Is Upgrading Necessary ????

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Richard1296
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Joined: July 29th, 2012, 2:25 pm

Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by Richard1296 »

I have not been happy with the newest Thunderbird so I reverted to 52.9.1....
How much of a risk is it to stay with this version ? I'm hoping my antivirus
will keep the older version secure. I'm quite careful about the email I receive
and with rare exception never get attachments...and then only when expected.
I just can't get the new version to look to suit me .

Richard
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tanstaafl
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by tanstaafl »

The "party line" is that you always need to use the latest version due to security fixes but in reality as long as you are careful on what attachments you open, don't use extensions like ThunderBrowse that try to turn Thunderbird into a browser, and don't enable display attachments inline you could safely stick with Thunderbird 52.9.1 for a year or two while things settle down. The critical security bugs that they find are potential bugs that don't appear to be widely exploited due to Thunderbird's small market share (compared to Outlook + Apple mail + webmail) and the success of cheap generic attacks (attachments with malware etc.)

One thing you will lose by sticking with an older version for a while is changes in what security certificates are considered trustworthy. For example Thunderbird (and most browsers) are starting to remove support for security certificates from Symantec and its subsidiaries due to irregularities they've discovered. https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2018/ ... tificates/

I would be careful not to rely upon your anti-virus scanner too much. Your mail has already been scanned by your email provider (so scanning it a second time using your software has less opportunity to detect something malicious) and anti-virus scanners are less useful as the threats have changed. Malware is more of a concern nowadays. I suggest you also use a free version of anti-malware software such as malwarebytes anti-malware or emisoft anti-malware.

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/101/2015/ ... i-malware/

If your concern is just 60.* looks different, I suggest you try the CustomizeMyBird add-on. The user interface for its options can be confusing but I've found it useful. I use it to change the looks of scrollbars, round the edges of tabs, have a compact version of the menu toolbar, change what the application menu button (hamburger button) looks like etc. See Visual customizations for Thunderbird for some other possibilities.
wsmwk
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by wsmwk »

> not been happy

That's quite vague. What is the issue?
Richard1296
Posts: 104
Joined: July 29th, 2012, 2:25 pm

Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by Richard1296 »

I don't care for the new look...I've yet to find a way to control text size in the messages
that equals what I could do with Theme and Font Size Changer.
I have tried CustomizeMyBird on one of my laptops, and that may be what I have to use.
It gives me colored icons that greatly outclass the dull grey the new TBird uses.
I'm just spoiled by what I have been using and hate to change from it...

Richard
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tanstaafl
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by tanstaafl »

theme and font changer for tb doesn't appear to be fully functional in version 60. You have to use tools -> add-ons -> options to get to its options, and its options are crippled - just hide the tools menu option, hide the app menu option and abbreviate toolbar button text. However theme font & size changer fixed appears to work with 60.3.0. It formally supports Thunderbird 58.0 - 65.0. The downside is it installs both an extension and a theme, and it deleted (not just disabled) the theme (seashells on the beach) that I had been using. I was able to delete the theme half and chose another theme.

As an aside, the theme that was deleted can't be downloaded from a browser (save link as downloads the web page, not the theme), it could only be added from within Thunderbird, and the search for it always failed. I had to click on themes -> most popular themes in that tab to let it do a search that would succeed even though I knew the exact name. Then, it let me add it by clicking on the add to Thunderbird button.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by tanstaafl »

I updated http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bad_Eyesight_-_Thunderbird to mention the fixed version of the add-on.
Richard1296
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Joined: July 29th, 2012, 2:25 pm

Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by Richard1296 »

I tried Theme and Font Size Changer with 60.3. It installed but gives me no options except
one small window with 3 options to show or hide it in menu's (if I remember right).
I just do not have any options to set for fonts and sizes...A reinstall of it made no difference.

Richard
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tanstaafl
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by tanstaafl »

I stated that add-on was crippled (with same symptoms as you just mentioned) but there is a fork of it called "theme font & size changer fixed" that works with 60.3. I used it to change the font and font size for menus/toolbars etc.
Richard1296
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Joined: July 29th, 2012, 2:25 pm

Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by Richard1296 »

I tried it with 52.9.1...and it does not work with that version for me.
I will try it tomorrow on 60.3 on my laptop.
Keep an eye here please...I'll probably be back.

Thanks
Richard
sfhowes
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by sfhowes »

Richard1296 wrote:I tried Theme and Font Size Changer with 60.3. It installed but gives me no options except
one small window with 3 options to show or hide it in menu's (if I remember right).
I just do not have any options to set for fonts and sizes...A reinstall of it made no difference.

Richard
Tools/Theme Font & Size Changer in the main window shows the font and size options.
wsmwk
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by wsmwk »

tanstaafl wrote:However [url=https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/theme-font-size-changer-fixed/?src=ss]theme font & size changer fixed appears to work with 60.3.0. It formally supports Thunderbird 58.0 - 65.0. The downside is it installs both an extension and a theme, and it deleted (not just disabled) the theme (seashells on the beach) that I had been using. I was able to delete the theme half and chose another theme.
Could you explain this in more detail, because I don't see how the fixed version could affect/delete themes. Also, I don't see how it could "install" a theme - afaik the only difference between the first forked version (there have been changes since) and the original is the that the fork eliminates the expiration.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by tanstaafl »

There are multiple forks. The first fork (by David E. Ross) at http://www.rossde.com/ThemeFontSizeChan ... index.html just fixed the expiration. The original (by Baris Derin) which I think supported up to 53.* was deleted from the web site a little while later. He added one that either changed or removed the expiration date and supported up to 60.* (which it really doesn't) to the web site. The second fork (by Bzzz) at https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... ed/?src=ss kept the expiration fix and only supported 58.0 - 65.0. That's the one I'm using, which deleted a theme.

It installed "theme font and size changer" (with minor wording differences) in both tools -> add-ons -> extensions and tools -> add-ons -> themes. It did not prompt for restart or make any visible changes until I manually exited and restarted it. It deleted the "seashells on the beach" theme which I had been using before. That surprised me as I did not think it was possible.

I uninstalled the add-on and undid the damage from before. I then installed the add-on again. This time it did nothing to themes. However when I removed it and restarted it the "seashells on the beach" theme was gone from tools -> add-ons -> themes. Looking at the various tabs I notice a file not found tab that states "The file chrome://themefontsizechangertb/content/options.xul cannot be found. Please check the location and try again."

I tried again after re-installing the deleted theme and closing the file not found tab. I tried to discover where the light weight themes are stored but the only reference I found to them was in prefs.js. I also noticed that setting Thunderbird to work offline was automatically reset when I restarted, so I couldn't easily test if the lightweight theme was fetched over the net on startup.

This time it added a "theme font & size changer for Thunderbird 64.6" (it has a colored paint palette and blue A+ icon) to the extensions, added a "theme font & size changer light weight theme (disabled)" to the themes (it has a black icon that looks like a artists paint brush), and changed the theme to the default theme. It did not delete the "seashells on the beach" theme (its a persona, not a complete theme).

If I enable "theme font & size changer light weight theme" it changes the background color in the toolbar area to what the CustomizeMyBird add-on sets. If I enable "seashells on the beach" it replaces the blue with a seashells on beach pattern. So "theme font & size changer light weight theme" appears to be a personna/lightweight theme. I can find what looks like an entry for it in user_pref("lightweightThemes.usedThemes", in the prefs.js file just like the other lightweight themes.

{\"id\":\"100000\",\"name\":\"Theme Font & Size Changer LightWeightTheme\",\"headerURL\":\"resource://themefontsizechangertb/chrome/content/spacer.gif\",\"footerURL\":\"resource://themefontsizechangertb/chrome/content/spacer.gif\",\"accentcolor\":\"#00ffff\"}
Richard1296
Posts: 104
Joined: July 29th, 2012, 2:25 pm

Re: Is Upgrading Necessary ????

Post by Richard1296 »

OK..finally made some progress with getting Theme Font and Size Changer to work on my
laptop with TB 60.3.0...
I had installed CustomizeMyBird to get some color in the icons, it was part of my problem.
A download of the "fixed" Theme Font and Size Changer also helped.
After disabling CustomizeMyBird I finally could control the zoom level which I could not
change from 100%...I could change it but It would always revert to 100%, it would never stay
where I set it.
Now with CustomizeMyBird disabled I can set all I need in Theme Font and Size Changer.
After making the adjustments I enabled CustomizeMyBird and got my colored icons back.
Seems if I need to adjust Theme Font and Size Changer I just need to disable CustomizeMyBird
first and enable when done.
Now to try it on my desktop (this computer) and see what happens...later today.

Richard
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