Author: Martin Brinkmann

When I was young, I studied German, History and English at Essen University in Germany. I worked in computer support for several years at the time to help other computer users when they ran into issues. Writing started out as a passion project, as I wanted to help more users and not just the ones that I handled in support. This lead to the founding of Ghacks Technology News in 2005. First, as a side-project, but shortly thereafter as a full-time project as the site's popularity exploded. I sold Ghacks to Softonic some years ago, but stayed on as Editor. You can still read my articles on the site. I do publish on Betanews as well. In recent years, I started to write and publish technology books, including my latest book "Windows 11 From Beginner to Advanced", which is available on Amazon. I'm also a freelance writer for the German publisher Gamestar. Chipp.in is my newest project. I want to use it to talk about my book projects, sell my books directly, and write about technology, as this is what interests me.

Suggested what? Microsoft deprecates suggested actions in Windows

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Remember suggested actions? Microsoft introduced the feature in mid-2022 in Insider builds of Windows 11 and rolled it out to stable systems later on.

The core idea behind the feature was simple: highlight certain text in Windows and the operating system suggests actions based on the highlighted string. Highlight a phone number and you get a call option. Select date or time, and you get an option to add an event to a calendar.

That is all there was to it and Microsoft did not improve the feature since its introduction. Microsoft never added support for additional types of data. No email or physical addresses to write to or look up, no chat names, or anything else that might come to mind.

Suggested actions are out

Today, Microsoft added suggested actions to the list of deprecated features. The company writes:

Suggested actions that appear when you copy a phone number or future date in Windows 11 are deprecated and will be removed in a future Windows 11 update.

Deprecated features remain in Windows for the time being but will be removed eventually. Features that are put on the list do not receive major updates anymore and it is very rare for a feature to be taken off the list.

In other words: expect suggested actions to be removed in a future update for Windows 11.

Is it a big loss? I disabled the feature on all systems and do not know anyone who found it useful. Yes, chance is that some users found it useful.

Considering that it saves you a few clicks at most, provided that the programs that you use to call or plan events are supported, it is probably a minority of users that will miss it.

Tip: you can check out this guide on Ghacks to find out how to turn off suggested actions in Windows.

Closing Words

When Microsoft announced suggested actions, I did not really see a big use case for it. Phone names and date / time strings support limited it from the get-go and it saved users just a few clicks in the best case. Usage must have been low, as Microsoft never improved the original feature.

Now it is your turn. Did you use suggested actions? Or did you disable it or never even realize that it was there in first place?

Mozilla removes Do Not Track from Firefox and suggests alternative, but there is a better one

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla plans to remove the Do Not Track feature from Firefox. The idea behind it was simple: inform websites that the user of the browser does not want to be tracked.

What looked good on paper did not work well in the real world. Many sites ignored the header, which made it ineffective as a privacy tool.

Related:

Mozilla removes Adjust marketing integration from Firefox Mobile

Mozilla confirmed the removal of Do Not Track on its bug tracking website.

Global Privacy Control is the alternative

Global Privacy Control was created by several companies in 2020 as a successor to Do Not Track. The core difference to Do Not Track is that it is designed to be mandatory instead of optional, at least in some regions where consumer laws are in place.

Firefox users may enable the feature in the following way:

  1. Select the Menu button and then Settings.
  2. Switch to Privacy & Security.
  3. Check “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” under Website Privacy Preferences.

Is there a better alternative?

Whether advertisers, Internet sites, marketing companies, or other companies and services that track users honor the new Global Privacy Control feature is not in the control of the individual user.

Yes, some companies may get sued if they do not, but there is a good chance that this won’t reach mass adoption in the coming years and that tracking continues to take place.

That leaves taking care of tracking as good as you can by yourself. In fact, installing a content blocker and disabling third-party cookies are two of the best options in that regard.

While you could do more, these methods alone will block the bulk of tracking that you would otherwise be subject to on today’s Internet.

So, pick uBlock Origin and install it in a browser that is not operated by a multi-billion Dollar company. Then, open the Settings of the browser and disable third-party cookies.

Note: in some rare, very rare, instances, third-party cookies may prevent functionality on a low number of websites. If that is the case, you may still set exceptions for these sites while keeping third-party cookies blocked for every other site.

Now it is your turn. Do you enable privacy features such as Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control? What do you to block tracking on the Internet?

Ice

Copilot Vision monitors your online activity for your own benefit

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Copilot Vision is an experimental AI-feature that, Microsoft promises, is going to revolutionize the online life of computer users.

Microsoft says that Copilot Vision sees the pages that users are on, reads the content of the pages, and is there for users when they have questions about current or past content, or want to have a discussion about it.

Browsing is no longer a “lonely experience with just you and all your tabs” according to Microsoft. How awfully nice.

Good news is that Copilot Vision is an opt-in experience. It is only available for select Pro subscribers at the time of writing and can be enabled under Copilot Labs. Furthermore, it will only work “on a select set of websites initially”.

Microsoft has come up with examples to demonstrate the usefulness of Copilot Vision.

  • Use it to plan a day at the museum, by “pointing out all the information you need to know before you visit”.
  • Tell you which products on a page match your needs and preferences.
  • Help you learn new games, for instance Geoguessr.

And privacy?

Copilot Vision is opt-in, which means that users have to enable it before it starts monitoring activity.

Microsoft says that Copilot Vision data is only kept during sessions and deleted afterwards. This means that everything a user said during a session and the context is deleted. Copilots responses are logged, however, according to Microsoft to “improve safety systems”.

Closing Words

Is Copilot Vision a useful tool? Who is it for? The examples that Microsoft provided do not sound overly spectacular. Telling me which products I most likely like on a page? Maybe on a page with thousands or products and endless scrolling for a preselection, but otherwise?

There is also the question of trust.

  • Do you want an AI to monitor your browsing, even if it is just for a session?
  • Do you trust Microsoft to delete the data after the session?
  • Do you believe that the answers that Microsoft logs do not contain personal information?
  • That Copilot Vision won’t get enabled automatically, by error.

Now it is your turn. Could Copilot Vision be a helpful tool in the future? Or do you see issues and problems that it could cause first and foremost? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Patch

New 0-Day Windows vulnerability steals credentials in the simplest way possible

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Micro-patching service 0Patch have disclosed a new 0-day vulnerability that affects all recent client and server versions of the Windows operating system.

A successful exploit gives the attacker access to a user’s credentials. All that is required for that is that the user opens a folder on Windows that contains a malicious file.

0Patch releases micro-patches for security issues. It supports various Windows and Office clients, even after Microsoft ended support for them officially.

The company released a patch in February for a vulnerability that Microsoft did not consider worthy of a patch.

0Patch reveals in a blog post that the issue affects Windows 7 to Windows 11 version 24H2, and Windows Server 2008 R2 to Server 2022. Windows Server 2025 is likely also affected, but it is still under testing since its release in November 2024.

The company writes:

Our researchers discovered a vulnerability on all Windows Workstation and Server versions from Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 to the latest Windows 11 v24H2 and Server 2022. The vulnerability allows an attacker to obtain user’s NTLM credentials by simply having the user view a malicious file in Windows Explorer – e.g., by opening a shared folder or USB disk with such file, or viewing the Downloads folder where such file was previously automatically downloaded from attacker’s web page.

Good to know: NTML, which stands for New Technology Lan Manager, is a set of security protocols used by Microsoft in all recent versions of Windows.

0Patch says that it has reported the vulnerability to Microsoft and that it is withholding information about the issue until it is fixed by Microsoft.

It is the third 0-day vulnerability that 0Patch reported to Microsoft recently. The previous two, a Windows theme file issue and a Mark of the Web issue, have not been fixed by Microsoft according to 0Patch.

Micro-patches are available for all three 0-Day vulnerability. 0Patch subscribers should get these automatically, provided that they run the 0Patch application on their Windows devices.

As per the usual terms, the company is providing free users with the micro-patches as well, as Microsoft has not yet created an official patch to protect devices against potential attacks.

Additional information about the issue is available on the linked website.

WSCC gives you access to hundreds of the world’s best free apps

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Windows System Control Center is a free program for personal use on Windows that you may use to explore, download, and use hundreds of the best free apps for the operating system.

The app brings together programs by popular developers such as Nirsoft, SysInternals, MiTeC, and others.

It is available as a portable application, but you can also install it. You may select the sources that you want included on the first start.

No apps are downloaded by default, but it takes just a click to add some or all of them to the PC.

While that is convenient, it does have downsides. The main one is that WSCC does not list the space that is needed to store all selected apps on the PC.

Most apps are relatively small, but you still end up with 340 megabytes worth of apps in the folder when you install them all.

You may also notice that some apps cannot be installed. This was the case for three Nirsoft apps that Windows Defender did not want on the system.

You may use the folders of the sidebar to explore and launch apps, or the built-in search.

Selecting a group in the sidebar displays information about the available apps. This includes a handy description of its functionality.

Note that the name of the app is listed on the right, which is a bit confusing, if you are browsing by name and not by description. A click on the name launches the app immediately on the system. A click on the question-mark next to a name opens the help file, if available.

Apart from acting as a launcher, WSCC can also keep apps up to date. Since they are all portable, it is often the case that they do not get updated frequently. The app informs you about updates so that you may install them.

Closing Words

WSCC is a handy program for Windows. While you can maintain your own list of portable apps, it is a great option to download and manage hundreds of popular free apps with minimal effort.

Now it is your turn. Have you used WSCC in the past or a comparable solution? Or do you prefer to download and manage apps individually?

Microsoft reportedly showing ads in Microsoft 365 app for Android

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Is it an experiment, rolling out to everyone, or a bug? Reports are coming in that users are starting to see ads in the Microsoft 365 application for Android when they open PDF documents in the app.

The ad shows up at the top of the screen underneath the title of the document. It features a close button, but that closes it just for the current PDF document and has no effect on future documents that users view in the app.

User Longhorn describes the experience on an independent Mastadon server:

The PDF reader in the Office app on Android has built-in ads.

Even if you have an @Microsoft 365 subscription, ads do sometimes show up.

That’s utterly insane. That particular ad I got was powered by Taboola under the hood.

Another user chimed in and said that ads are also showing up for other documents opened in the application.

I tried to replicate this by opening several PDF documents and Office documents in the app, but they did not show up. It is possible that they do get blocked by the privacy-focused DNS service that I use, as it blocks most ads on Android devices.

Microsoft has been experimenting with advertisement in its products before and still is. Various sections and apps by Microsoft on Windows show ads. While some might argue that a recommendation for another Microsoft product is not an ad, I’d beg to differ.

Third-party apps are also a thing. The Copilot feature that is integrated into Windows may show third-party ads.

Ads in the Microsoft 365 app are not out of the question therefore. It would be a serious blow to subscribers, if Microsoft intents to show ads to them as well.

If Microsoft is rolling this out, we are likely going to see more and more comments about it on various places on the Internet.

What is your take on ads in apps? Do you mind, if they are free? What about paid apps? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Firefox downloads and installs faster on Linux thanks to a recent change

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Linux users who download Firefox from Mozilla to install the browser on their device will experience quicker downloads and installs going forward.

Mozilla explained on its Nightly website that it switched the packaging to .tar.xz from the previously used .tar.bz2 format.

The change has the following benefits:

  • The average file size of Firefox is 25 percent smaller.
  • The new format offers improved decompression speeds.
  • Improved compatibility.

A 25 percent reduction in file size reduces the time a download takes. Combined with faster decompression of the new format, it means that Linux users will be able to start using Firefox earlier than before.

Linux users who want to give this a try can check out the change on the Firefox Nightly download page. The download of Firefox for Linux is offered as a .tar.xz package.

The change will roll out to Firefox Beta and Release channels in the coming weeks. Maintainers should take note of the new format and update scripts that they may be using to handle both package formats or start using .tar.xz exclusively.

Mozilla says that it made the decision to use .tar.xz instead of .zst on Linux because the selected format offers better compression. The format is in wide use as well and has no extra dependencies.

Users interested in the development can check out the main listing on Bugzilla.

What is your take on the change? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Thunderbird Android

Thunderbird financials: doing really well

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The team behind the open source email client Thunderbird has released the annual report for the 2023-2024 period. The report covers major developments as well as an overview of financials.

And it could not look better. Financial contributions reached 8.6 million US Dollar in 2023, which is an increase of nearly 35 percent when compared to 2022’s 6.4 million US Dollar.

The project received donations from over 300,000 individuals according to the report. The median amount donated was 11,12 US Dollar and the number of big — over 1,000 US Dollar — donators was just 56 in the period.

Donations from five countries — Germany, the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Japan — accounted for more than 63 percent of all donations.

The expenses chart is interesting, especially when compared to Mozilla’s expense chart. More than 68 percent of expenses go to personnel, and almost 14 percent to infrastructure and operational services. Donation processing fees eat up more than 7 percent, which means that more than 600,000 US Dollar are wasted on fees. Marketing makes up 2 percent of expenses.

The bulk of revenue flows directly into the Thunderbird project and related services.

Major development took place since 2023

The organization has released two major versions of Thunderbird for the desktop since 2023. First Thunderbird 115 in 2023 and then a year later the big Thunderbird Nebula release.

K-9 Mail for Android was finally turned into Thunderbird for Android, which marked a major development step in creating a true cross-platform solution.

Development on add-on services began in 2023 as well. The team focused its efforts first on services that would add value to Thunderbird and align with its own values and goals. The following services were created as a consequence:

  • Appointment, a calendar scheduling tool
  • Send, based on Firefox-Send, a file transfer tool.
  • Thunderbird Sync, a file synchronization tool to sync settings between all devices.

Development picked up pace between 2023 and 2024, and so did community contributions, which suggests that it is heading in the right direction.

Now you: do you use Thunderbird as your email client or another application? What is your take on the development? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

ZetaOffice: LibreOffice as a web service

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

LibreOffice is probably the most popular open source document editing software out there at the moment. It is a local solution, which means that you need to install it on your devices to use it.

Related content

LibreOffice 24.8: you can now block active content in documents

ZetaOffice is a relatively new online service that brings the Office suite to the web. Desktop versions for Windows and Linux are also available, but these are in beta right now. The developers plan to release mobile versions in the future as well.

It is developed by Allotropia. The Allotropia website lists “services, consulting, and products around LibreOffice and related opensource projects” as the work focus.

ZetaOffice Online

Right now, ZetaOffice Online supports Writer, Calc, and Impress. You can head over to the official website and try the linked demos there to see how it works.

ZetaOffice Writer example

You may note that the demos are quite memory hungry. The Writer demo used about 1.4 gigabytes of memory when I tried it, which is a lot. Some demos almost locked the page when I started them.

The functionality of LibreOffice appears to be there. There does not seem to be a registration option on the website at this point. In fact, no information about using ZetaOffice with your own documents is provided.

The website offers some information on the business plan and functionality though:

  • ZetaOffice is provided as a self-hosted version and a paid version that runs on high performance servers.
  • The service is in open beta right now.

Closing Words

If you find the idea of having access to LibreOffice on a website appealing, then you may want to keep an eye on the project. It is in beta right now and it may take a while before it exits the beta phase.

No word yet on pricing, which surely has the power to make or break the project. Still, it is interesting to see that projects like it exist.

Do you use LibreOffice? Would you use ZetaOffice or another service that brings the open source suite to the web? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Android may soon warn you when you download a low quality app

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Is the app any good? This is probably one of the first questions that come to mind when you stumble upon a new app.

User reviews and ratings, as well as other information, such as the developer’s history of application releases, only help that much.

Google appears to be working on a new Google Play feature for Android that may warn users about apps before the download is started.

A report by Android Authority suggests that Google is working on such a feature. A deep-dive into the lastest release brought the information to light, according to the site.

So, how is Google going to determine if an app is low quality? Messages baked into the app give clues:

  • This app is frequently uninstalled compared to similar apps on Play
  • Play has limited user data about this app
  • This app has few active users compared to others on Play

Android Authority says that the messages will be displayed on an application’s “details page” on the Play Store. In other words, Google won’t display popups that warn users about a potentially low quality app.

The messages cover several scenarios. The first looks at uninstalls. If an app gets more uninstalls than comparable apps, it may be considered low quality by Google.

The second is for new apps. If Google Play has little data about the app, it may warn users. This does not necessarily mean that an app is low quality. All apps start with zero installs and reviews after all.

The third looks at user activity while the app is installed. If it is lower than that of comparable apps, Google may also show a warning.

There may be others, but that is all that Android Authority could extract from the latest Play Store APK file.

No clear definition of low quality

There is no strict definition of low quality. That is likely the reason why Google is not showing popups about certain apps, but adding information to the application’s page on Google Play instead.

Especially new apps cannot be judged by common metrics. They have no or only a few reviews or ratings, and the lack of users makes other metrics, such as user engagement, also difficult to use.

Still, the information that Google provides may be useful in a user’s decision making process.

What is your take on Google’s plan? Do you think it is useful? Feel free to leave a comment below.