Spell Checker for XP Pro

What is the best free spell checker for Windows XP Pro-SP3?

Thank you

 

Hello, Janice! For many years, my favorite standalone spell checker program has been FreeSpell by HCI Design:

https://hcidesign.com/freespell/

This program will work on any Windows OS from 95 on up. Lean/mean with no spyware/malware/adware/nagware, and the option to install many different dictionaries! I pray that it will be helpful/useful for you!

Respectfully,
Cameron M.

 

within the os or the browser?
in office 2003, it checks spelling great
in firefox and mypal spelling checks without an addon

so where do you need a spell checker?

 

I recommended a program for Janice (https://hcidesign.com/freespell/), but for some reason the message is still awaiting moderator approval. This program will work on any Windows version starting with 95/NT 4.0 and higher. Very fast/reliable, and it lets you install many different dictionaries too.

Office XP (the last version for Win98 & my favorite of all time) and Firefox 52.9.1 ESR have superb spell-checking built-in, and I regularly find myself relying on it (despite having a degree in English, I still misspell from time to time!)

 

I have Firefox ESR 52.6.0 - 32Bit (I don't want to keep updating all the time!), but it does not check spelling. What do you think is the problem?

 

open firefox go to tools/options/advanced/general tab, scroll down and ensure that you have place a checkmark in the box to check my spelling as I type

 

'Check my spelling as I type' is already selected. But it doesn't check, even here while I am writing this reply.

 

Hello Cameron M.
Thank you for this link.I went to the web page. Do you know how I can download Freespell without downloading ProSpell at the same time, or is that not possible from their website?

 

As far as I know, this is the only way you can download FreeSpell. It shouldn't be an issue, though--FreeSpell and ProSpell come bundled, but you are not forced to install ProSpell at all. It's simply there if you want to upgrade to it in the future. FreeSpell will never nag you to upgrade, at least not from my experiences.

 

Thank you. I will get FreeSpell

 

I'm glad to hear it! I pray that it will meet your needs!

 

note, if your FF is not spell checking, you might want to refresh or uninstall and reinstall as a fix

 

If I uninstall, how could I reinstall the same version again? What does 'refreshing' do?

I also noticed that there is no 'Dictionaries' folder in FF Program Files.

 

The easiest (notice I didn't say best) way to uninstall a program is to delete its folders from Program Files and Application Data. If you're inclined after that you can also remove its icons from the desktop and the start menu. I recommend Revo Uninstaller (to me the best version is 1.95) whenever you're looking to uninstall a program, because not only does it handle the basic uninstall but it also cleans up registry files/traces afterwards to ensure your system will still run at or close to its best). To reinstall the version you had been using earlier, you would need to have the installer somewhere on your computer, or accessible via a flash drive or a burned CD-R. Otherwise, you would have to redownload it and install it again. Mozilla has all official Firefox releases archived:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

My favorite version right now is Firefox 28--it was the last FF release before Mozilla switched to Australis, and runs better on my old Pentium 4-based PC than FF52 ever did. Of course, it helps to make sure you go through the options/preferences and configure everything for privacy/security as much as possible. Cleaning out your browsing data after a session is also quite helpful as well. If you're looking for something more secure, Mypal (https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal/releases) is a fully up-to-date XP browser based on Pale Moon 28. Its code is mainly forked from 38ESR, but there are also traces of code from older versions that give it compatibility with some classic addons. It doesn't run quite as fast as FF28, but is still very fast even on a P4, & built for security.

 

refresh is like a complete reinstall of ff, all your data will be saved to .old folder on your desktop.

 

Thank you cmccaff1 for all the help. The link to archived FF versions is great! As much as I like to use an older and faster FF, my problem is that they don't support some addons like Ghostery that I am fond of.
Even Mypal (https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal/releases) doesn't help because of this problem

 

Ah, okay. Which addons do you like to use, Janice? It should be possible to find one 'perfect storm'/earliest version which will have support for all of them. I'd just have to use some trial/error to investigate the compatibility history for each addon.

 

Thank you for your offer to do this. I have refreshed FF and it is working fine. So I'll stay with the present version and see how it goes. In the mean time are there any tweaks that I can do to speed up FF. My current version is 52.6.0 esr.

Kind regards

 

Ah, okay! You can go up to 52.9.1 with a Tinderbox build (I can give you the link if you're interested), but if 52.6.0 is still doing what you need it to do then that's perfectly fine too! Some time-tested/proven-effective tricks can be found here:

https://www.wikihow.com/Speed-Up-Firefox

I'm giving some thought to going back to FF52 myself and sticking with it...FF28 doesn't seem to play well with reCaptchas.

 

Thank you for the above link. We are somewhat off topic. So I am starting a new thread with a question.