Vista download problem

[milford]

Note. I am stuck with this laptop running Vista. It is 10 yrs old. Only drivers from MFG's website are for 32 or 64 bit XP or Vista. Nothing else. It would be a shame to through it out.
Considered re-installing Vista, but after looking at other posts on this site, I'm stuck. There would be no Updates to Vista.

 

[wither 3]

Running the Disk Cleanup should have had no deleterious effects similar to what you described. The amount it cleaned up was probably far more than the 300+ MB you mentioned. Now would be the best time to do a defrag to optimize your disk since the original defrag included the garbage that Disk Clean removed.

In IE9, go to Tools, Internet Options. In the Browsing history section of the General tab, click on Delete. Checkmark the boxes for the first four items and then delete. Does that help?

You might also look in the Programs tabs and select Manage Add-ons to see if there's something there enabled that isn't necessary.

 

[lmacri]

From IE9... Could not get to File Hippo. Diagnostic box came up. Ran it. Said to contact my Service Provider.
From Opera... Could not get to the Website. Continuous wait loop.
From Firefox...Got there but very long time to load the page. Had to wait for all the Ads to load. Tried downloading 32 bit Icedragon. Went through the motions, but nothing downloaded.

Hi milford:

Even with IE9 patched to April 2017 (KB4014661), this browser will only support older, insecure SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 connection protocols (go to Tools | Internet Options | Advanced tab | Security - I have manually disabled both SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 as a security precaution). If you browse to the Qualys SSL Labs Browser Test page with IE9 you will see a warning that your IE9 browser does not support safer TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols like TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 that are now required for many secure https web sites, and you will often see "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" errors when using IE9 because of this.

Your Firefox ESR v52.9.0 (extended support release) browser supports newer TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 protocols, and it can be configured to support the new TLS 1.3 protocol when it goes into wide release. Unfortunately, Mozilla ended Firefox ESR support for Vista in September 2018 - see the Mozilla support article Important - Firefox has ended support for Windows XP and Vista - but it's still much safer than using some of the other browsers you've been testing.

Installing a reputable ad blocker extension like Adblock Plus to Firefox ESR might also help to speed up your browser, but I find that downloading files from FileHippo.com can sometimes be painfully slow, even with Adblock Plus installed in my FF ESR v52.9.0 browser. Hint: Stop any videos on the download page as soon as they begin to auto-play or they could cause the download to time out.

Just another reminder to ensure that your automatic Windows Updates are disabled [Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never Check For Updates, and then re-boot]. If you have a Windows Update running in the background that's stuck on "Checking for updates...." because of the problem I mentioned in post # 10 the Windows Update Agent will saturate an entire CPU core (50% activity for a dual core CPU; 100% activity for a single core CPU) and seriously degrade system performance.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Adblock Plus v3.5.0 * Norton Security Deluxe v22.15.1.8 * MS Office Professional 2003

 

[wither 3]

You can enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 in IE 9 by doing a registry edit. I did it a week ago just before my system crashed.

 

[Vistaar]

This is beginning to look like a thread about Browsers, although Imacri managed to turn much of page 1 into a thread about Windows Updates. If "download" means "install," then you cannot download an up-to-date browser because none of them support Vista. This is the #1 reason why you should probably not be running Vista at this late date. Other active forum members seem to have persuaded themselves that browser support wasn't all that important, but I have never been a member of that camp (hence I am on Windows 10 at the moment, even though I have a Windows Vista system in perfect working order). There are existing threads in the Browsers and Mail section that might be of interest, particularly if you wanted a 64-bit browser that works on Vista (which Firefox 52 is not, nor is any version of Opera that is old enough to work on Vista):

Google Chrome
IE9: Last Supported Browser for Vista
Basilisk and New Moon Ports: Best Options For Vista

 

[lmacri]

...From IE9... Could not get to File Hippo. Diagnostic box came up. Ran it. Said to contact my Service Provider...

You can enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 in IE 9 by doing a registry edit. I did it a week ago just before my system crashed.

Hi wither 3:

Are you referring to the registry edits discussed in VistaLover's MSFN thread Enabling TLS 1.1/1.2 Support in Vista's Internet Explorer 9 that also require users to manually apply the KB4019276 Windows Server 2008 security patch released in July 2017 (i.e., after the end of extended support for Vista SP2 on 11-Apr-2017)? My comments in post # 23 were about "IE9 patched to April 2017 (KB4014661)" and why milford might be having problems viewing the FileHippo.com site with their current IE9 browser.

I have a 32-bit Vista SP2 (patched to April 2017) and Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser and I'm able to download larger files like the 78 MB Comodo IceDragon installer from FileHippo.com as long as I pause those annoying video ads that start auto-loading every time I click a green Download button on that site.

I'm still hoping that milford will notice a general improvement in system performance once they've fixed their Windows Update "Checking for updates..." hangs.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Adblock Plus v3.5.0 * Norton Security Deluxe v22.15.1.8 * MS Office Professional 2003
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[wither 3]

Hi Imacri-

I don't know if that's the exact link. I think I got the instructions from a thread in which Vistaar either provided the link or identified how to do that. The thing that made it happen was to delete the OS version as discussed in the link you mentioned. In my opinion, changing to TSL 1.1 and 1.2 slowed down things . I really never got the chance to verify this since my system crashed within a day or two. I haven't done the changes since I reinstalled Windows. It's sort of similar to installing the v2008 updates. I don't think I'm going to do them. I was fat, dumb and happy before doing them.

 

[Vistaar]

...I think I got the instructions from a thread in which Vistaar either provided the link or identified how to do that....In my opinion, changing to TSL 1.1 and 1.2 slowed down things. I really never got the chance to verify this since my system crashed within a day or two. I haven't done the changes since I reinstalled Windows. It's sort of similar to installing the v2008 updates. I don't think I'm going to do them. I was fat, dumb and happy before doing them.

I'm glad to hear you have lost some weight. I believe you did get the instructions from IE9: Last Supported Browser for Vista, since you posted there 12 times and revealed no indication of prior knowledge. If you are indulging in post hoc reasoning regarding the causes of problems with your dual boot Vista/Vista system after it was infected with PUPs, I don't think adding support for TLS 1.1 and 1.2 for IE9 was the problem. I did so many months before you had any success, and my Vista x86 system has not crashed or even slowed down - and btw sfc /scannow functions normally and finds no problems.

 

[wither 3]

I had run a full system scan with Norton Security and Malwarebytes before the crash and there were no problems.

I only commented to Imacri to indicate that one can enable 1.1 and 1.2.

 

[Vistaar]

...Unfortunately, Mozilla ended Firefox ESR support for Vista in September 2018...but it's still much safer than using some of the other browsers...

Truly unfortunate - but there was no update in September. As Mozilla announced, final EOL was June 2018. What possible basis could you have for asserting that one unsupported browser is "much safer" than others? They are all insecure!

 

[lmacri]

Truly unfortunate - but there was no update in September. As Mozilla announced, final EOL was June 2018....

Hi Vistaar:

See Daniel Vieditz's comment 9 in the Bugzilla bug report 1319164 [Message XP/Vista users running ESR 52.9 to inform them that support/security updates have ended (2018 Q2)]. Someone in the MS Answers forum correctly pointed out to me that although FF ESR v52.9.0 was last updated on 26-Jun-2018, it was still supported until ESR v60.2 for Win 7 and higher was released on 05-Sep-2018, and that Mozilla was committed to releasing an ESR v52.9.1 if a critical vulnerability was discovered before September 2018. The Mozilla FTP site still has a Tinderbox build of FF ESR v52.9.1 that was provided to developers in September 2018 that never made it to the stable release channel. Some XP and Vista users are apparently running this ESR v52.9.1 Tinderbox release (see the image <here>), but it was never thoroughly tested and not something I'd recommend anyone install.

...What possible basis could you have for asserting that one unsupported browser is "much safer" than others? They are all insecure!

I've never claimed that an unsupported FF ESR v52.9.0 that hasn't been updated since June 2018 is secure and safe to use for browsing - only that it's more secure that the IE9 browser milford is currently testing that's patched to April 2017 (KB4014661), since that IE9 update version does not support TLS 1.1 / 1.2 protocols. OP milford stated in post # 20 that they couldn't even browse to FileHippo.com with IE9 to attempt a download of the Comodo IceDragon installer, so I only suggested they try an alternate browser like FF ESR v52.9.0 that supports these newer TLS protocols.

I've discovered a few secure (https) websites that auto-detect my IE9 browser and prevent a connection, but connecting with my FF ESR v52.9.0 browser is still allowed. I assume that's because FF ESR v52.9.0 can support the currently recommended TLS 1.2 protocol. Security expert Michael Horowitz has posted instructions at Restricting Firefox to TLS Version 1.2 Makes Browsing Safer that can be used with FF ESR v52.9.0, although his companion article <here> notes that there are still a few https sites that only support older TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocols and will throw a "Secure Connection Failed: SSL_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_VERSION" message if Firefox is reinforced this way.

I'm not sure how any of this addresses OP milford's original problem, though.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Deluxe v22.15.1.8 * MS Office Professional 2003
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[Vistaar]

I'm not sure how any of this addresses OP milford's original problem, though.

I'm not sure either, but that never seems to stop the Lonely Hearts Club. It's been nearly a week now since OP milford posted.