Updating Opera from v77

ultraj

ultraj

Win 7

I've stayed on vers 77 because of significant memory leaks that rendered the browser totally unusable in versions I tried afterward (78-80. see here for background.

Now two years later, I am considering trying the last version for Win 7 (vers 95), but I am very leery.

If I install 95,. are there profile differences that would cause problems straight away? Extension issues? Will the direct to 95 install even work?
If there are issues, or the install simply fails, or if memory management is still broken (I assume it likely will be as I followed some other users who posted about a year ago who were still having the memory issues with versions up to 85 I believe)---

So again, if there are issues, would I be able to cleanly and 100% successfully roll back to my stable vers 77 by:

A) Making an eniter backup of my Opera Profile directory
B ) Uninstalling Opera completely through Windows Control Panel Programs and Files "uninstall" (data and all)
C) Installing Opera 77 from the setup file (using no auto-start and then disabling the automatic update system in Task Scheduler (etc) )
D) Copying back the entire backup of the profile directory

Profit?

Any issues with trying this that would prevent that from getting me back to where I currently am right now? Vers 77? 100%?

Thanks

ultraj

ultraj

For anyone searching with the same issue-

I did a standalone install of version 95, and pointed it to a backup copy of my entire Opera user data folder.

Opera opened,. and ran, but the memory issue that existed when I first posted over two years ago has not been addressed at all

I will finally have to move to a better coded browser that still runs on Win 7. Too bad. I really liked a lot of the features of Opera

(I admittedly have a chit ton of tabs in my session (over 200), but obv not all opened at once.)

What happens:

Upon opening Opera v95, I go through activating some tabs. Once I get to about 10 or 12, I notice a instant 200 MB drop in disk space. As I continue through to about 15 tabs, I notice another 100MB gone.

This is obv the pagining file growig as Opera must be requesting this space.

I then merely open a private window, but don't enter any website (My Opera Start Page has all the bells/whistles off (shopping, etc etc), so just a blank plain start page)

Boom. 400MB of additional disk space gone, into the paging file (I assume, since my Opera data folder hasn't grown at all)

Two private tabs opened to plain-jane websites and another 400MB gone.

So it seems, once Opera (versions after 77) get to some threshold programmed in to Opera, it just goes ham on growing the paging file.

The only difference I can see from versions above 77 where this problem "exploded" to the last version for win 7, vers 95, is that when I close Opera v95, Most of the disk space taken by the program via the paging file, is actually released back to the OS.

The last version I'd tried before v95, was version 80, and none of that disk space was released after closing Opera, and I would have to reboot the machine to get it back.

Ridiculous.

So, all in all, a completely unusable browser under Win 7 (core i5 8GB RAM) beyond version 77

As an aside, I did a stand alone install of veriosn 75 which I'm using right now, and I have no less than 35 active tabs going and barely and disk space via the paging file has been chewed up..

this is the way Opera always ran until version 78

O well.

blackbird71

blackbird71 @ultraj

@ultraj With a chromium-based browser like Opera, each time you open a tab or add an extension, an additional process is opened by the browser on your system. Each, in turn, requires various overhead memory to support it. Depending on the "chunk" sizes of process memory related to the browser design and the allocation protocols of the OS's virtual memory system, you may see vitual memory allocations jump in major block-sizes as you've observed.

Memory management is one of the perpetually evolving elements of browser architecture/design, with its emphasis in a given version varying with the other myriad issues which designers have to constantly juggle. In modern browsers over recent years, with memory volume being a relatively "cheap" resource, the development focus has been (and continues to be) mainly on "features" and performance at the expense of memory consumption. For older systems with limited memory, this presents a kind of wall or handicap unless a user can easily and cheaply expand his system memory. Unfortunately with this situation, as you've noted, it is what it is.

ultraj

ultraj @blackbird71

@blackbird71

Thnx for the corroboration.

You have any idea of some way I might be able to get my current state (tabs opened) transferred over to another browser? (even a Chromium based one?)

It'll be a painful task to manually go through and open tabs one at atime when I have so many in my "working state", but it's what I'll have to do failing some "mechanism"

*ofc my extensions too, but that is less important than the tabs..

And lastly, I have another Win 11 box that I can utilize-

If I install current Opera there, and copy my entire "user-data-dir" over to that box (before Opera's first run there), will everything transfer (sans passwords, i know..)?

It'd be a big jump from the 70's to 115 (or w/e vers is current rn)

blackbird71

blackbird71 @ultraj

@ultraj Given the considerable design gap between v77 and current Opera as well as with other browser brands, it's somewhat speculative to say very much. In cases that I'm aware of, about the only thing that transfers readily between browser brands is bookmarks, and many browsers allow importing of those, either directly or via an HTML exported version. Things like sessions, speed dials, or tab groupings are typically browser-specific related to browser architecture, so those may be problematic if you try to copy their relevant files over. Your biggest challenge, however, may be in finding alternative updated browsers that are even Win7-compatible, Firefox being the only current major brand I'm aware of (but it's not chromium-based) and it's only got roughly a year or so of Win7-compatiblity left for its ESR variant.

As far as the Win 11 system, you could always try installing the latest Opera on it and try copying your old v77 directory over (after first renaming the fresh-installed directory for safety's sake) and just see what happens... the worst that should occur would be a crash and a need to blow away your copied directory from the Win 11 system, then reverting its saved directory back to its original name.

YOUTUBEYOHYU

YOUTUBEYOHYU @blackbird71

@blackbird71 SO TRUE