[BillB1]

No need for apology, life IS life

This is what had happened since our last conversation:

1. The 4.2.5 upgrade went smooth on Xampp, exported DB.sql file , and uploaded the entire directory to VBS, it's live now
https://dantdubai.net/vb

2. The solution: I found out there's a setting in admincp seems to control those weird characters in post URLs: settings>options> friendly URL>disabled and then > ignore option was the fix!

3. Next step:
upgrade 4.2 to 5 (testing on Xampp again)
seems smooth transition (no errors) as long as I am staying with PHP 5.4 on VB 5.4.5
Also it seems OK transition (with few php warnings NOT errors) when using PHP 7.1 on VB 5.5.2, Then hell breaks loose with PHP 7.4 on VB 5.6.8 ! I did try several database conversions namely ( utf8conver.phar) that smoked the hell out of the Arabic characters, no joy.

Interesting notes, after the conversion:
A. The VB 5.6.8/ php7.4 Arabic language pack works perfect on the forum files
but it destroys the actual Arabic texts in all old posts/old DB.

B. The VB 5.4.5 / php 5.6 works perfect on forum files and old posts as well.

With that being said, perhaps tweaking the actual Xampp server files is the answer?
I don't know, but will search and update accordingly.
meanwhile, to take advantage of the responsive VB5 mobile style, I'll have to stop at VB 5.4.5
until I find the proper way to convert the DB on php 7.4.

Excellent learning experience, thanks guys for all the help and support.

All the best!