These release notes describe system requirements, installation instructions, and known issues for Netscape 7.0 through Netscape 7.2. These notes are updated as we receive feedback, so please check back for new information. Click here to provide feedback on Netscape 7.0 through 7.2. These release notes were last updated 25 June, 2003 .
For answers to frequently asked questions about Netscape 7.0 through 7.2, read the Netscape 7 FAQ.
For more information on how to use these new features, go to the Help and Support Center. (Open the Help menu and choose Help and Support Center).
Macintosh
- Mac OS X 10.1.x; Mac OS X 10.2 and later
- PowerPC 400 MHz or faster processor, G3, or G4
- 256 MB RAM
- 60 MB of free hard disk space
Windows
- Windows 98 or 98SE, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
- Intel Pentium class 233 MHz (or faster) processor
- 64 MB RAM
- 26 MB of free hard disk space
Linux
- Red Hat Linux 7.0 or later. Netscape 7.2is certified and fully supported on Red Hat Linux, but will run on other Linux distributions, such as Debian 2.2 (or later) or SuSE 7.2 (or later). Installing the latest errata for your distribution is recommended, however Netscape 7.2 requires Linux kernel-2.2.14 or later, with the following libraries or package minimums: glibc 2.2.4, XFree86 3.3.6, gtk+ 1.2.0 (1.2.5 or later preferred), Glib 1.2.x.
- Intel pentium class 233 MHz (or faster) processor
- 64 MB of RAM
- 26 MB of free hard disk space
(Windows only) If a user installs 'AdSubtract' software while QuickLaunch is running, the browser will crash.
If you are running McAfee's WebScanX, you may experience crashes at startup. Please disable the product and see if it prevents the problem. If so, please contact McAfee for a solution.
See the upgrade guide for problems associated with using a profile created in 6.0 or 6.01 that was abandoned. If you continue to use 4.x profile, information in 6.0 or 6.01 profile will appear out of date. The upgrade guide has suggestions and instructions for working through this problem.
When you install language packs and other .xpi files, downloading pauses until you click the browser's Stop button.
If you receive the message 'The program must close to allow a previous installation to complete' when launching, it means that file cleanup after an additional installation has not completed.
Suggested workarounds:
- In most cases, waiting a few additional seconds after the program exits will allow the cleanup process to complete and allow you to launch.
- Occasionally the installation process is waiting for another program to release a file the cleanup process needs. You may need to shut down other programs or reboot the computer to allow the installation process to complete.
Windows and Mac OS: It is strongly recommended that you exit all programs before installing. Also, you should temporarily disable virus detection software.
Mac OS X: Netscape will not run when the application is installed on a UFS partition. The workaround is to move the application folder to an HFS+ partition and it will run correctly.
Mac OS 9: Netscape installation requires some system extensions including QuickTime.
- If you are installing from the CD: - Double click the Windows directory on the Netscape CD to open it, if you haven't done so already.
If you are downloading from the Netscape site:
- Click the NSSetup.exe link to download it to your machine.
- Double click the NSSetup program icon on your machine to begin the Setup program.
- Follow the on-screen instructions in the Setup program. The program starts automatically the first time.
- If you are installing from the CD:
- Change to the Linux directory on the CD:
cd linux
Then skip to step 3.
If you are downloading from the Netscape site:
- Download the netscape-i686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gz archive.- Type one of the following to gunzip and untar the archive:
tar -zxvf netscape-i686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gz
OR
gzip -dc netscape-i686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gz | tar xvf -
- Change to the directory that contains the Netscape installation files:
cd netscape-installer- Run the Netscape Installer with the run script:
./netscape-installer
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
- To start Netscape, change to the directory where you installed it and run the program:
./netscape
The program starts automatically the first time.
Linux
- Remove the
netscapedirectory where you installed Netscape- Remove the ~/.mozilla directory, which contains profile information
Windows
- Go to Settings/Control Panel/Add Remove Programs and choose Netscape
Mac OS X
- Remove the folder Mozilla from your Library folder inside your home directory
- Remove the file "Mozilla Registry" from /Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences
- Remove the file "Mozilla Versions" from /Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences
- Remove the folder where you installed Netscape
Mac OS X 10.2.x: For users who do frequent updates or installs, the Mac OS may "forget" that Netscape has been set as the default browser. Workaround: Remove these files:
(You need root access to remove the first two files.)
/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore
/private/var/root/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore
Reboot the machine. Now, you should be able to change the default web browser to Netscape and have that change remain in effect.Keyboard and Mouse
Windows: Mousewheel scrolling does not work with all drivers. If you have problems, try updating your driver or disabling any "helper" programs that your mouse uses. If you have a Logitech mouse, you can either upgrade the driver (to at least v9.60) or enable the "Microsoft Office compatible scrolling" option in the Mouse/Buttons control panel.
Mac OS X: You can't use Command+M to minimize a window. Workaround: Click the yellow title bar button to minimize a window.
Dialog Boxes and Windows
If Netscape is locked up but doesn't seem to have crashed, make sure there are no dialog boxes still open. Close each window on your desktop one at a time and if you uncover a dialog window, dismiss it. If you have multiple desktops, repeat these steps for each desktop.
This problem may affect Linux users downloading plugins. Follow these steps to resolve the problem:
- Minimize the plugin download window.
- Click "Cancel" to dismiss the dialog box.
- Reopen the download window and continue downloading the plugin.
Proxies
Netscape needs to be configured to work properly with proxies such as Junkbuster that do not support the most recent HTTP specification. By default, Netscape tries to use HTTP 1.1. To use Netscape with a proxy that only supports HTTP 1.0, add the following pref (instructions here):
user_pref("network.http.version",1.0);Netscape only accepts hostnames for manual proxies. If you migrate a Communicator 4 profile, you will need to change the settings manually. Communicator 4 allowed URL's in manual configuration, but Netscape does not. If you migrate a profile configured this way, you will need to change the URL to a hostname and port number.
Setting Profiles
(Mac OS X) To open the Profile Manager, press the Option key and double-click the Netscape icon.
In Profile Manager, if you rename a profile to a name you previously used, all your preferences may be lost. Workaround: If you rename a profile, use a unique name.
If you have a single profile from Communicator version 4.5 or later, that profile is automatically copied and converted for use with Netscape . Profiles from earlier Netscape versions cannot be converted.
If you have multiple profiles to copy and convert, the profile manager dialog box appears. Click the profile you want to use and then click Start.
If problems occur during installation and your Communicator profile was not copied and converted, you can still use your profile. Launch Netscape from the command line, adding the "
-installer" option , or reinstall Netscape to see the profile manager dialog again.To prevent the Activation window from appearing whenever you start Netscape, press the Cancel button (and press Cancel in the confirmation dialog). The window will continue to reappear if you close the window using a method defined by the operating system.
(Unix and Mac OS X) If Netscape is running, and you run another instance of Netscape to create a new profile, that new profile will disappear from the Profile Manager. Workaround: Before creating another profile, quit all instances of Netscape before launching the Profile Manager.
Location of Profiles
The following table lists the the location of profiles used for Netscape:
Windows 98/98SE/Me If password protection is disabled:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profile name>\<*.slt>
If password protection is enabled:
C:\Windows\Profiles\<user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profilename>\<*.slt>\Windows NT 4.0 C:\Winnt\Profiles\<user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profile name>\*.slt Windows 2000 & Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profile name>\ Mac OS X ~\Library\Mozilla Linux Enter the following command to find where home is pointing to (registry and profiles in are located in $HOME/.mozilla):
'echo $HOME'Note: Netscape profile locations are different than the storage locations used by Netscape Communicator and allows users to run both programs without changing profiles of the other version.
Note: Netscape 6.0 and Netscape 6.01 profiles are stored in a directory ~\Users50 instead of ~\Profiles. Netscape will be able to detect and use these older profiles.
If the Location Bar does not respond to the Enter/Return key, you can use the temporary workaround of pasting the URL into File | Open Web location. To fix it, close Netscape , then delete your history.dat and localstore.rdf.
If a username or password is embedded into a URI in the form of http://username:password@sitename.com. Netscape will not warn the user of this when the user follows the link. URI's with long usernames in the form of http://www.mozilla.org%2084230482304982304329048230948@fraudsite.com could deceive users into thinking they were going to mozilla.org when they were really going to fraudsite.com.
If the user is downloading a file in the background and the user exits from the File menu, the download will abort without warning. Workaround: Only exit after downloads finish.
The "View Frame Source" feature is not available from the View menu; however, it is available in the context menu. To see the context menu, click the left mouse button to put the mouse pointer in the frame and then click the right mouse button (Control click on the Mac OS).
Pages that appear to be rendered incorrectly may be due to standards compliance issues. See the Netscape Evangelism site for more details.
A binary file with unknown type is displayed as text/plain rather than saved. Workaround: if there's a link on a page pointing to such a file: Use the context menu and select "Save Link Target As..."
Shift+clicking a link (on Mac OS, Option+clicking) to save a file saves a version from the cache, not the most recent version on the server. Workaround: Clear out your cache and try again.
Tabbed Browsing
Mac OS X: Sometimes the application might hang if an invalid url is entered in Open Web Location in New Tab.
Accessing Pages
While enabling HTTP pipelining may significantly improve page load times, it can prevent some websites from loading correctly. If you experience problems loading a website, please verify that HTTP pipelining is disabled and try again (see Preferences->Advanced->HTTP Networking). HTTP pipelining is disabled by default.
Linux: Flash may crash with exported X display.
Linux: On Linux, there may be problems with ESD Audio and Flash.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks cannot be rearranged if you have sorted them. To rearrange them, select Unsorted from the View menu, or click the Name column header until the arrow disappears.
You cannot save two differently named bookmarks for the same URL.
View Source
Mac OS X: The horizontal scrollbar in the View Source window might be missing. Resize the window to see the scrollbar.
POP email becomes unusable if the profile is stored on a network drive. Workaround: Create a profile on the local hard drive. Copy folders from an old profile if needed.
Plain sgml/xml/html tags inserted in a message, for instance when you quote a source, are omitted.
Moving or copying a labeled message will not retain the label in the destination folder when filing across accounts.
In the Mail/News Account Settings: Server Settings dialog box, any changes you make to local directory settings won't take effect until you exit and restart Netscape .
Netscape does not warn the user of a low disk space condition. Some symptoms you may see are:
- POP: Status text indicates there are new messages to retrieve, but no new messages appear in the Inbox. Quit Netscape , free some disk space, restart Netscape , and try again.
- IMAP: Status text indicates there are new messages to retrieve, but no new messages appear in the Inbox. Quit Netscape , free some disk space, restart Netscape , and try again.
Mail account identity is not stored along with an unsent message.
Linux: You may encounter problems if you install Netscape in a root user environment then run as another user. Problems include saving to Sent folder, Drafts, Templates or general authentication problems.
The Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box does not display correctly at lower monitor resolutions such as 800 by 600 or 640 by 480. If possible, increase your monitor's display resolution above 800 by 600.
Return Receipts
When the preference, 'Make the messages in my Inbox available when I am working offline,' is checked, messages received in the Inbox (not other folders) will not send a requested Return Receipt. Workaround: Uncheck this preference and select the Inbox for download in the 'Items for Offline Use' window. To download the Inbox messages, you will have to do 'Download/Sync now' or click the offline icon in Mail and click 'Download' button when the request to download all messages appear.
Address Book
Imported Netscape Communicator address books appear as separate address books.
In the Select Addresses dialog, dragging an entry from the left side of the dialog box to the right side causes the application to become unresponsive. Work-around: select an entry in the left side of the dialog box and use the To:, CC:, BCC: or Remove buttons to move the entry to the right side of the dialog box.
Receiving and Reading Messages
In rare cases, you may not see the message header (From, Subject, Date, To, Cc, and so forth) when you read messages. This problem may occur when you switch mail folders or newsgroups. To see headers, resize the window or the message content pane.
Filters
Filtering mail from a POP3 account into an IMAP folder is not supported. The mail application does not prevent you from creating such filters, but they will not work (no filtering action will occur).
If you have multiple filters configured for a mail account, incoming messages will continue to be evaluated against each filter (in the order listed in the Message Filters dialog) until a filter action of Move to Folder or Delete is executed. This differs from Communicator 4.x where any filter action would stop further filtering on a message.
Pop and IMAP
You must exit and restart Netscape to see the effect of a change to the option: "show All IMAP mail folders" or "show only subscribed IMAP mail folders." To access this option: click the Advanced button in the Server section of the Account Settings dialog box.
News
The Subscribe dialog box may not work with news servers that require authentication. If you open a password-protected newsgroup you may be prompted more than once for the user name and password combination.
LDAP
Netscape may temporarily hang during LDAP autocomplete if network connectivity is broken. Specifically, if the LDAP server in question is unreachable (network connectivity problems, including taking a laptop outside a firewall), the entire app will hang when attempting to contact that server. The app will begin responding again after about 10 seconds (the length of the TCP timeout).
Netscape WebMail and AOL Mail
You cannot check AOL mail if you are signed onto AOL with the same screename, unless you first log into AIM within Netscape.
You will be logged off of AIM 4.x or AIM Express if you check Webmail through Netscape Mail with the same screename.
Changing your AOL screen name password will not change the password used within Netscape Mail and AIM. Workaround: Instead go to AOL keyword: "AIM Password" to change your password.
If you try to login in too often to AOL Mail or Webmail, you may get an error saying, "Login Failed." Workaround: Try logging in after 10 minutes.
Offline mail feature for use with AOL accounts is not implemented.
AOL Mail and Netscape WebMail does not support filtering, searching, and subscribing.
AOL Mail and Netscape WebMail does not support these functions:
- "Expunge Inbox on Exit"
- "Rename Folder" for AOL created folders (AOL Old Mail, Recently Deleted Mail, Sent Mail)
- "Delete Folder" with default AOL folders
Simple MAPI (Windows Only)
When you start Netscape, it does not ask you if you want to make Netscape Mail the default mail application. Workaround: To set Netscape Mail as the default mail application, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, select Mail&Newsgroups;, and then choose "Use Netscape Mail as the default mail application." Click OK to have this change take effect.
You see the message "Another application is attempting to send mail using your user profile. Are you sure you want to send mail?" By default, Netscape prevents email messages from being sent programmatically from Netscape without your knowledge by displaying this confirmation message, so you can choose whether or not you want Netscape to send the message. Click OK to send the message, or click Cancel if you don't want Netscape to send the message.
Opening Radio@Netscape may instead open a blank window if you share a profile with Mozilla. Workaround: Remove the following line from prefs.js:
user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);
Setup
Mac OS: Buddy Lists do not automatically transfer from AOL Instant Messenger to Netscape. You must export the AOL Instant Messenger 4.x Buddy List and import it to Netscape.
General
The default My Sidebar tab includes the Buddy List even when Instant Messenger is not installed.
Offline ICQ messages cannot be retrieved.
A smiley disappears if you try to make it larger by using the larger font size button on the Compose Toolbar of the Instant Message or Chat window.
Instant messages can't be saved as text files.
Using Instant Messenger with Netscape Mail
The presence icon for users with Netscape.net email addresses does not appear in Netscape Mail, so you cannot see whether those users are online.
Buddy List
If you export a buddy list, the extension .blt is not appended. When you try to import that buddy list, the application will not find the list without the .blt extension. Workaround: Manually add the extension .blt to the file name of the exported buddy list.
Netscape doesn't include the preference "Block AIM Users Only" that is included in AIM 4.x. If you had checked the preference in AIM, then signed on using the same Screen Name in Netscape, you may not be able to see some buddies on your list.
If you are editing a document in HTML Source edit mode and then you switch back to Normal edit mode and choose Undo, the Undo command becomes disabled after the first use.
When Publishing in Composer, if the Publishing URL, file name, user name, or password contain any special characters (such as "@") that need to be escaped, then Composer creates a duplicate site entry each time you publish the document. To work around this bug, choose the original site name from the Site Name list in the Publish dialog box before publishing the document again. For example, some ISP users have usernames that are also their email addresses, e.g., "janedoe@ispname.net". After publishing to this site, the next time you use the Publish dialog, the username from the document URL will appear as "janedoe%40ispname.net" (the "@" was escaped during publishing). Since Composer can't find this entry, it creates a duplicate site name.
Edit|PasteAs function is not functioning.
You can not print HTML Source.
Numerous shortcut keys do not function properly.
Some element icons do not render in Show All Tags mode.
List editing can cause nested lists to outdent to next level list.
Remove option from personal spell check dictionary does not work.
When visiting a SSL enabled site, the lock icon will take on a yellow background, and will not indicate the strength of the SSL encryption used, whether it is 40 bit, 56 bit, or 128 bit.
Restoring a certificate to a smart card can take a long time. No feedback is provided while restoring a certificate to a smart card, which can take a long time since smart cards are relatively slow devices. As a result, it may appear that the restoration is not happening.
For security reasons, Netscape does not allow connections to certain ports. To override this on a per-port basis, add a comma separated list of ports to defaults/all.js (in your Netscape installation directory). Note that this pref only works in the
all.jsfile in the Netscape installation directory and it affects all users of the installation. It does not work if you add it to theprefs.jsfile in your personal profile directory. For example, to unblock ports 1, 3, and 7, use the following line:
pref("network.security.ports.banned.override", "1,3,7");If you are accessing the Internet from behind a firewall that does not block external servers from claiming intranet IP addresses then the document.domain property could be used by an attacker to retrieve content from servers thought to be protected by the firewall. If reconfiguring the firewall is not possible, administrators can install Netscape with the following line addition to prefs.js or user.js:
user_pref("javascript.strict_domain_checking", true);
If you enable TLS in your SSL preferences and a web site server is "TLS intolerant," the client will fall back to using SSL3. However, if you have selected to use a proxy for secure connections, the browser will not be able to reach a "TLS intolerant" web site.
Do not share a profile between Netscape and Mozilla browsers. Doing this can lead to unpredictable results, which may include loss of Search settings and preferences and unchecked growth of the Bookmarks file (large enough to freeze your system). It is best to create a new profile for each or manually copy (and change the name) an existing profile.
If you are using the Classic theme, some preference panels may be displayed incorrectly or may have missing elements. If you view a different preference panel and then return to the one you're working in, the display is corrected.
Plugins are not refreshed if the browser is restarted with QuickLaunch on. The workaround is to make sure QuickLaunch is not 'ON' by removing it from the system tray and then restarting the browser.
In Netscape 7.02, WMODE is supported in the latest (6r65 for Windows and 6r67 for MacOS X) version of MacromediaŽ Flash 6 for Netscape Gecko. Find out more about WMODE here and download the plugin here.
Linux: The Flash plugin context menu does not disappear when you clicks outside the plugin area to dismiss it. Workaround: Click inside the plugin to dismiss the plugin context menu.
Linux: Netscape will hang if a Flash plugin tries to play audio and the audio device is already in use. Workaround: Stop the audio device and return to that page.
Linux: Loading a page that contains a Flash plugin may cause Netscape to lock up if you are using an audio application.
Plugins installed for Communicator 4.x may not be available for Netscape . Workaround: install these plugins in the Netscape Plugins folder.
Mac OS: Netscape now scans for plugins in the system's "Internet Plugins Folder" first.
In Print Preview, plugins are not shown.
Mac OS X and Linux: Transparent backgrounds are printed as black.
Printing newsgroup messages with images leads to a crash.
Linux: There are several bugs involved with the Postscript module that are not present in the Xprint module. To learn how to install Xprint, go to http://xprint.mozdev.org/.
Linux: Java is not included with the Linux installer for Netscape 7.2. Download Java version 1.4.2 or later at the Java web site.
Windows: For Netscape 7.02 on Windows, Java 1.4.0_03 is the default version of Java that's installed.
When going to a site that requires the user to authenticate with HTTP to download a Java applet that also requires authentication, the user will have to login twice with the same username and password.
Mac OS X 10.2: LiveConnect does not function on Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar).
General
Contents of Sidebar tab and Bookmark will not change when you choose another region -- they are bound to a specific profile.
If you are using Chinese, Korean or Japanese language Windows 9x/ME and launching fails or crashes, read the Java section of the Known issues section below for possible causes.
You may be unable to print out Japanese characters from Win98-J with HP Laser Jet driver (Japanese version). Workaround: Install the driver that comes with the Japanese Windows 98 installation CD.
If you have WinME-Ja, you may not be able to print to a HP LaserJet 5Si/5Si MX using the HP LaserJet 5Si/5Si MX PS printer driver In this case, you should change the driver to HP LaserJet 5Si/MX.
On platforms which support file names in Unicode, it is possible to create files and folders bearing names in scripts which fall outside of the system locale. Browser operations which involve such folder or file names may not succeed, e.g. saving into such a folder, or opening a file whose path contains such characters. Using only characters supported by the default system language avoids this type of problems.General and Profile Manager
On Japanese Windows XP, the Netscape desktop icon and Netscape Program Folder are not removed after the Netscape program is removed through a program uninstallation via the Control Panel. You can manually remove them.
Navigator and Composer
Netscape 7.x does not support Dynamic Fonts.
A window title (reflecting the title of a web page) may not show correctly if the web page (e.g. Japanese) does not match the language of the OS (e.g. English Windows).
On Macintosh and OS/2 (i.e. non-Windows platform) Shift_JIS Full-width tilde character (0x8160) and a few other Japanese symbol characters have differing correspondences to Unicode mapping tables depending on platforms. These differences causes several difficulties on these platforms, e.g. form submisson, bookmarks, and sending mail.
The Character Coding menu doesn't work in a View Page Source window. You can change encoding in browser window and then view source.
With the Windows 2000IME, most of the new Japanese IME features (e.g. reconversion) are supported but some features may not work correctly.
Mac OS X and IME: When composing an instant message, if clicking on the Send button does nothing, press Enter instead to send the instant message.
Support for the Unicode surrogate range is not currently available for Mac nor Linux.
A Composer page cannot be saved into ISO-2022-KR using the Save As ... menu because there is no converter available from Unicode to ISO-2022-KR.
When opening a file under a folder with multi-byte folder name, the path name in multi-byte characters is escaped in the title bar of Composer window.
Linux: Bold and Italics styles may not work on ASCII characters when editing a CJK page. This is most likely to happen on CJK locales without good ASCII fonts. For example, you may be using language open-source CJK locale support files. On commercial Linux distribution, particularly recent ones, the support files contain better CJK fonts and this problem is less likely to occur.
Mac OS: Non-ASCII non-Latin 1 info stored in Internet Config will not show correctly in auto-fill fields such as "Your name" field in the Mail account setup dialog. If this happens, you can manually correct auto-filled entries.
Windows: If you are using automatic proxy configuration, and you want to use the Full Circle Talkback Quality Feedback Agent to send incident reports to Netscape , you need to replace the talkback.ini file with one that contains the appropriate proxy configuration information. Follow these steps to do so:
- If you are using an HTTP proxy, or both an HTTP and SOCKS proxy, create a file named talkback.ini, containing the following three lines, using your proxy host name, domain, and port:
UseUserHTTPProxyInfo=1
UserHTTPProxyHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"
UserHTTPProxyPort=xxxxwhere xxxx is your proxy port number.
If you are using a SOCKS Proxy, create a file with these three lines:
UseUserSOCKSInfo=1
UserSOCKSHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"
UserSOCKSPort=xxxxwhere xxxx is your SOCKS port number.
- Replace the existing talkback.ini file with the version you created.
On Windows 95 and Windows NT systems, copy the talkback.ini file to the following directory location within the directory that contains the NSSetup.exe file: \Fullsoft\data\talkback.ini
For a list of known issues with support for Web standards (HTML 4.01, CSS1/2, DOM1/ 2, XML, JavaScript, Java, and Plug-ins in Netscape, see the Netscape Developer Release Notes.