The Pale Moon Project - Custom-built and optimized Firefox browsers for Windows Operating Systems

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 15

15.4.1 (2013-01-28)

This is a bugfix and security release. Changes in this version:
  • Updated the C runtime library included to a later version for security/stability purposes.
  • Updated the Windows SDK version to 8.0 for better Windows 8 compatibility and slight overall improvements.
  • Implemented a fix to prevent unwanted automatic opening of the plugin check window on startup on some systems.
  • Corrected the milestone marker from 15.4pre to 15.4.
In addition, this version was built on a fresh build environment to prevent possible code pollution and improve profiling efficiency.

15.4 (2013-01-16)

Several security and stability issues have been fixed in this update:
  • Deal with bogus Turktrust certs MFSA 2013-20
  • Several memory security hazards fixed MFSA 2013-01
  • Updated OTS library to r95 to fix potential font-related exploits
  • Security fix for libpixman stack buffer overflow
  • Fix for certain types of input lag on Twitter/Facebook & other sites with unnecessary DOM invalidations
  • Fix for HTTP pipelining re-use (improve pipelining logic)
  • Performance&stability updates to cairo and direct2d back-end
  • Improved performance for repeat gradients

15.3.2 (2012-12-05)

This update fixes an important issue in the JavaScript engine (MethodJIT) that would make particularly large/complex pieces of JavaScript (e.g. Mandreel) fail. (Thanks, Ryan, for catching this one!)

15.3.1 (2012-11-30)

This update is a bugfix and performance release with a number of security, stability and efficiency fixes:

Bugfixes:
  • Fix for font rendering issues on Windows 8 (cairo+azure)
  • Status bar options: Russian locale fixed
  • Fix for status bar address bar linkover ghosting
  • Fix for browser hang in some WebM video content
  • Don't allow alert/confirm/prompt in onbeforeunload, onunload and onpagehide (bug# 391834)
Improvements:
  • Reduce non-incremental GC occurrences (reduce lag in Javascript)
  • More efficient CPU usage for JS and Canvas
  • Pale Moon x64: Performance improvements
Security fixes:
  • Security fixes for CVE-2012-5840, CVE-2012-5839, CVE-2012-4210, CVE-2012-4207 and CVE-2012-4214.
  • Fix for methodjit assertion issue (bug #781859)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in XPConnect (bug #809674)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in layout engine (bug #791601)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in JS string handling (bug #778603)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in GIF decoder (bug #789046)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in image decoder (bug #802168)
  • Fix for use-after-free in editor lib (bug #795708)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in SVG (bug #793848)
  • Fix for out-of-bounds read when blurring (bug #783041)
  • Fix for potentially exploitable crash in text editor (bug #798677)
  • Prevent URL spoofing through prompts (bug #700080)

15.3

This is an important update that sees a number of under-the-hood changes. The are no functional changes in this update.

Changes:
  • The compiler has been changed to a newer version (Visual Studio 2012). This has a few consequences:
    • Better handling of the browser overall: things like smooth scrolling, the user interface and page loading should be noticeably smoother on the vast majority of computers.
    • Automatic vectorization: If your hardware supports it, more advanced processor instructions are used.
    • Support for multiple cores.
    • The 64-bit version of Pale Moon will no longer support Windows XP. More details in this post.
  • Incremental garbage collection for Javascript.
Bugfixes:
  • Minimize intermediate surface size in Azure to mitigate performance regression.
  • Fix SVG clip paths in Azure.
  • Fix drawing artifacts in Azure.
  • Fix fuzzy equal function.
  • Some fixes for the Windows Aero user interface that popped up with the new compiler.
A slightly more detailed description can be found in the changelog on the forum.

15.2.1

This update incorporates critical security fixes back-ported from Firefox 16.0.2 (MFSA 2012-90)

15.2

This is an update to address a number of performance, stability and security issues, as well as some added features.

Fixes:
  • Important performance regression fix. Both javascript and the layout engine should now have the speed and stability that is to be expected from an optimized browser.
  • Fix for the "tabs on top" menu entry not showing when tabs are already set on top, making it very difficult to switch them back to bottom.
  • Crash: Fix for a browser crash with certain types of invalid gradients. (bug #792903)
  • Security: Prevent private browsing data leakage through popup windows (bug #795015)
  • Security: Detect IC purging (bug #794025)
  • Security: Prevent mRules from dying in DoInsertHTMLWithContext (bug #788950)
  • Security: Drain the parent frame's overflow list before insert/append (bug #765621)
Features:
  • Redesigned the identity panel and the way secure sites are handled in the UI
    You will now always get the favicon in the address bar, and on secure sites you will have an added padlock (indicating ssl, extended verification or a broken/insecure/mixed-content site) to the identity panel and colored shading around the URL to indicate the status. (see detailed changelog)
  • After evaluating the new address bar autocomplete algorithm, it is now switched on by default.
  • Added an option to easily switch address autocompletion on or off (see detailed changelog)
  • Partial implementation of Japanese "status bar" preferences text
More details can be found in the detailed changelog on the Pale Moon forum.

15.1.1

This is a minor update to address some important performance (high CPU usage) and stability (browser hang) issues in Pale Moon 15.1. Specifically, some of Tete009's patches were backed out.
Azure acceleration with his patches is still in place, but the multi-threaded box blur and cairo patches were removed to fix the CPU and browser hang issues, respectively.

15.1

This is a major update to the new v15.0 release, to address a fairly large number of issues with the initial version.

Important note:
  • From this release onwards, the system requirements for your operating system have changed: If you are still running Windows XP, you are required to have Service Pack 3 installed on it, or the browser will not start.
Bugfixes:
  • Restore Windows XP Professional x64 compatibility in the installer.
  • Fix the mouse wheel smooth scrolling preferences in the preferences dialog box (did not work in v15.0)
  • Prevent memory inflation on some integrated graphics drivers in canvas games
  • Fix for private browsing mode (Firefox 15.0.1 top fix)
  • Fix for Javascript stability issues on 32-bit versions
Regression fixes:
  • Restore the favicon in the URL bar. (Behavior change: new logic)
  • Fix for top level images with transparency (white background)
  • Remove noise from top level image background
  • Undo the redesign of the Safe Mode dialog box
  • Restore Alt-Click save dialog box
  • Restore proper identity panel for domain-verified sites (blue panel)
  • Restore support for the browser.identity.ssl_domain_display setting
  • Restore address bar autofill preference to its desired default state (no autofill)
Added features:
  • Add control for a custom top level image background color
  • Implement Direct2D brush caching (performance win)
  • Implement multi-threaded box blur (performance win for multi-core systems)
  • Add a Profile Reset feature (from Help -> Troubleshooting information)
  • Build with a faster floating point method
To keep these release notes concise, this is just a plain list of changes. You are encouraged to read the extended changelog post on the Pale Moon forum if you have any questions or want clarification about any of the items mentioned.

15.0

This is a new release based on the Gecko 15.0 code base with additional branch development. It incorporates many changes under the hood that go far beyond the scope of this document.

A few highlights, in addition to security fixes:
  • Performance improvements for the rendering engine
  • More HTML 5 implemented
  • Better handling of memory, resulting in smoother operation of the browser
  • More responsive user interface when the browser is busy
  • Prevention of memory leaks through add-ons
  • Better implementation of the Quickdial page
  • Localization of Pale Moon specific preferences and options (work in progress)
  • Reinstatement of the previous user interface, keeping it in line with version 12 (Firefox 15 has UI changes that makes the controls flat, monochrome and borderless, which isn't desired for Pale Moon)
  • The padlock has returned for secure pages! It can be found in front of the URL when you browse to a secure page, with optionally company information if supplied by the server
Some things new to the Firefox code base that are excluded or disabled by default:
  • Built-in PDF reader in javascript - use a standalone, dedicated reader
    (this is both a security and functionality consideration)
  • Additional advanced web development tools - the average user never needs these
  • Web apps on the desktop - Pale Moon is a browser, not a pseudo-OS
  • Windows Metro UI

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 12

12.3 r2

This is a rebuild of Pale Moon 12.3 to address some performance regression in the 32-bit version of Pale Moon 12.3. No functional changes have been implemented in this release, and updating the browser is completely optional, but recommended if you experience lesser performance in Pale Moon 12.3 than you are used to.
This build should give overall smoother operation of the browser and better HTML5 video playback (WebM/Theora) than the original release.

Note: once again, this is to address a regression that was only present in the 32-bit (x86) version of Pale Moon 12.3 and does not affect Pale Moon x64. Pale Moon 12.3r2 is an update for the 32-bit version only and completely optional if you are already on v12.3.

12.3

This is a maintenance release to address a number of potential security vulnerabilities.

Most notably among them:
  • Use-after-free while replacing/inserting a node in a document
  • Content Security Policy inline-script bypass
  • A few additional memory safety hazards and crashes that could theoretically be exploited
Additional note: the initial binaries as-published had a missing component that caused saving of a session to malfunction and not properly restore. If you have downloaded 12.3 x86 between 12:00 and 17:00 Central European Summer Time (Z+2) on 17/7/2012, or x64 on the same day between 12:00 and 19:00, you may have a faulty browser and you should download and re-install the browser. Apologies for the inconvenience!

12.2.1

A minor update to fix stability issues:
  • Fix for Flash 11.3 crashing the plugin container or browser upon shutdown.
    Note: Flash 11.3 introduces "protected mode", an internal plugin sandbox, that can still cause other issues, e.g. for full-screen video playback. Please check the forum announcement for more information, workarounds and advice if you experience issues.
  • Fix for double entries for "recent tags" and "recently bookmarked" in the bookmarks menu on a new profile.
  • Fix for build instability issues in javascript due to the Microsoft compiler producing incorrect machine code in some cases. This fix will cause a slight performance loss on 32-bit builds to prevent crashes and scripting problems in the GUI and on web pages. Pale Moon x64 is not affected.

12.2

A minor update but introducing some new features.

Most important changes:
  • Privacy issue: clear the QuickDial page when history is cleared
  • Better, neutral background color for raw image viewing
  • Smooth scrolling improved; also disabled smooth scrolling for page-by-page by default
  • Smooth scrolling can now be configured/tuned in detail in Advanced Options
  • Some changes to the build method for x64 for potentially better performance on some systems

12.1

A major update to the browser, implementing a number of visual and under-the-hood changes.

Security fixes:
  • Bug #745580 Thebes: handle bad results from Core Text shaping more robustly.
  • Bug #744541 XPCOM i/o: Charset conversion issue.
  • Bug #748613 Javascript: Scope vulnerability
  • Bug #747688 Layout engine: Drop references for all destroyed frames
  • Security update of the included MSVC runtime libraries
Enhancements and fixes:
  • Dynamic smooth scrolling algorithm for mouse/keyboard implemented. Smooth scrolling is now also enabled by default.
  • Update to the status bar code to fix pop-up status not switching sides on mouse-over, as well as using a safer allocation/destruction mechanism for controls (potentially preventing memory leaks).
  • Fixed: cache size override on new profiles (would be set to 1GB instead of the application default of 200MB). Bug 20120512-GN.
  • Addition of a number of preferences in the Tabs category of the options dialog box:
    • A checkbox for inserting related tabs next to the current tab when opening a link;
    • A checkbox for closing the browser window when the last tab is closed;
    • A selection for new tabs: Choose from a blank page, the Pale Moon start page or the Quickdial page.
  • Some slight color has been re-introduced in the navigation elements to improve clarity of the UI.
  • Disabled an image decoding library with hazardous code. This has no impact on the browser's image decoding capabilities or performance as alternative methods for decoding are used by default.
  • Some changes to memory handling which potentially keep memory use better within bounds.
  • A change to the build environment to improve stability of Javascript. Note that this is a trade-off and may result in a slight drop in synthetic benchmarking performance of the browser compared to the previous version of Pale Moon. The impact of this on overall real-world performance of the browser is negligible.

12.0

A new release built on the Firefox 12 code base. This is mostly a maintenance release.
Of special interest is that Pale Moon, unlike Mozilla Firefox in its version 12, does not move to a silent install method.

Fixes and changes in all versions:
  • A number of security and stability fixes imported from Firefox 12
  • Update to the status bar code and a finalization of the integration of this functionality
  • Localization of the status bar preferences and messages into 3 additional common languages: German, French and Spanish. This will automatically follow your locale setting
  • Update to the HTML5 media controls
  • Some under-the-hood changes that will further improve performance of Pale Moon on some systems
Pale Moon Portable:
  • An update to the launcher and script. More information on the Pale Moon Portable page. It is recommended for everyone using the portable to make a fresh install (with a copy over of your profile files if desired) and not use an in-place upgrade.
  • A fix for backups not being properly created and stored
This version marks the start of a different release schedule for Pale Moon.

Instead of following the rapid release schedule of Mozilla, the browser will use version 12, a properly matured build with essential functionality, as a base to make incremental updates upon.

The reasons for this are multiple, not in the least it will allow Pale Moon to implement things that have been on the "to-do" list for a while but which have been pushed back because of lack of time "keeping up" with the (too) fast releases of new versions by Mozilla. The rapid releases often little more than maintenance updates and one or two new features (sometimes even just partially implemented), but requiring a full development/testing cycle for Pale Moon because of the lumped-together patches. Another reason is that from this point on, Firefox will receive a few user interface overhauls to go off on the "Web OS"/"Metro"/"Desktop integration" tangent that goes against Pale Moon's goals of being and remaining a web browser.

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 11

11.0.1

A small maintenance release to address a few annoyances in the original new release of v11.0:
  • Tone down the rather too aggressive network settings that were introduced in Firefox 11:
    1. Maximum concurrent connections opened by Pale Moon lowered to 48 (was 256) to make sure it doesn't easily saturate the networking layer of Windows, to prevent residential NAT gateways from being overloaded and to lower strain on wireless networks
    2. Maximum concurrent connections to a single server lowered to 6 (was 15). In tandem with pipelining this is still plenty, and it actually promotes the proper intended use of pipelining
  • Fix the installer to properly check for the minimum required operating system version: Windows XP for both x86 and x64 versions
  • Switch off OpenGL as preferred engine for WebGL again to fix compatibility problems
  • Switch off DirectWrite font rendering again to fix compatibility issues with certain graphics cards
  • Properly implement the removal/blocking of status bar add-ons when upgrading/installing
In addition, Pale Moon 11 will:
  • Save open session information less often (once a minute)
  • No longer store form data and other entered information in the browser session store when pages are viewed over SSL, to increase security - the data entered in secure pages is no longer committed to disk.

11.0

A new major release building on the Firefox 11.0 code base. This sees many, many bugfixes and a good number of performance improvements that would be too extensive to list in detail.

In summary

All versions:
  • Integration of the Status Bar functionality. You can now access the status bar configuration directly from the Tools or Options menu, and it is no longer a separate add-on[note]
  • Implementation of the SPDY protocol to improve load times on websites that support it
  • Improvements to the rendering engine, and specific improvements to the hardware acceleration of font rendering and WebGL
  • Implementation of more advanced HTML5 (including IndexedDB improvements and support for more HTML5 elements) and CSS features (including CSS 3D transforms)
  • Add-on compatibility: add-ons now default to being compatible
  • Cosmetic updates to the Pale Moon icon and some included artwork
  • The (limited feature) web developer tools as added to Firefox 11.0 have mostly been disabled since they are not intended to be present in future builds of Pale Moon. Web developers are encouraged to make their own choices about which development tools they wish to use at the Mozilla Add-ons repository (Web development section)
Pale Moon Portable:
  • The automatic backup method has been simplified and the resulting backups will take (a lot) less space. Bookmarks and passwords are backed up, but history no longer gets backed up which saves many MB on your stick or other portable medium
  • Additional compression further reduces space requirements for the 32-bit portable

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 9

9.2

This update implements security fixes from Firefox up to 10.0.2 in terms of security and stability.
  • Fix for a critical vulnerability in the libpng graphics library
  • Update to the add-ons blocklist and its handling
  • New 64-bit application icon (32-bit icon update in the next version)
  • Minor updates to cache handling settings

9.1

This update implements relevant fixes from Firefox 10 in terms of security and stability. Additional new functionality found in Firefox 10 has not been implemented.
In addition, the following fixes:
  • Update to the status bar component to fix pop-up status and links, as well as a few other small issues
  • Update to the add-on compatibility assistant to no longer display the status bar core add-on as selectable
  • Update to a few default settings based on usage metrics
  • Removed some commercial search engines (e.g. Amazon) and added DuckDuckGo/SSL

9.0.1

An update incorporating the Firefox 9.0.1 code base.
In addition, the following changes:
  • Under the hood changes and improvements to the way memory is handled by the Javascript engine
  • WebGL has been changed to use ANGLE by default instead of using native OpenGL to give better performance on a number of systems that would otherwise suffer from high CPU usage and lower frame rates
  • Change in compiler: from this point on, Visual Studio 2010 will be used for all "next gen" builds
  • Build environment changed to cater to the ever-growing XUL dll size without having to compromize on what modules to optimize. (Prevent running into the 3GB address space limit)
  • DNS prefetching disabled by default to prevent router hangups
  • Changes to timings for UI script execution and content script execution to prevent unnecessary dialog popups about unresponsive scripts
  • Some image decoding tweaks
  • Eye candy: animated preferences dialogs (resize when switching category)

9.0

Development version (unreleased).
This version was not considered acceptable for release due to performance regressions.

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 8

8.0

A major update building on the Firefox 8.0 code base, with improvements that were planned for the (unreleased) version 7.0.2.
This version sees the following improvements in addition to those inherent to Firefox 8:
  • Improved cache handling: this will make the browser handle system resources more efficiently on most systems
  • Improved networking: communication with web servers should be noticeably faster and smoother
  • Fix for a rare image decoding bug (garbage, possible crashes)
It should be noted that the shift in focus of development has been towards the back-end of the browser (background resource handling and background networking), considering the rendering and scripting speed is not the bottleneck for current versions of the browser. Inherently, this may result in less of a clear difference in benchmark scores when comparing to its vulpine sibling or previous versions of Pale Moon because of rebalancing of code priority when building. Maximum benchmark scores are nice, of course, but the main goal of Pale Moon remains to be as efficient as possible when taken as a whole, including those parts that aren't measured in limited benchmark tests.

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 7

7.0.1

This update fixes a very important speed regression issue for Pale Moon 7.0. It impacts mostly the page content layout engine and DOM handling, which will be on par again with what they should be for Pale Moon in this point release. Bug: 20111001-CCBug
Benchmarking scores will see a significant jump from 7.0 to 7.0.1 as a result, as well.
There are no other functional or UI changes for this release.

7.0

A new release building on the Firefox 7.0.1 code base. This version sees a large number of performance increases, as well as lower resource use than the previous version.

Additional changes:
  • Introduction of the Tab Groups (panorama) button in the user interface for easy access (Next to the All Tabs button)
  • Several additional performance improvements on individual browser components
  • A change of the Application Menu button color to blue shades instead of a "foxy orange"

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 6

6.0.2

A security update seeing the following changes:
  • Removed trust exceptions for certain certificates (bug 683449)
  • Resolved an issue with gov.uk websites (bug 669792)
  • Revoked permissions for the root certificate for DigiNotar in the built-in certificate store (bug 682927)
In addition, there has been some work done on the x64 build method to prepare for performance fixes in a future release.

6.0

New release based on Firefox 6.0!
Of course the necessary bugfixes and changes as part of the new code base, with a number of additional changes:
  • Add-ons will no longer automatically update by default the moment they are checked and found to have a newer release, giving the user the choice to accept or reject the update, read release notes, etc.
  • Update of the status bar add-on to v2.2, fixing compatibility issues and extending some configurability
  • Link right-click menu has "Open in new tab" on top now, like Firefox. If you are having trouble retraining yourself for this behavior, please download a menu editing Firefox add-on to customize your menus. This change was made based on user feedback
  • Added ak, ast, br, bs, en-ZA, gd, lg, mai, nso, and son language packs

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 5

5.0

New release based on Firefox 5.0!
Of course a large number of bugfixes were applied as part of development on the Mozilla trunk, compared to 4.x

Changes/fixes:
  • Performance issues fixed on some systems
  • Instability problems fixed on some systems
  • Updated artwork for the new about box
  • Cosmetic changes: more occurrences of "palemoon" in the UI should now read "pale moon"
  • Zulu language added for the language packs

Pale Moon: Release notes for version 4

4.0.7

Fixes:
  • Windows 7 jumplists fixed
  • Fix for errors in the error console when closing tabs in certain situations
  • Potential fix for printing problems (no text printed) Still an issue

4.0.6

Update of the source base to Firefox 4.0.1, fixing a large number of bugs.

Additional updates:
  • Performance fix: Switched back globally to fast floating point model, with a patch to prevent rounding errors in javascript
  • Compensated for a number of internal compiler errors causing build issues and potential browser stability problems on some systems

4.0.5

A number of fixes and a cosmetic update:
  • Performance fix: Javascript performance improved
  • Crash fix: Prevent crashes in optimized builds of JS due to 20110410-CCBug
  • Updater fix: Internal updater should function again from this version onward
  • Add-ons window shows the proper add-ons page when loading it
  • Shell integration fixed for Vista and 7: The browser should no longer complain that it's not the default program when it, in fact, is. See bug 20110408-SHBug
  • Main Pale Moon program icon updated with a higher-res version of the logo image

4.0.3

Some stability bugfixes and improvements:
  • Fix for a potential crash of the browser due to 20110406-PRBug
  • Fix for the internal manual updater when a language pack is installed
  • DirectWrite now default OFF (gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled=false) to provide better compatibility with problematic (integrated) graphics processors. If it worked for you for 4.0, feel free to switch it back on (set to true)
  • Improvements to GUI/chrome speed
If you use a language pack, you will have to update it to the latest version for it to work.

4.0

This is a brand new release!

Built on Gecko 2.0, the browser has the following new features:
  • Hardware acceleration of browser windows using Direct3D
  • Direct2D rendering on operating systems and hardware that support it
  • DirectWrite font rendering on systems that support it
  • WebGL 3D graphics, either using native OpenGL (default) or DirectX (via ANGLE)
  • HTML5 support
  • New Jaegermonkey javascript engine
  • Blazingly fast DOM handling
Of course, the well known features from version 3.x are still present, as well:
  • Graphical tab previews (on a nice glass pane if you have Windows 7) with search
  • Dynamic/downloadable fonts (including WOFF)
  • Support for personas and Firefox themes
  • Support for Firefox 4 compatible add-ons
  • Support for OOPP (Out-of-process plug-ins)
  • Able to use existing Firefox profiles, bookmarks and settings (either using the migration tool or using Sync)
Since this is a new release, it may be a little less stable than the tried-and-tested 3.x releases, but no major issues have been found thus far.

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Pale Moon's distribution is subject to the following redistribution policy