, which handles Windows Live Messenger connections. In short, I wanted to connect to msn, but it was impossible because of certificate issues.

The typical solution is to upgrade Pidgin to version 2.7.6, but this version relies on the gtk+ 2.10.xx or newer runtime (a library), which won't run on Windows 98/SE, so users of this operating system may feel stuck.

The solution is thus:

• Close Pidgin.
• The real solution is at SQuID's rants blog post or at the Pidgin developer site.
• Caveats: The filenames must be
  Microsoft_Secure_Server_Authority_2010.pem
  and
  Microsoft_Secure_Server_Authority_2010.pem
  If by any chance the files saved save as *.pem.log
  or anything that does not directly end with a .pem extension, then rename them to *.pem (the asterisk stands for filenames).

The following was my initial solution, but there was a chance that it might not have worked. For other purposes, I left it as a tutorial on how to export and save certificates in W98/Me.

• Go to
  C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\.purple\certificates\x509\tls_peers
  or
  C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\Profilename\Application Data\.purple\certificates\x509\tls_peers
• There you will see what appear to be .com (command) files which are appropriately shown as such by Windows Explorer, but they are actually certificates. Amongst them you will see the omega.contacts.msn.com file. Back that file up by moving it somewhere else, but keep that directory window open and copy its address bar contents into the clipboard.
• With Internet Explorer, connect to
  https://omega.contacts.msn.com
  You may get a denied directory listing, but perhaps the most important part of it is that you'll be presented with a new certificate. —
• View the certificate, go to the Details tab.
• In the Details tab, click the "Copy to File..." button;
• In the Certificate Manager Export Wizard, click next;
• Choose the Base64 encoded X.509 (.CER) format, click the Next button;
• In the Export File Name step, browse to
  C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\.purple\certificates\x509\tls_peers
  or your profile location (best now to paste the location of .purple certificates into the File Name field and then pressing the Enter button for the filepicker to reach the folder), then write the filename as omega.contacts.msn.com, click Save. As the full filename path is now given in the "File name:" field, click Next.
• In the next step, you'll see the certificate export summary, where you'll just have to click Finish and the system will prompt that the export has completed successfully. But that's not everything.
• Restore the abovementioned tls_peers folder window and you'll see that omega.contacts.msn.com may not be that, but omega.contacts.msn.com.cer

  (that is, if you can see the .cer extension. If not, but the file has a certificate icon and not a program icon, go to View > Folder Options > View tab > and in Advanced Settings, uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types", click OK).

  The solution is to rename the .cer file by removing .cer from the filename. Windows will ask for a confirmation as to changing the file extension (the renamed file will have .com extension). Confirm the rename.
• If it's impossible to change Windows settings as to showing filename extensions (you may be using a work computer, but such a situation is rare with a Windows 9x PC), and if you still can access MS-DOS Prompt, then rename the file from there:
  Type
  cd "C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\.purple\certificates\x509\tls_peers"
  or just type
  cd "
  and paste the certificate directory address by accessing the window menu (click once on the MS-DOS icon and choose Paste from the Edit submenu), type another quote,
  press Enter.
  Your profile directory path may vary as stated above depending on settings.
  Use dir command to get a directory listing. That should show short and long file names. If you see omega.contacts.msn.com.cer as the filename of the msn certificate, rename it:
  rename omega.contacts.msn.com.cer omega.contacts.msn.com
  That should do it. Type exit, press Enter key to close the MS-DOS Prompt window.
• Now start Pidgin and see what happens at the msn login. I could successfuly log in, so you should hopefully not have any trouble either.

I got the initial above solution from Ticket #12906 at the Pidgin developer site.

Recap on SeaMonkey 1.1 > 2.0 migration: Add-on caveats

Themes

Even if a profile is migrated, SeaMonkey 2.0 will default to its default theme. If you used a Modern theme (built-in), then you'll have to choose it from the Add-on Manager and restart SeaMonkey. The selection and amount of themes for SeaMonkey 2.0 is different than for SeaMonkey 1.x.

Extensions (this is the difficult part)

• Extensions must be installed anew.


• The whitelist of servers where extensions and themes can be installed from might not be migrated.


• Globally installing an extension requires administrative rights.
  
  Unlike with Mozilla Firefox, whereby globally installing an extension installs it into every private user profile for all users of an operating system (so that there are multiple copies around of the same extension), doing this for SeaMonkey actually installs the extension into SeaMonkey's extensions folder that resides in the program's install directory.
  
  The pitfall is that a limited Windows xp user would then be unable to update a required extension for compatibility. I had that with two spelling dictionaries.
  
  The quick-and-dirty solution in my case was to temporarily set the user as administrator, update the extension for compatibility and then remove the user's administrator credentials. Bah.
  
  While global extension installation could potentially be very convenient in terms of getting to install only one extension at once for all profiles (=different SeaMonkey users), it does introduce a number of security and other considerations:
  
  
  
  1. One is that, for example, in Windows xp, SeaMonkey is installed into the Program Files folder, where limited users have limited rights, which means that they cannot update the extension, even for compatibility (can't modify folder contents).
  
  
  2. If SeaMonkey were installed into a public directory — such as
     C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents — then the whole suite would be left vulnerable to tampering either by its users or a malicious program (both would have to have awareness of the program's different location).
  
  
  3. Change user access rights for relevant extensions' folders where they are in
     Program Files\SeaMonkey\extensions.
     
     A few words of caution: I have not tried this myself, but some of the user support forum topics related to SeaMonkey have suggested that limited users should be given rights to the whole SeaMonkey install directory, so that they would be able to update their extensions. I do not recommend giving rights to the whole program directory, but giving rights to limited users for only the extensions directories.
     
     While this would make SeaMonkey reasonably tamper-proof, the extensions would be the few to remain vulnerable to tampering.
     
     To easily see which add-on is installed into which folder, install the MR Tech Toolkit extension. It extends the Add-on Manager with lots of useful tools, but the function you need is "Browse install directory" when right-clicking an extension.
     
     Once the Windows Explorer folder for the extension is open, click on the folder whitespace, and on the Properties command. This should open the Properties window for the current folder. There, in the Security tab, click on Users from the Group or User names list and click on the Modify checkbox in the "Allow" column. Click the Apply button, but don't leave the window yet. Click the Advanced button and in the "Advanced Security Settings for extensionfoldername" list, verify that the set permissions for separate user(s) or a group of users apply to "This folder, subfolders and files".
     
     This action thus leaves SeaMonkey more-or-less tamper-proof, but may leave directories of specific extensions vulnerable to tampering.
  
  
  4. Best to install extensions separately into every profile? What if there are more than five users and what if a few of those users have more than one SeaMonkey profile?


• I had trouble installing Flashblock from addons.mozilla.org, so I had to add flashblock.mozdev.org to the whitelist and install from there. No trouble installing NoScript from addons.mozilla.org.


• As it usually is with SeaMonkey browsers, the Flashblock toolbar button will not show automatically. Instead of opening the Preferences window, click on any free space in the SeaMonkey toolbar, then on Customize... A Firefox-like toolbar customization dialog should show up and the Flashblock toolbar item can be added wherever a user chooses in the toolbar (the standard location was next to the Home button in the Personal Toolbar). Because the computer where I installed SeaMonkey 2.0 does not have a printer, I dragged the printer button off the toolbar.


• Server whitelists for Flashblock and NoScript do not migrate automatically. I had to manually type in server names into the new Flashblock whitelist, but I think its file can be migrated (haven't checked how to do it). NoScript allows exporting the whitelist, so I did that from SeaMonkey 1.1 and imported the whitelist in SeaMonkey 2.0 after installing NoScript.

It has always been the developers' intention for Mozilla (later SeaMonkey, which became Mozilla's successor; and a branched-off Mozilla Firefox) to have global and per-user extensions.

Mozilla 1.0 finally came out on 05.06.2002. Seeing what Mozilla 1.0's (minimum) system requirements were (modest by nowadays' standards) can give a helpful glimpse into what kind of hardware and software people were using at that time.

This was an era when single-user operating systems in computers were still a norm: four years after the release of Windows 98 and two years after Windows Me was released. Hard disk capacity then (2001–2002) — well, roughly ten years back — was about 10% of what it is now (2010) and there wasn't any lack of people who used much older computers. It's duly possible that hard disk capacity was seen as a premium back then, because after Mozilla 1.0 was released, it was criticized for its bloat.

Mozilla 1.0's full installer for Windows was 9.8 Mb, releases for Linux were between 11.6–13.9 Mb, and release sizes for exotic operating systems ranged between 16–26 Mb. The size of the Windows installer was actually normal, because the installers for Netscape Communicator 4.x and Internet Explorer 5 weren't all that much more smaller, as both included bundled software.

I guess the bloat factor was two-pronged:

Those who lived through those times, can remember how Internet Explorer reigned supreme.

Actual software bloat

IE users eager to try out something new would probably perform a 'normal' install of Mozilla (or Netscape 6.X) and only thereafter discover that Mozilla wasn't only a browser, but an application suite with an extensive feature set, while Internet Explorer was duly perceived as a stand-alone program. And that the typical installs of Netscape 6.X would also bundle a number of other tag-along apps, like RealPlayer and AOL Instant Messenger.

In all actual fact, Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, Microsoft NetMeeting and various other bits were just as well bundled with large ('Normal'/'Typical') Internet Explorer installations, only that Internet Explorer was marketed by Microsoft as an inalienable part of the Windows operating system; other said programs were bundled as parts of Windows 95OSR2.x, Windows 98/Me and newer. Yet people launching Internet Explorer both on Windows and Mac knew and saw that they were only launching a browser and not a whole suite of applications (e-mail, newsgroups, chat/IM) they probably didn't have any need for.

Slow user interface responsiveness

Much of Mozilla's user-facing behaviour was based on Netscape Communicator 4.x, but its cross-platform user interface toolkit was completely new.

Netscape 6.X and newer were subsequently based on Mozilla's underlying code base. People used to Internet Explorer or even Netscape 4.x found Mozilla 1.0 as not particularly responsive compared to IE and Netscape 4.x and I know I can attest to that when seeing SeaMonkey 1.1.xx work on older hardware.

In terms of system resource usage, Mozilla 1.0 would run more-or-less properly on the kind of metal specified in its system requirements. Nevertheless, the new cross-platform user interface toolkit (intended to ease development, which I believe it did) was not native to any existing operating system and thus imposed a performance penalty on any hardware that wasn't top-of-the line. Hence the talk of bloat.

All this gave plenty of impetus for Mozilla developers to create a separate browser which eventually came to be Mozilla Firefox. And lo and behold, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 ran well and faster on even older hardware (CPU considerations aside).

To continue soon?

---

What is so great about SeaMonkey, is that the underlying technology didn't change much throughout the great ten years between Mozilla 1.0 and SeaMonkey 1.1.19, which really is proof of the package's superiour design considerations.

SeaMonkey 2.0 periodic slowdowns

After I migrated a Windows XP computer from SeaMonkey 1.1.19 to SeaMonkey 2.0.6, it turned out that the program experienced short, yet periodic slowdowns which were also evident in Process Explorer with CPU spikes that were related to the process.

The particular profile of SeaMonkey has the following extensions:
Flashblock 1.3.16, NoScript 2.0.1 and three spelling dictionaries.

As I surfed around to look for any kind of resolution, I stumbled upon the two most relevant forum threads, one in MozillaZine and the other on NoScript.

The best hint was given in this InformAction posting, where the workaround is to disable ABE (Application Boundaries Enforcer), which also disabled the holdups, but I hope for a better solution without sacrificing some on security.

Where to disable ABE:
NoScript Options > Advanced tab > ABE subtab > Remove checkbox at "Enable ABE (Application Boundaries Enforcer)"

Fun about Windows

The Guardian's Charlie Brooker:

“Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.”

Source: Microsoft's grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse?

Migrating from SeaMonkey 1.1 to SeaMonkey 2.0

What motivated me to migrate was that YouTube and GMail now use standards that supersede those supported by SeaMonkey 1.1. Yes, the latter is still in many ways a modern browser and application suite and really the last one that still works in Windows 95.

Yet it's become difficult to browse websites, such as Gawker, New York Times and E24.ee, which are very script-heavy and I don't like seeing pop-up notifications about "this or that script taking too long to load" without necessarily losing useful site functionality with NoScript.

As it usually is standard practice when upgrading software from one major version to another, the older major version is typically uninstalled first and then a newer version installed. Windows users may want to restart...

Now, with SeaMonkey versions 1.1 and 2.0 it's far more trickier if a user wants to retain (in effect, migrate) their profile data. The trouble with SeaMonkey 2.0 is that its profile migration is not as elegant as it is, for example, in an upgrade from OpenOffice.org 2.x to 3.x.

Here's why: For profile migration to work, SeaMonkey 1.1 must be set as the default browser. If a user uninstalls it (and dutifully keeps profile data), SeaMonkey 1.1 will cease to exist as an installed application and thus it won't be the default browser. Even if SeaMonkey is installed, but not set as the default browser, SeaMonkey 2.0 will skip the migration routine and will default to creating a blank default profile.

The good points:

• SeaMonkey 1.1 and 2.0 can be installed side-by-side;
• In an administrator account, setting SeaMonkey 1.1 as the default browser should work throughout all Windows profiles;
• SeaMonkey 1.1 and 2.0 won't write to each other's profile data;
• I forgot what the fourth point was.

Just in case, copy all SeaMonkey 1.1 profile data over to a backup location. Move the SeaMonkey (1.1) Program Files folder to another location. Quit all instances of SeaMonkey 1.1, including the QuickLauncher (removed in 2.0).

Install SeaMonkey 2.0. Don't launch it from the installer, but start the SeaMonkey 2.0 Profile Manager. If it shows the default profile, launch Sm 2.0 and see if it offers to migrate profile data. If not and if you won't see your old bookmarks, then profile data has not been migrated. Quit.

Start the SeaMonkey 2.0 Profile Manager again.

Just in case: Outside the Profile Manager, open the folder location of your old SeaMonkey 1.1 default profile. In Windows XP This should be

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\g1bb3r1sh.slt

Note that your actual profile folder contains other letters and numbers than g1bb3r1sh.slt, just that this is a useful example.

Note what the name of your SeaMonkey's default profile directory is. The purpose of this is to see if it's different from SeaMonkey 2.0's and if it is, then it's all fine.

Delete the existing new default profile in SeaMonkey 2.0, quit Profile Manager.

In a command line, go to SeaMonkey 2.0's installed directory, then follow instructions given in a MozillaWiki on SeaMonkey 2.0 profile migration:

• Create a profile with exactly the profile name of your old [default] profile
• and you should now get the migration dialog. Choose which profile to import data from.

Everything else should be relatively easy. Well, almost.

• Extensions must be installed anew.
• The whitelist of servers where extensions and themes can be installed from might not be migrated.
• I had trouble installing Flashblock from addons.mozilla.org, so I had to add flashblock.mozdev.org to the whitelist and install from there. No trouble installing NoScript from addons.mozilla.org.
• As it usually is with SeaMonkey browsers, the Flashblock toolbar button will not show automatically. Instead of opening the Preferences window, click on any free space in the SeaMonkey toolbar, then on Customize... A Firefox-like toolbar customization dialog should show up and the Flashblock toolbar item can be added wherever a user chooses in the toolbar (the standard location was next to the Home button in the Personal Toolbar). Because the computer where I installed SeaMonkey 2.0 does not have a printer, I dragged the printer button off the toolbar.
• Server whitelists for Flashblock and NoScript do not migrate. I had to manually type in server names into the new Flashblock whitelist, but I think its file can be migrated (haven't checked how to do it). NoScript allows exporting the whitelist, so I did that from SeaMonkey 1.1 and imported the whitelist in SeaMonkey 2.0 after installing NoScript.
• Even if a profile is migrated, SeaMonkey 2.0 will default to its default theme. If you used a Modern theme (built-in), then you'll have to choose it from the Add-on Manager and restart SeaMonkey. The selection and amount of themes for SeaMonkey 2.0 is different than for SeaMonkey 1.x.
• Important: Since all cookie data is dutifully copied over during migration, then cookies which have it that a user is still logged in at some e-mail or other service, persist. This means that before migration, users should first log out from all of their services in SeaMonkey 1.1, if they haven't done so before.
• The F10 keyboard shortcut to activate the menu does not work. Alt+menu hotkey does.
• If you use a separate profile for private browsing, re-check your preferences and settings to see that they are all correct.

Otherwise, things should should work the same, just that all this careful migration work takes time.

Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X disabled, but Shift+Del/Ins & Ctrl+F not?

As the title suggests, it was one day impossible to cut, copy and paste in Windows XP across apps using Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and to use left-Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn to move around tabs in SeaMonkey. Shift+Del, Ctrl+Ins and Shift+Ins worked, so did Ctrl+F, Ctrl+Q and a few other keyboard shortcuts.

The keyboard was Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (iTouch Pro or somesuch).

I did do my standard run through tech forums (even a keyboard driver change) and scans with software (Spybot Search & Destroy didn't find anything). MBAM found a few things, I deleted them (the scan log of this well below).

LATER it turned out that the non-standard www button on the keyboard was STUCK. I had it moved to normal position and then using the Ctrl+... keys worked like a charm, even after a restart. Trouble was that I failed to test if the Ctrl+ keys also worked after the MBAM scan and correction.

* Some text is in Estonian.

---

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46
www.malwarebytes.org

Andmebaasi versioon: 4387

Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3
Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702

4.08.2010 10:19:46
mbam-log-2010-08-04 (10-19-46).txt

Kontrolli tüüp: Kiirkontroll
Kontrollitud objekte: 180205
Kulunud aeg: 9 minut(id), 31 sekund(id)

Nakatunud mälu objekte: 0
Nakatunud mälu mooduleid: 0
Nakatunud registrivõtmeid: 1
Nakatunud registri väärtusi: 1
Nakatunud registriandmeid: 0
Nakatunud kaustu: 2
Nakatunud faile: 0

Nakatunud mälu objekte:
(Pahavara ei tuvastatud)

Nakatunud mälu mooduleid:
(Pahavara ei tuvastatud)

Nakatunud registrivõtmeid:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{faad2038-c371-473d-86f1-5b11d39c3775} (Rogue.Multiple) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Nakatunud registri väärtusi:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Network\uid (Malware.Trace) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Nakatunud registriandmeid:
(Pahavara ei tuvastatud)

Nakatunud kaustu:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SalesMonitor (Rogue.Multiple) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SalesMonitor\Data (Rogue.Multiple) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Nakatunud faile:
(Pahavara ei tuvastatud)

ID-kaart ja Mozilla Firefox

Kuna ma väga palju ID-kaardi dokumentatsiooni lugenud pole, siis alles hiljuti selgus, et edukaks sisselogimiseks Internetipanka tuleb ID-kaart lugejasse pista veel enne lehitseja avamist.

Asja tuum seisneb nimelt selles, et inimese ID-kaardi sertifikaadid loetakse sisse veebilehitseja avamisel. Kui ID-kaart sisestada juba olemasoleva veebilehitseja sessiooni ajal, siis sertifikaate automaatselt sisse ei loeta. Imelik värk.

Selline olukord tekkis Mozilla Firefox 3.0.19-s Windows Vista SP2 all, kuid ei välista ka, et sama olukord on ka mujal (teistes modernsetes Windowsites ja Firefoxi versioonides. Teistsuguste lehitsejate ja opsüsteemidega ei tea veel). Kaardilugejaks oli OmniKey CardMan 1021.

pilet.ee-sse ei saa sisse

Juhtus selline lugu, et tegelikult päris modernse, kuid õige pisut aegunud Mozilla Firefoxiga (versioon 3.0.19) läksin pilet.ee kodulehele ning seal tekkis selline veateade:
"invalid security certificate".

Veateade annab võimaluse lisada pilet.ee domeen erandite nimekirja, kuid seda pole tegelikult vaja teha.

Sama veateade võib tulla ka teiste vanemate Gecko-põhiste lehitsejatega, nagu näiteks SeaMonkey (Mozilla edasiarendus), K-Meleon, Galeon, Epiphany jt.

Lahendus:
Tarvis on lehitsejale peale panna Sertifitseerimiskeskuse sertifikaadid siit või siit.

See on suhteliselt lihtne, sest sertifikaatidele tuleb peale klikkida ja siis ilmub programmidialoog, mille kaudu saab sertifikaadid lehitsejasse panna. Saab valida vähemalt, et nende sertifikaatidega saab ära tunda veebisaite.

Tuleb tähele panna, et see protseduur tuleb veateate esinemisel teha igas lehitsejas ja lehitsejaprofiilis eraldi. Lähtuda võib kasvõi sellest, kui lehitsejas niisugune veateade tekib.

Kui niisuguseid asju juhtub ka Internet Exploreriga, tuleb sertifikaat samamoodi peale panna.

RegCure

Avastasin ühe sugulase arvutist programmi nimega RegCure, justkui oleks tarvis arvutis Windowsi registrit puhastada.

Ehkki Windowsi register on andmebaas, mille heaolust sõltub ka antud opsüsteemi töö, ei ole Windowsi aeglus alati tingitud sellest, et selle registri justkui mingid vead oleksid aegluses süüdi. Tihti põhjustab pikaldust mõni halvasti seatud või kirjutatud riistvara-draiver.

Et adekvaatset infot RegCure kohta on väga raske otsimootoritega leida, tuli mul seda tikutulega otsida.

Siin on siis vähe tasakaalukamat infot programmi kohta:
Complaints Board sait (inglise keeles, vt. kommentaarid)

Kuidas RegCure nimi liigagi tihti otsimootorites esineb (inglise keeles):
How to "Fix" Advertising Keywords

Peale selle soovib RegCure registreerimist, kus lehitsejas tuleb lahti programmi veebisait, mis küsib ees- ja perekonnanime ja e-posti aadressi.

Etem on tõmmata tasuta programm hea reputatsiooniga arendajalt. Kodusel tavakasutajal on hea renomeega arendaja äratundmisel tavaliselt raskusi, seega parim ressurss on Wikipedia (enamasti ingliskeelne, sest seal on kõige parem info).

Kiiruga leidsin CCleaner programmi, millega kohta on ka Wikipedia artikkel inglise keeles.

Kes Windowsi registri puhastamise tagamaadest inglise keeles rohkem lugeda soovib, saab seda siit.

Microsofti toodetest on olemas

• Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (Windowsi pahatahtliku tarkvara eemaldamise tööriist),
• Windows Defender, mis on edestatud
• Microsoft Security Essentials poolt. Viimast lubab litsents kasutada kodus ning ärilistel eesmärkidel vaid kodukontoris — seega välistatud on organisatsioonid ja nende kontorid.

Kõigele lisaks veel hea antiviirus/-nuhkvara ja tulemüür.