Open source web browsers for older Windows versions

Web browsers, old and new, Firefox/Gecko, Chromium, Safari/WebKit, Opera/Presto, etc.
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K4sum1
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Open source web browsers for older Windows versions

Unread post by K4sum1 »

This post goes over each open source and recently updated web browser available for each Windows version. This excludes closed source browsers and browsers that have gone without updates for years. I do not recommend using any closed source browser unless it is absolutely necessary for your use case. I will not be going into Windows 2000 or older since they require extensive modifications to get a recently updated browser working. If I have missed any browsers please let me know.

XP+:
  • Firefox based:
    • MyPal 68:
      This is a fork of Firefox 68 ported to XP with an updated engine, about on par with Firefox 78 as of posting. This does have some weird changes that can be somewhat easily reverted though. It's a better choice than UXP if you don't need older extensions.
  • Lun3r/Hydra:
    These are based off of roytam1's fork of UXP, or Goanna, the engine powering Pale Moon. Unless you need them for some specific reason, use the above.
    • Lun3r:
      Lun3r is a fork of roytam1's New Moon 28, which is a fork of Pale Moon. The 28 is symbolic, roytam1's fork and therefore Lun3r are on par with current Pale Moon. For this reason Lun3r reports as being version 33 like current Pale Moon. It doesn't support webextensions and e10s is very broken, so I don't recommend it unless you really like Pale Moon. I'd consider the speed improvements from e10s a requirement for the modern web.
    • Hydra:
      Lun3r but with the Australis UI. This has some webextensions and e10s support, however I'm not sure how stable or how well they work.
  • RT1 UXP Platfom:
    These are based off of UXP, or Goanna, the engine powering Pale Moon. There are multiple variants of it maintained by Roytam1. There are more UXP based browsers than the three below, but I don't recommend using them outside of very specific cases. You can check this page for more if you want to try them.
    • New Moon 28:
      Don't let the 28 fool you, this is basically the master branch of UXP/Pale Moon but compatible with XP. Because of this some versions can be unstable, but you can always try a few releases to see which work the best. It doesn't support webextensions or e10s, so I don't recommend it unless you really like Pale Moon or have a CPU without SSE2 or SSE. I'd consider the speed improvements from e10s a requirement for the modern web.
    • Serpent 52:
      New Moon if it had the Firefox 52 UI. This should have some webextensions and e10s support, however I haven't tested it in a while.
    • Serpent 55:
      A still maintained version of what was the original Basilisk browser. This has better (still albeit poor) webextension compatibility and better e10s than Serpent 52. Needs testing though.
  • Chromium based:
    • Thorium:
      Latest Chromium but works on XP. It's the newest working browser engine for XP and Vista. I would consider this more trustworthy than Supermium, however it still uses the closed source progwrp.dll.
      !!!!!WARNING!!!!!
      Thorium has closed source components, most notably progwrp.dll, the main dll responsible for compatibility with XP/Vista.
    • Supermium:
      The upstream from Thorium, has less options, but it otherwise the same engine. It is more suspicious in testing though.
      !!!!!WARNING!!!!!
      Supermium has closed source components, most notably progwrp.dll, the main dll responsible for compatibility with XP/Vista.
Vista+
On top of XP+
  • Firefox based:
    • r3dfox:
      r3dfox is release Firefox if it never dropped Windows 7 and still had native elements like the scroll bar. Recently, Vista support has been implemented too. I would put it above 115 ESR based browsers, especially if you're using Vista as none of them work here so far aside from r3dfox ESR 115.
  • Vista Extended Kernel:
    Just like One Core API, this allows Vista to run modern browsers like the progwrp.dll free Windows 7 Thorium release, and r3dfox. Firefox based browsers will usually crash with a 0xc000005 error at first run but otherwise seem to work. Also just like One Core API, it can be somewhat buggy. It's a try at your own risk.
7+:
On top of Vista+
  • Firefox based:
    • In case you skipped Vista+, check out r3dfox for release branch Firefox. It's the only fork of it's kind so far.
    • Firefox 115 ESR based browsers:
      This includes regular Firefox 115 ESR, Waterfox G6, Mercury 115, Floorp 11, etc. These are all pretty similar, and you can't really go wrong with any of them. Some have more features than others, try them out and pick whichever works the best for you. These are mostly still supported since 115 ESR is still supported. We will have to wait and see what happens with the next ESR.
  • Chromium based:
    • Thorium:
      Optimized build of Chromium, new version based off of Supermium. Has some useful features and performance improvements on top of normal Chromium and Supermium. Windows 7 version does not have progwrp.dll.
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xperceniol_sal
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Open source browsers for older Windows versions

Unread post by xperceniol_sal »

Thank you, K4sum1 and My default browser is indeed Mypalo68 nowadays and I report very good success rate overall.
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K4sum1
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Open source browsers for older Windows versions

Unread post by K4sum1 »

I updated this list since some of the stuff is outdated. Remind me to add Supermium for XP when that releases.
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Open source web browsers for older Windows versions

Unread post by Niko »

Huh what about K-Meleon? If i recall correctly it also supports older versions of Windows and it is open source.

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Open source web browsers for older Windows versions

Unread post by K4sum1 »

K-Meleon is basically New Moon 27 with a different GUI.
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