Hi
I have downloaded and installed Audacity 2.1.3 on my old Windows XP computer, to convert large .wav-files to small mp3-files. I have also downloaded the Audacity 2.1.3 Manual, but when I open it, a small window pops up requiring a username and a password. I enter the same username and password i have registered for this forum and for Audio.com, but to no avail. They are not accepted.
What to do to be able to use the manual?
Wilbour
You shouldn’t need to install the manual separately as it was included in the Audacity 2.3.1 installer.
The Audacity 2.1.3 (.exe) installer is available from FossHub (scroll way down the page).
If you have downloaded something from a site other than the official audacity website you maybe have downloaded malware to your system that has fished your credentials by now.
Windows XP is not supported by Microsoft anymore and is absolutely unsafe for online use.
Hopefully you do use that computer offline only so that the potential malware was not able to sent your credentials to a pirate server.
Hi Steve, and unXpected
Thanks for your kind replies.
The Audacity site recommended FossHub for older versions of Audacity, so I first looked there. The problem is that the site offers a large number of versions without telling which one would work on Windows XP.
To find out, I Googled for “which versions of audacity work on windows xp 32 bit”. The top reply was from a site called " AI Overview", where it stated: “Audacity 2.1.3 is the last version of Audacity that officially supports Windows XP 32-bit.”
It also stated " * You can download Audacity 2.1.3 for Windows from the Internet Archive.", which is what I did.
I then installed Audacity, and tried to open the manual, which is when I had the pop-up window requesting user name and password. It stated:
"Authentication Required.
https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org requires a username and password."
There was no information for what username and password it referred to.
It was after this I downloaded the the Audacity 2.1.3 Manual from FossHub site, since I then had learnt which version I needed, but I had the same result with the pop-up window requesting username and password.
Am I the only one who has experienced this pop-up window and its request while trying to open the manual?
How to know what to enter in order to be able to open the manual.
Thanks for all help.
Wilbour
We used to have this information on the Audacity wiki, which can now be found on Wayback Machine: Audacity Versions - Audacity Wiki
If your old computer’s CPU has SSE2, then the last supported Audacity version was 2.1.3.
For XP computers without SSE2, try Audacity 2.0.0.
The best place to download very old versions from is FossHub. They were our “content delivery partners” for many years before Audacity was acquired by Muse Group. (More recent versions can be also found on GitHub, which is the official home of the Audacity source code.)
Having said that, why use Windows XP at all? If you are just wanting to make use of an ancient computer, then a better option might be to use a modern, lightweight Linux OS.
Thanks Steve for your reply and your comments.
My installed version of Audacity seems to work, but needs a lame mp3 encoder to do the conversion I want it to do. I need to find such a file, and from the manual, learn how to install it.
I use Windows XP for several reasons:
I love its user interface, and very much dislike the one in Windows 10/11, which has many flaws.
I have invested in a number of good programs that run on XP. Some, but not all can be purchased in versions for Windows 10/11, but at a cost.
I have invested in learning these programs in XP and feel rather productive using them. As their user interfaces have often been changed in 10/11, I don’t want to spend a lot of time to relearn them or to learn using alternative programs.
If you happen to know the answers to my main questions in my original posting I would appreciate it a lot:
1. Am I the only one who has experienced this pop-up window and its request while trying to open the manual?
2. How to know what username and password to enter in order to be able to open the manual?
Thanks for all help.
Wilbour
The manual that is included in Audacity does not require a password.
Perhaps you are trying to open an on-line version of the manual that no-longer exists.
Hi Steve,
To make sure I had not made a mistake, I uninstalled Audacity from XP, downloaded Audacity 2.1.3 from FossHub and installed it on both Windows XP and 10 with the result (both OS) you can see on the attached screenshot, the manual is included, but with the pop-up window requesting username and password visible. Maybe later versions do not require username and password, but 2.1.3 certainly does.
If I, at startup of Audacity, click on the link for an online version of the manual, it works, but the manual then is for version 3.7 of Audacity, and may thus be very different from the one for version 2.1.3.
If you happen to know the answers to my main questions (regarding username and password) in my original posting I would appreciate it a lot.
Also, how best to get a version of the Lame dll file that works with Audacity 2.1.3, as it is not included in the installation, as it is supposed to be (mabe only in later versions)?
Thanks for all help.
Wilbour
It appears that the manual contains an html error that is trying to get some content, possibly an image, from the on-line “alpha manual”. However, the alpha-manual is no-longer open, so the server is asking for a log-in. I’m not sure what precisely it is looking for, but it doesn’t appear to be anything important - my guess is that it’s probably just a logo gif or similar. Just click “cancel” and you should be able to browse the manual normally.
Thanks Steve for you comments.
Do you happen to know how best to get the lame file in a safe way?
Regarding the pop-up windows, they do pop-up for every page, but can be cancelled every time, so that the page can be read. As soon a a link is clicked, it does go to the new page first, then the pop-up window appears. It is, thus, not just to close it once, and then everything is fine. It has to be done for every page.
However, albeit this is very inconvenient, it is possible to read the manual this way. If you, or someone else happens to know the requested credentials, it would be better.
Best regards
Wilbour
The easiest solution is to block the site “https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org” in your web browser, but be careful that you do not block “https://audacityteam.org”.
Wayback Machine is probably your best bet. Try one of these versions:
https://web.archive.org/web/20151114050257/http://lame.buanzo.org/libmp3lame-win-3.99.3.zip
https://web.archive.org/web/20151114050257/http://lame.buanzo.org/lame_v3.99.5.zip
Note that I have NOT tested these versions and have NOT virus checked them.
Thanks again,
Steve, for your kind advice. Much appreciated.
It might amuse you to read about my “Blocking website experience”:
For finding out how to block a website, I Googled “chrome, how to block a site”
At the top,
AI Overview suggested:
“To block a website on Google Chrome, you can use the built-in settings or a browser extension.”
Using built-in settings seemed to be easy:
The problem, of course was that the last step, the text “Blocked” did not exist.
Using the recommended blocking browser extension “BlockSite”, seemed to be rather easy as well, but when I, on its site, clicked “Add to Chrome”, a warning message popped up, stating:
"It can:
Read and change all your data on all websites".
That did not sound very encouraging, so for now, I felt I had to give up this blocking task.
Best wishes from
Wilbour
If you have a Microsoft account on your computer, you can probably block the site using Windows Parental Controls (Family Safety).
Thanks again Steve for your advice.
I do have two Microsoft Accounts, so I would consider it, but it appears I would have to download some software to make it work, rather than just setting a flag, which should have been enough.
Best regards
Wilbour
Why not consider to edit the “hosts” file?
The hosts file in my Mac looks like this:
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
So, just add an additional line at the end:
127.0.0.1 offending.site.url # block Audacity manual password request
Of course, you need to replace the placeholder “offending.site.url” with the real url you like to block. The text after the # is optional for you to remember what you blocked and why.
Where does Windows have this file? In Windows 10 it was
c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
not sure whether this (still) applies to Windows XP or 11…
I’ve downloaded the 2.1.3 manual and fixed it.
Download link (sorry about the adverts - it’s an ad supported service):
If you want to validate the download, here’s the MD5 and SHA-256 checksums:
MD5: 6e4d95e180b92a85ffe0494cee19df07
SHA256: 0856d525824689f3cb429851415ec666309d5ae9e6ede66d4fa2c37c75e38a1c
To replace your current version with this version, you will need to unzip (extract) the downloaded file somewhere convenient, the VERY CAREFULLY copy it to the exact same location as your currently installed version to overwrite it. You may need to enter your admin password to overwrite the old manual.
What I’ve changed:
All links to “alphamanual.audacityteam.org” have been replaced with “audacityteam.org”.
There are a few links that will not work in the new version, notably:
Translation volunteers welcome…
at the top of the index page.
Yes it does (both), and this method works, but Windows 11 makes you jump through a few more hoops before it allows you to modify the file - not a problem for someone that is familiar with SysAdmin, but could be risky for users with less experience, which is why I did not suggest this method.