I have requested Wordpress forum support to look into this and still waiting.

Meanwhile, if I may digress a bit to the PHP-based script, are there any specific PHP function it requires and if so which ones? On => this page OUTSIDE Wordpress as you see, using "single.php" it shows an empty table and wrong date, meaning I guess some functions/environment which would allow the missing data being printed not there. If you remove "single.php" from that url, "index.php" prints only the sample page title with an otherwise blank page. :(

I use Firefox and the NoScript add-on which only allows whitelisted java scripts to run by default.

Your pages show correctly with only "habariportal.com" and "giveawayoftheday.com" allowed to run via NoScript. You may be an issue with one of the other scripts.

Hi there
I have used the Giveaway Feed Service to place GOTD Giveaways on my site(s) for many years.
Originally I was usng the PHP scripts method, but because of complications caused by some php functions limitations by some webhosts, I was able to navigate around these issues, with the help of your support.
About a year ago, though something happened that made it impossible for the script to print Giveaway information and only showed on an empty page, just "Sample Giveaway of the day index page generated from imported XML data" OR in some cases an empty table with some text like I think giveaway date 1 Jan 1970 and never updated. I requested for help, but was told the script functioned normally on your side. I actually gave up on this, although this had been the most visited page on my site.

The other day, I decided to try out the Javascript method and asked myself why I had not thought about this at all.
Like GOTD, the website is also wordpress-based.
I followed the instructions and used the Wordpress "SOGO Add Script Header Footer" plugin to insert <script src="http://export.giveawayoftheday.com/index.js"></script> in the page header of the page I want the Giveaway. I then placed the rest of the code BETWEEN THE body tags on the Wordpress post page.
I did NOT include the style script in the headers as I wanted to maintain the existing site formatting.
This prints the Giveaway, however only up to the table but omits all the information below, i.e. NOT the download links and terms => as seen here.
If you view the page source code, you will note that ALL the code in the sample js script between the body tags is included, i.e. that which should generate the missing items + download links.

I tried creating a page OUTSIDE Wordpress and included ALL the code in "/gfs/sample-js" which is at this link. As you note, it prints everything.

So my question is what can I do, so the missing elements below the table, i.e. the download links and terms are printed WITHIN a Wordpress page, something which I think you do as noted because GOTD also uses Wordpress?

Thank you in advance.

In all the software giveaways you offer, entries through Twitter never work out! The message "Could not authenticate you" always appears. Fix this, please!

Just general info RE: the BIOS in case it's of any use...

Thanks for that, Mikiem2.
Well, i consider myself to be smarter than the average bear but i'm not understanding how to use the process monitor. i'm still working on some learning. i just wanted to tell you that it's still the same and i haven't tried the process monitor yet.

Just general info RE: the BIOS in case it's of any use...

The device manufacturer may have proprietary Windows software for updating the BIOS, but other than that, the BIOS is totally separate from Windows or any software. While Intel & AMD supply hardware manufacturers with the basic code that the BIOS uses, the manufacturer then tweaks it to suit their products, so the manufacturer is the only source for BIOS updates for the devices they produce. And unfortunately they do screw up -- this PC uses a Gigabyte motherboard, they've released 15 updated BIOS since 3/16/18, and roughly half of them had problems making them unusable for me. You can check with the manufacturer -- either their web site or by contacting support -- to see if there is a newer BIOS version, and it can also be worthwhile to see if others are reporting problems with a BIOS version. A free app, available in a portable version, called HWInfo, will tell you the BIOS version your laptop's using. hwinfo[.]com/download/

When you turn on your laptop from a power off state, the BIOS is the 1st thing active, and may display a logo or some information while it's preparing to load Windows. Usually pressing the F2 or Delete keys repeatedly as soon as you turn the laptop on will bring up the BIOS settings screen -- the manual should spell out which key to use etc. You often need to go into those settings to update [flash] the BIOS, but follow the manufacturer's directions. Note: while some manufacturers provide a Windows app to update the BIOS, if they also allow you to update the BIOS from the BIOS settings, that's considered more reliable. Also note, to update the BIOS using its settings menus, you'll normally have the file to update the BIOS on a USB stick -- not every USB stick is compatible, so don't panic if the BIOS doesn't see the USB stick, just use another.

Mikiem2

OMIGOD BECKY! i have spent the last several hours down the event viewer rabbit hole. the error that logged was "embedded controller did not respond within specified timeout period. this is either an error in the EC hardware or firmware, or the BIOS is accessing EC incorrectly. check with the manufacturer for upgraded BIOS" ACPI error 13

i just bought my laptop a couple of weeks ago and it's running windows 11. the last couple of times it booted up, it showed to be doing something with the BIOS. honestly i didn't pay that much attention. i assumed with all the updates to windows 11, the BIOS was just one of them. i did take a little notice the 2nd time it booted up and again, appeared to be updating the BIOS.
in the device manager, the firmware had an error saying it couldn't start. i looked up what to do if the BIOS is unable to update and i ended up rolling back the driver and that took care of the firmware error.

i was so excited, i figured because the firmware wasn't able to start, that was most likely the problem.
i was wrong.
it opened up the website that said thank you for playing.

tomorrow is another day.

using Process Monitor can have very negative effects on your mood, if not your overall mental health

thank you, mikiem2, for all of that! there are some donkeys running around here on my street and in my yard, and once that is taken care of i will start going down your post. thank you so much for taking the time to get and give me this information. i will let you know if any of it worked.

If the game starts, but immediately crashes, the final step or process of opening the page on their web site would proceed normally -- it knows the game ran & was shut down, but it doesn't know that you didn't shut it down normally when you were done playing.

WR usually recommends Event Viewer -- I'm not optimistic it'll help in this case, but a quick look couldn't hurt.

howtogeek[.]com/123646/htg-explains-what-the-windows-event-viewer-is-and-how-you-can-use-it/

Microsoft recommends performing a clean boot, which is basically turning off everything that can be turned off for diagnosis -- if something is interfering with the game running properly, then it should run OK if/when you turn that something off. Note that Microsoft hasn't updated their web page to include Win11, but other sites show the process is the same.

support.microsoft[.]com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

windowscentral[.]com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

Finally, if nothing else has helped, an app called Process Monitor will show you just what happened when you started the game. CAUTION -- using Process Monitor can have very negative effects on your mood, if not your overall mental health [unless you're a masochist]. In a nutshell you start recording, start the game, then stop recording the instant the web page opens. You'll then have probably thousands of lines detailing everything, every read & write to the registry etc. -- there are filters to cut down on the number of lines you're shown, but it's hard to make good use of them if you're unsure what to look for. Search for the game, then start going over every line for some time before that, & continue until you either spot something or are sure you're no longer seeing anything related to the game. Then, if you haven't found any problems, search again from that point, since you may find the game listed again later on. And repeat... [I've used Process Monitor a few times to fix software problems, & while I was lucky enough to be successful each time, it took a few days to get over the effects of scanning line after maddening line, which is why I normally don't recommend it.]

docs.microsoft[.]com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Don't know if this will be any help, & don't know how far anyone wants to pursue getting the game to run...

thanks for replying mikiem2. i did some of the things you mentioned. for a minute i was getting error messages that those dll files were missing. i took care of that and now it is doing what it was doing initially and simply opening the website that says "thank you for playing".

The game did not install.

GOTD uses a "wrapper" to restrict software installation to a single day. Most security software now objects to the "wrapper" since the actions are hidden from the system and for quite some time the readme.txt file has included a statement that you should deactivate (or suspend) your security software for the time it takes to install the GOTD program. So, you download the program, unzip it into a temp folder, suspend your security software, install the program, then reactivate your security software.

thanks for replying chriss. i did read the disclaimer and i did pause my security software. i also went and checked in my uninstall software and it is listed as a program that i can uninstall. and the activation screen popped up telling me it had been successfully activated.

Don't know if this will be any help, & don't know how far anyone wants to pursue getting the game to run...

Some of the comments talked about getting a notice to install the Microsoft C/C++ runtimes. The runtime files the game uses are: msvcp_win.dll, msvcp110.dll, msvcp120.dll, msvcr100.dll, msvcr110.dll, msvcr120.dll. Installing the runtimes using the setup file you download from Microsoft *usually* puts the runtime files in Windows\ WinSxS\ -- I don't know if that's the case with these two versions, but they're present in Windows\ System32\ in my VM & in this copy of Win10, where the game seems to run fine.

The game uses OpenGL rather than DX, and higher rez displays don't seem to bother it -- this monitor is at 4k. The game uses lots of .js files that can be opened/viewed in Notepad -- double clicking one brings up a notice from Windows that it's an improper JScript file. Looking at a few I didn't find any hints of what could be going wrong for some people, but I only looked at a few. The game.exe file is internally named "Search for the Wonderland", so Googling on that, looking for reported problems ***might*** have some success.

The game did not install.

GOTD uses a "wrapper" to restrict software installation to a single day. Most security software now objects to the "wrapper" since the actions are hidden from the system and for quite some time the readme.txt file has included a statement that you should deactivate (or suspend) your security software for the time it takes to install the GOTD program. So, you download the program, unzip it into a temp folder, suspend your security software, install the program, then reactivate your security software.

I didn't download the game yesterday so I don't know if the readme file said anything about suspending your security software but I checked both offers today (before I simply told you to check the readme file) and they DO NOT contain the disclaimer. If you want to install anything from GOTD then you'll need to temporarily disable your security.

Hello! I downloaded and installed Detective of Spirit World today. Everything appeared fine until I launched it. The game did not open, instead it went right to the webpage saying thank you for playing. There were at least 2 other people having the same issue. I am running Windows 11.
This is the first HOG in a while that I really wanted to have.

It activated without an issue. I downloaded it again and reinstalled it. I tried the game.exe command in the game folder and it listed several .dll files that I needed. I don't think I'm going down that rabbit hole. I would appreciate any help available.

Thank you!

Thanks for the reply. I have no idea how it works. If comments are reviewed by a human, I wonder why are sometimes spam comments validated, like this one:

Gold nuggets for sale in xxxxxxxxxxxx

We are the leading sellers of the following mineral Gold bars and Gold Nuggets 99.67% purity 24 carats of Congo origin (DRC) South Africa (Gold Nuggets).on good price. We can supply Gold up to 100 kilograms or even More at a generally low price to meet the buyers resell value for his money, Buyer is free to come down for inspection and viewing of the goods. Kindly contact us if you are interested

https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/erelive-data-recovery/ (#3)

Anyway, that's no big deal...

I'm not a moderator -- this is just my understanding in case it helps at all. Comments on the download pages are queued until a *volunteer* mod takes a look at them & approves the posts. Sometimes it can take a while before a mod has a chance to review pending comments, & don't hold your breath if you post from say mid-afternoon onward. I *think* notifications OTOH are automated, triggered by any responses to a comment thread, whether they're later approved or not.

Ok, they showed up after 8 hours or so...

@Giveaway Of The Day Team

I've posted a comment recently and I could see it, them I made some responses to other users and they are not showing up, though I've received notifications by email for new comments.

I've also received notifications for new comments from other users (I can read them in the emails), but I can't see them on the web page.

I've cleared the cache and used different browsers.

Seems folks had mixed results with this Oct. 30, 2020 GOTD.

giveawayoftheday[.]com/audkit-spotify-music-converter-for-windows-1-1-0/

Assuming that you did everything the exact same as when the app worked for you, my guesses are that 1) Spotify changed something that stopped the app from working [possibly on purpose], or 2) the developer felt that the activation code(s) had spread far & wide, so that too many people got the free version, and revoked all activations using that code (s) [it's happened once or twice], or 3) something happened to delete the app's stored activation [I'm hearing impaired so didn't download & monitor installation, so I can't say where that info was stored].

You *might* try the trial of an allegedly identical app [per the GOTD download page comments]. The trial version is limited, but should give you a sense of whether the app still can work or not, i.e. if Spotify's changed something.

audfree[.]com/faqs.html

You *might* also try this giveaway to see if it's still active -- I didn't try because you have to register with the site 1st. If the GOTD key's been revoked, maybe this site's giveaway key has not?

winningpc[.]com/product/audkit-spotify-music-converter/#giveaway-details

About a week ago, I downloaded Audkit Spotify music converter from this site. It worked great for 2 days, and now, it won't can't find any file when I enter the URL. Does anybody have this program and know a workaround for this? It was a lifetime license.

Security software? Windows security settings? Browser cache? DNS?

The page I get for today's GOTD is: giveawayoftheday[.]com/download/?c=0be46f1532233221acf55fd705b14323 . Clicking the download link triggers a javascript routine that provides a link to the download on files2.giveawayoftheday[.]com . If you plug that files2.giveawayoftheday[.]com into a browser you get your 404. So maybe something's making that javascript not work correctly? Or maybe something's preventing the GOTD server(s) from recognizing it as a valid request, e.g. not receiving the expected output from the javascript?

If you rule out everything that resides on the PC or laptop or whatever device, which you seem to have done, then logic suggests that the request for the download URL is getting changed or not making it all the way through the process intact. Given that you're limited to your current ISP, the only things I can think of that you can change is the routing, by using a VPN, or more painlessly, though with less odds of success, by changing the default DNS server.

It might be that ATT is doing something not quite spec, forwarding the request for the download URL, or they might have some sort of filtering in place. *Hopefully* one or both of those changes, VPN or DNS, might bypass that.

Hello:

I have over the past 2-3 years really enjoyed GOTD's software offerings. I tend to treat the software I do download as trialware, then if I like it I start recommending it forward. Since I have an IT degree, most of my family and friends, not to mention at work, come to me and take my advice on all things technology, so I like knowing what to be able to recommend people use for various situations.

The past few months however, no matter what device or browser is being used, I have been unable to get anything to download. Today for instance it is Togethershare Data Recovery Pro - a category of software I routinely get asked about and is rife with software that makes big claims but delivers little, so I really like to try titles out so I know what to tell people to use. Doesn't matter if I go the Post to Facebook route or get a link via email route. When I click that last click which should start it downloading ("Click the link to download"), I get a 404 page not found error. The text on the page says:

"404 Oooops!
Sorry, the page you're looking for isn't here.
Maybe you've clicked on an obsolete link or mistyped the URL, or maybe it's just us.

Don't fret!
Just go to our home page and proceed from there."

And it from there is an endless circle; I have not been able to actually get anything to download now for months. ISP is AT&T Fixed Wireless -- we live way out in a very rural area, this is our only option other than satellite (which I absolutely refuse to use because of their ridiculous data caps). I read through the post from about a year ago re: 503 errors, like the OP there, my problem is only with the GOTD site, and only when actually trying to initiate the download. Have tried vis several laptops and my desktop, using Edge, the new Edge, Chrome, Internet Explorer, have tried after a clean install of Windows so no cache or cookies to clear, extensions and all settings at Window's default, etc.

Any ideas? I'd sure hate to not have access anymore. One can read all s/he wants about software and its capabilities, but nothing compares to actually using it to know what it really can and can't do, so I am hoping to figure this out.

Thanks!

I don't use Edge very often, but the Chrome-based version isn't too bad. You *might* want to check out their Edge Insider Channel... Those versions [there are 3] install as a separate app, so everything you have & use now won't be effected. If you install the Dev version you can play the Surf game Easter egg. Note that the Chrome-based Edge updates fairly often, especially on win7. When I tried it yesterday, as soon as I turned notifications on for the GOTD game site the notification popped up in Win10's Action Center.

microsoftedgeinsider[.]com/en-us/download

windowscentral[.]com/microsoft-brings-edges-surf-game-easter-egg-dev-channel

I have the link sent via email, which I get pretty much instantly, but I have had to change the email address to another service occasionally -- a service that worked perfectly suddenly stops, I *guess* because of their spam filtering. *For me* the email's easier to hold onto in case I have to re-download.

Thanks for responding. The only other options are to use Facebook or receive links by email. Notifications are just easier. Sigh- I miss the days when this site made downloading much easier.

Anyway, I just tried again and they are still not working for me. I tried Firefox (latest version), Brave (latest version) and Edge (44.18362.449.0, not latest but I don't use it anyway). In all, the site says that the link will be sent in a few seconds but it never comes.

Do they have a limit I wonder on the number of notifications one may receive before having use a method that gives the site more personal information? If so, it would have to be by IP as the problem is cross-browser.

Other problems have been linked to use of Heimdal, but its log shows it hasn't blocked anything from here and I tried with it off as well. Other than that I only use Windows Defender.

I don't use them myself, a quick Google shows it might have been a problem last spring with Chrome & Win10, but otherwise just tried it & it worked with today's game using Edge Version 80.0.361.62 in Win10 pro 1909 [I have pretty much everything off in the browsers I normally use]. Sorry I don't have anything more. :(

No one?

I have been using the notifications option to receive download links but lately this has not been working. Notifications are enabled (the dialog would ask me to enable them if this wasn't the case) and this site (both main and game) are whitelisted. However, when it asks me to click to receive the notification it will say, "The link has been sent to you. You'll get it just in a few seconds." but the notification never comes any more- it used to be right away.

I deleted the web cache (is this even a relevant troubleshooting step anymore?) and also tried another browser to no avail. Thanks for any info that can help fix this.

For someone yet with a similar problem:

For a reason I am yet to discover, the above code which I have been using for the last almost one year ceased working within the last 2 weeks, although I had changed nothing on the site.

I had been forced to change the host yet again for one of the 2 sites without the required fopen & include PHP functions.

Yet at the new host, where I was sure at least the fopen function was there, it mysteriously did not work as well, making me think something was changed at the GOTD source.

Then today this came to my salvation, of course with the scripts in /giveaway:

<?php
include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/giveaway/single.php");

?>

So now I have the full GOTD back.

May be it could come in hand for someone, sometime.

Hi

Thank you for the response.
I did some updating of late, but did not think of it then as being possibly connected to the issue.
Unlike yesterday, when I did not update anything on both sites and the giveaway was missing, today it's magically back, which is great.

I was fearing the issue is some server-side change by the web host also blocking this alternative php function, in addition to php include + a couple of other php functions making several Wordpress,Drupal & other CMS modules which need them unusable. The problem is this specific Munich-based web host gets good reviews in German IT magazines & website reviews making them very arrogant and not giving in to any suggestions to allow missing php functions on shared hosting, supposedly removed for "security reasons", even if just about all other local hosts offer them.
In other ways they are OK, like price-wise. I was forced there after Justhost.com, which I had used for years made the renewal fees impossibly high [just as their sister companies Blue host/Monster hosting] for the small sites I had, for the same features.

The explanation then as you suggest seems to be related to the Wordpress-updates, but just wondering why yesterday it was all the same blank.

I'm grateful, though since this is the most frequented page on both sites.

Regards

The GOTD scripts haven't changed, your web page code hasn't changed, so that tends to leave the server software.

If you look at the WordPress Updates you'll find that one was released Feb 19th and another Feb 21st. That might be the source of your trouble.

Or, it might be the security update from Dec 13th where

Tim Coen also discovered that specially crafted URL inputs could lead to a cross-site scripting vulnerability in some circumstances. WordPress itself was not affected, but plugins could be in some situations.

You might check with the WordPress forum and see if they have any suggestions.