I have exactly the same issue. I will wait a few days and if nothing is done, I will try Firefox for Android.

I also use IE9 on a WinVista machine and I still have no account button except on the forum and when I go there it's blank. I can't add things to my wishlist, I can't purchase and I can't even see my games to download the ones I purchased over the last 2 weeks and haven't downloaded yet. I just updated Java to the latest available version and the problem didn't change a bit.

Ok, this is a serious question, I am not trolling or trying to be funny.

Why do you use IE9? The answer is important to me as a software engineer who works with web technologies. I struggle to understand why some users do this. Old browsers are not safe and not standards compliant. New browsers are free and better in every way — from speed, to security, to supporting new technologies that make your (and mine) life easier.

I would very much appreciate it if you could answer, and would be absolutely ecstatic if you could offer a few suggestions on how I, as a developer, could compel you to upgrade to a modern browser.

Also, I wanted to point out that Java Virtual Machine installation (the red icon in the bottom right corner) has nothing at all do do with the issue at hand. (I'm assuming that's what you updated, since it's not possible to update the version of JavaScript your browser uses.)

Java to JavaScript is what Ham is to Hamburg. Nothing at all in common other then a few letters in the beginning of the name.

For musteriuz: Java and JavaScript are entirely different things. The engine that interprets JavaScript is in the browser you use, no other way to update it (that I know of). Java is... better off not installed at all unless you really need it, considering the quite few uses it usually has anymore and the potential security risks.

For Alaric.us: You asked someone else, but let me butt in a bit: Since MS decided not to let newer versions of IE also work on Vista and musteriuz said that's what he uses, that's the limit. And there are reasons to prefer IE. I also use it, v11 of course since I'm on Win 7 (and just recently got pestered by another dev about it, that ended badly).
My reasons for sticking to IE are... Let's see, entirely random order:
- I not only don't need but specifically don't want add-ons, so the fact that the others accept far more is not any sort of advantage, but actually means they may be tampered with more.
- It doesn't automatically update, like Chrome does. There will not be things with automatic updates (except of course an option that you can see and set to off (if not off by default) right away and trust it to stay that way) on my computer. Top reason to stay well away from Win 10 too.
- Actually, no frequent annoying updates in general. It's handled through Windows Update and with the rare exception of a critical security update released out of cycle its updates come along with the rest on Patch Tuesday every month, and it's usually security and bugfixes (though at times they create bugs as well, to be fixed the next month or even 2 months later), not messing with other stuff.
- It has a bunch of settings you can easily access in the old fashioned way, which generally let you know more or less what they do by name and/or description. When I had a look at Chrome, there was next to nothing there. Firefox has a fair few less in that format and while there are a lot more in about:config that's not intuitive at first and then you have to look up what each of those things does or what to search for to change what you want, no explanations built in.
- Doesn't syncronize, ask to log on, etc. elsewhere.
- With a right click in the tab area I can right away see the list of the recently closed tabs and pick which one to reopen or just glance at it to remember what I had open, see a title again, whatever I need. On FF I can just reopen the last closed tab, and back when I tried Chrome this recently closed tabs list was only available on the new tab page.
- There's an obvious setting to set the new tab page to be the same as the homepage. In FF you could customize the new tab page separately too, but only from about:config and they removed that ability a few versions ago with a senseless explanation, so now I need an add-on to do something as basic as having the same custom page load both when I first open the browser and as new tab page. On Chrome again as far as I'm aware this requires add ons.
- It requires far less processing power than Firefox. May be brought down by script-heavy pages, there are some it crawls on, but I try to avoid those because it's a nasty practice (ahem!) in general, so what I notice is for example while watching videos or streams, I can have 5-10% CPU use on IE and 20-40% on FF.
- To be worth the "cost" of adapting to something other than what you're used to and does a good enough job, that something else would need to be clearly superior in every way by a significant margin. From the above, for my uses, that's not the case with the current options. So that also leads to my answer to what a dev may do to convince me to switch to another existing browser: Nothing. Won't happen. So maybe make a new one that's clearly better than IE in the ways I care about and doesn't have any of the negatives that keep me away from FF or Chrome now and then try that convincing part. (And same goes for any other switches or "upgrades".)

I see. Well, thank you for answering. I may not accept your reasoning, but I certainly respect your right do what you do.

Thanks to Cavalary for issuing a reply and what he said is right - I run Vista and no newer browser is available from MS. I tried Chrome and Firefox and hate both.

Thanks also for clarifying that Java and Javascript are 2 unrelated things. I don't think I have the second blocked - I received no requests for allowing cloudfront. I do not believe that JS is my problem anyway, although I have nearly no technical knowledge and may be completely wrong. The last time gog ran a Witcher promo for some release they also had a "banner" thing on the main page like now and it also broke the site for me. I had to wait until that event was over before I could use gog again. I think they're just not interested in keeping the site compatible for IE9 - the site has become more unusable bit by bit for me over the last 6 months or so, e.g. if i go to the "Games" tab from the main page, it is always blank and my chat function hasn't worked for a year, I think.

This at least helps me save money, but I am sad that I cannot download the games I already purchased.

JavaScript is the primary force behind the modern web. There is not a way to avoid that.

IE9 is 5 years old. That is a colossal amount of time when dealing with technology. Supporting it is a major pain for any development team, because a good number of standards that we are accustomed to are not implemented in it. Effectively we have to write two separate sites, one for IE and one for, well, everything else.

Additionally, old browsers (including IE9) are notoriously broken and insecure. Even when IE9 was still brand new, it had poor support for standards and poor security. You can pretty much square that for every year that passed since. What's worse, is that you may not only be hurting yourself, but also contributing to the overall rate of vulnerabilities on the Internet. Computers with old and insecure browsers are the primary targets for botnet operators and so on.

Many sites outright block browsers that are generations behind. GOG is kind enough not to do that, but you cannot possibly expect them to dedicate the time, effort, and funds to supporting a small group of holdouts. Moreover, the longer you wait, the less compatible your browser becomes. At some point there won't even be a workaround available to make it support modern web technologies and standards.

I urge you to consider upgrading, but if that is not possible, you may just have to live with having to experience a more and more inaccessible web. =(

Devs also insist on making sites ever more complex and script heavy. In many cases there's little real reason why it couldn't be kept much simpler and less "active" than it is.

And the W3 validator reports 998 errors and 3 warnings for the GOG front page (direct input of page source, as otherwise there's an error 500) and 63 CSS errors. Speaking of standards.

Overengineering happens, I agree. However, the use of modern tools, frameworks and standards is not the same as overengineering.

Interesting bug just manifested in my Firefox with the library page.

Luckily, `lgogdownloader --download --game "^braid$"` is unaffected.

Ahh. Given that I'm using a pruned-down version that only enables the old, reasonable workflow for GOG Downloader links and it's really the only reason I use the library page at all anymore, I'm not sure that would help much.

...though I suppose I could try my hand a whipping up a more robust userscript for converting the links to GOG Downloader ones.

(Even when Galaxy comes out for Linux, I'll stick with LGOGDownloader since only the games themselves are allowed to be closed-source on my system.)

As I've said - I run Vista. There is no newer IE available for Vista. The only way I get a newer OS is if I get a newer PC and as I've been unemployed for over 2 years there is no expectation for that.

So now it seems I'll have to install either Chrome or Firefox, solely for the purpose of viewing gog. If I can still find a downloadable version of either of those two for Vista, would whichever version I get be able to view and access gog properly? And which one of the 2 is best?

If someone can kindly provide me with good guidance, I'll go for it, get my last few games downloaded and say goodbye to gog for a final time, including accepting that I'll never be able to purchase the nearly 50 games still on my wishlist.