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July 15

Advocacy, not a request for information. Maybe use WP:VPP. The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Remove the ridicolous blocking of vpn

Nowadays, many users keep a VPN running at all times, which makes sense given how much they value their security and privacy. Being 'blocked' from a service simply for doing that feels outdated and heavy-handed, and only breeds frustration. Allmogen (talk) 09:17, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

July 21

Improving Core Web Vitals for a restaurant menu website

I'm working on a restaurant menu website about the Cook Out menu and I'm trying to improve its Core Web Vitals, especially LCP and INP.

The site is built with WordPress and mostly contains images, menu tables, and nutritional information. I've already enabled caching, image compression, lazy loading, and CSS/JS optimization, but I'm looking for additional best practices.

Are there any recommended techniques or tools for improving performance on content-heavy WordPress sites without affecting usability? Thanks! ~ BlakeFosterUS (talk) 14:18, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

There is a free tool, Lighthouse, for auditing the quality of web pages. I am not familiar with it (or even with the notion of these Core Web Vitals), but, reportedly, it offers insights into how to optimize the Core Web Vitals metrics.  ​‑‑Lambiam 19:52, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

July 22

Email client recommendation (for Windows)

For years, I've been using Outlook, for which I wrote 3k LOC of macros. But now my old Outlook can't handle the updated protocol of my host anymore, so I need to ditch it. The obvious step of updating Outlook is ruled out by its hardware requirements. So I'm looking for a replacement. (I've been recommended The Bat!, but that has this unsolved setup problem.)

So, any recommendation for an email client that I can tinker with? Because few will have macro capabilities comparable to Outlook, I'm now looking at open source. And the results at SourceForge are overwhelming: 18 pages! Even if 90% of them can be excluded at first sight, it's still a long list. (For now I'm just looking for a Windows program, but since I'm considering to switch to Unix some time, it would be nice to have one that also runs on Unix.)

General question about the SourceForge list: What are good criteria to look for? The Open Source Excellence badge? The number of downloads or reviews? Is a recent Last Update a good thing or does it indicate that the program is not stable yet? ◅ Sebastian Helm 🗨 10:02, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

What I use is Betterbird, a fork of Mozilla Thunderbird, both of which use WebExtensions (though those written for browsers would need some adapting). Sourceforge pretty much died a decade ago and most things you see there are probably outdated. In solidarity, Aaron Liu (talk) 22:17, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

See also Comparison of email clients. Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:50, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Which version of Outlook, and which version of Windows? Can you be more specific about the "updated protocol of my host"? I had a similar problem two weeks ago, with Outlook 2007 on Windows 7, when my e-mail provider dropped support for TLS 1.1 and earlier. The solution in that case was enabling TLS 1.2 in Windows. Mitch Ames (talk) 08:17, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

July 23

Problem with Firefox browser

I have been using Firefox for years without any major problems. I am still using Windows 10 because my (rather old) computer cannot run Windows 11.

About 12 hours ago while online I got the usual Firefox 'New update' notification, and downloaded the update which duly installed the next time I returned to Firefox and clicked the 'yes' option. However, since then the browser has been freezing up between 1 and five minutes after opening it. It even froze when I was attempting to report the problem to Mozilla.

I am now using Opera (installed as a backup for such contingencies), which is working perfectly but of course is inconvenient because (a) I'm unfamiliar with it and (b) it lacks all my Bookmarks and Home page shortcuts.

Does anyone know if this is a general problem with Firefox, or likely peculiar to me and my old PC; and either way, does anybody have any non-technically worded suggestions?

Regards {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 17:19, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

I suggest you try a clean install of Firefox. If you have a login to Firefox (which requires you also to run FF on another device) it will have all your bookmarks and passwords backed up.-Gadfium (talk) 19:22, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, Gadfium. Unfortunately I do not have any other device than my PC.

The problem is now compounded because Google will not let me access my Gmail account with just my password, although this was working the last time I tried (which was a few weeks ago – I rarely use email).

In baby steps, how do I reinstall Firefox? It is literally more than a decade since my PC was set up, so I have no memory of how this is done. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195.} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 20:52, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

The best advice I can give you is to take the PC into a local computer shop - you'll get better service from a one-person outfit than from a chain megastore. They'll fix your problem for probably quite a small charge. Tell them you want your bookmarks, add-on configuration and so on saved if at all possible.

If you can't do that, try installing a fresh copy of Firefox without uninstalling the old one. Use Opera or any other browser to go to https://www.firefox.com and follow the instructions. If it all works, you may still have your bookmarks etc. If that doesn't work at all, uninstall Firefox by going to "Start button"->Settings->Apps->scroll down to Mozilla Firefox->click->Uninstall. After that, try installing it again using the copy you already downloaded. However, I expect you will have lost bookmarks in the uninstall.-Gadfium (talk) 22:59, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

If you need to find which version of Firefox you have (32 bit or 64-bit), follow the uninstall instructions but don't click the Uninstall button.-Gadfium (talk) 23:03, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the further advice: I'll ponder on it. Unfortunately, the one 'computer shop' in my town (which I used once or twice) closed several years ago, and finding another reputable one is not as easy as it ought to be. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 02:09, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

I have seen some weird behavior in Firefox (Mac) lately: a few websites won't let me log in, another would not let me complete a purchase; in each case Safari worked better. I'm sticking with Firefox for now because I like how it handles bookmarks. —Antonissimo (talk) 03:13, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Which version are you using? Click Help → About Firefox. I'm on 152.06 (32-bit), but 153.0 is available. If so, I think FF has been having a few problems recently, and may have been rushing out some updates. To save/export your bookmarks as an Html file, click the FF menu button (three horizontal lines, top right), select Bookmarks, and click Manage bookmarks at the bottom. In the top line of the Library window, click Import and Backup, choose Export Bookmarks to an HTML..., select a save location (eg your Desktop), and hit Save. Restore using the same procedure, select the exported .htm file.
Mozilla has this page about re-installing old versions, recommends 152.04, or ESR which is meant to be stable and not so cutting-edge. Click the required version, save, and press the downloads button (or Ctrl + J) to find it.
You could try Windows System Restore, which reverts to previous Windows settings, if it has been turned on. Only program files and settings are restored, your saved data and existing files are not affected. Press Win + R to open a Run window, and enter rstrui.exe. Press Next. Available saved restore points should be shown. Select a suitable one before the FF update, there may be only one line. It takes a few minutes and a single reboot, but it tends to work. If Automatic Updates is turned on, Windows may get very busy re-installing updates. Absolutely cannot guarantee results. It used to work very well with XP, but Win 10 doesn't seem to keep it up to date quite as well. Hope you get things sorted. MinorProphet (talk) 11:23, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

PS If you click 'Scan for affected programs' in the System Restore window, it should tell you what has changed since the selected restore point was created. MinorProphet (talk) 11:39, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Regarding computers that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11: last year a family member of mine (who's close to 80 years old) had the same problem. He asked me to help him install Linux. I did. He seems really pleased with it; it runs much faster than Windows. So if you have a neighbour/nephew/whatever who knows this stuff, consider it.

Your Firefox bookmarks, history, passwords etc. are stored in your Firefox profile, which must be somewhere in your personal data directory. Where that is on Windows, I don't know, but wouldn't expect reinstallation of Firefox to overwrite that, as the application is stored somewhere else.

On the other hand, sometimes the problem is with your profile. Try running Firefox with a fresh profile. If that's more stable, you know more. Or the problem may be with some extension. Try starting Firefox with all extensions disabled. There are options for both; ask your favourite search engine to find how to use them on Windows. PiusImpavidus (talk) 18:19, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Hey, {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} - any luck with any of our suggestions? We're all itching to know, since there is an unacknowledged competition between all techies to know who was right. Maybe it just "fixed itself"™. MinorProphet (talk) 13:36, 27 July 2026 (UTC)