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.
Chrome

Google Chrome 130: fixes 17 security issues

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google released a new stable version of its Chrome browser today. The new version is a security and feature update.

As far as security is concerned, users no longer have to worry about 17 security issues, as Google patched them in the new release.

Three of the publicly disclosed one are rated high, which comes second only to critical. Google makes no mention of exploits in the wild, which means that it is not aware of attacks targeting any of the fixed issues.

Chrome users may want to upgrade the web browser to the latest version as soon as possible. This is done automatically on most systems, but you may speed up the installation on the desktop by selecting Menu > Help > About Google Chrome.

Windows users may also run winget upgrade google.chrome.exe to upgrade the browser from the command line.

Did you know?

Chrome for Android may move and delete Tabs automatically

You can check out the full list of disclosed vulnerabilities that Google patched in Chrome here.

As far as new features or changes are concerned, there is little information from Google about those.

Developers may check out the Platform Status page for Chrome 130 to get an overview of development related changes.

The Enterprise and Education lists some of the changes that apply to users.

Here are the most noteworthy ones:

  • Chrome is going to start to display “small chips” after certain user actions. The example that Google gives is that when users add something to the reading list, Chrome displays a Toast that confirms the action and offers a link to the reading list side panel.
  • Some users get a new account menu when they select the avatar in Chrome for iOS on the new tab page.
  • PDFs display “seamlessly” in Chrome 130 for Android now.
  • Chrome freezes a tab that “has been hidden and silent for more than 5 minutes and uses a lot of CPU” when Energy Saver is enabled. TAbs with audio- or video-conferencing functionality and tabs that control external devices are exempt.
  • Chrome’s URL parser parses non-special URLs correctly now.
  • Chrome on Android supports third-party autofill and password providers now.

Google has also started to turn off classic extensions for first users.

Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 support ends in one year

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Next year will be crucial for many Microsoft customers. The company will end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.

Next to that, it will also end support for Office 2016 and 2019 on the same day. This means that any of the included applications won’t receive updates anymore after that date.

This includes Word and Excel, but also Skype for Business 2019, Access 2019, or OneNote 2016.

Here is the full list:

Office suites: Office 2016, Office 2019

Office applications: Access 2016, Access 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, OneNote 2016, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2019, Project 2016, Project 2019, Publisher 2016, Publisher 2019, Skype for Business 2016, Skype for Business 2019, Visio 2016, Visio 2019, Word 2016, Word 2019

Productivity servers: Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, Skype for Business Server 2015, Skype for Business Server 2019

While the programs continue to work after the end of support date, bugs and security issues will accumulate that won’t get fixed by Microsoft anymore. Microsoft won’t offer technical support either anymore.

Note: There is a good chance that micro-patching service 0Patch will support the two Office versions with updates after support end. A subscription is available for about $25 plus tax per year.

Customers may upgrade to a new version of Office, e.g., Office 2024, which Microsoft released recently, or subscribe to Microsoft 365, which includes Office applications.

The “End of Support: Know your options” table by Microsoft shows products that run out of support and Microsoft’s recommendations.

Obviously, there is no mention of Office alternatives that users may switch to. LibreOffice is probably the best option when it comes to that. It is an open source Office application that comes with pretty much the same apps as Microsoft Office. And it is free to use.

It offers good compatibility with Office document formats, but compatibility is not 100%. While most home users may not notice these differences and issues, Enterprise and business users may.

Do you run any of the applications? What will you do once support runs out? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Opera

Opera supports AI-powered Tab Management now – this is how it works

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The latest Opera Developer build comes with improved AI integration. Opera highlights new tab management options, including the ability to group or close tabs based on your instructions.

Commands such as “close all YouTube tabs” or “create tab groups for all open tabs” should work now. Opera says that everything is processed locally on the user device.

The details:

  • You need the latest Opera Developer build for that. It is not yet in Beta or Stable.
  • Supported commands are close, group, pin, or save as bookmarks.
  • The feature works only if you have at least 5 tabs open.

Did you know? Opera launched Dynamic Themes recently as well.

Opera One: first look at the new dynamic themes feature of the browser

Opera Aria: tab management

All you have to do is activate the Aria interface with a click on “Ask Aria” or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+). In some countries, it is Ctrl-Shift-7 instead. The Aria toolbar entry highlights the shortcut.

The prompt pops up in the middle of the browser window. All you have to do now is to type the command.

If you type “close YouTube” and have more than 5 tabs open in Opera, Opera will close all YouTube tabs. This worked considerably well. I added a few YouTube related pages from other sites, and they remained open.

When asked to close any tab that contains the term YouTube, Opera did not comply and closed only the YouTube domain tabs.

It is likely programmed to look only at the domain name when closing tabs.

Similarly, when I asked it to group all YouTube tabs, it would only add YouTube domain tabs to the group.

That is a somewhat of a let down, but the feature will likely be improved in future versions of the Opera browser.

Closing Words

I was not a huge fan of AI in browsers up until now. Reasons are that I do not want data to be transferred to a cloud server so that AI can process it. This is the case for Chrome’s and Edge’s automatic tab management features.

Opera says that Aria’s tab feature runs locally, which is good. While tab management powered by AI is not really something that you need when you have ten or so tabs open, I can see it useful in some scenarios.

Quickly grouping all vacation related tabs or bookmarking them can be useful. Sure, you can also do that manually, but AI may speed things up.

If you have two hundred or so tabs open, it may save you time. If, a big one, Aria gets it right every time. If the AI misses tabs or deletes the wrong ones, that could turn into an ugly situation unless you backup tabs regularly.

All in all though, it is an interesting addition that I will keep an eye on.

What is your take on this? Can you see yourself typing commands to an AI to manage tabs? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Steam digital product

Steam makes it clearer that you are buying licenses, not games

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

When you buy a game on Steam or any other digital marketplace, you acquire a license and not the actual game. This has been the case ever since shops for digital games came up.

The same is true for other digital content. You do not buy a movie, TV show, or music album, you purchase a license to watch or play it.

To make this clearer, Steam is now showing the info right when you are about to make a purchase.

Tip: did you know that you can change the install location of Steam games?

How to change the install location of Steam games

There, you find the following information listed:

A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.
For full terms and conditions, please see the Steam Subscriber Agreement

When you check the subscriber agreement, you may stumble upon the following:

The Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services. To make use of the Content and Services, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.

In plain old English: you purchase a license to access content. Valve or the companies that produce the content may take away that right at any time.

Note that this is industry-wide and not limited to Steam or Valve. When you buy digital games at other stores, for Xbox, Switch, or PlayStation, or for mobile devices, then you will find similar terms.

While it is rather rare that digital content gets removed, it has happened in the past. Companies who operate the stores may decide to drop specific types of content or rights-holders may pull content from a specific store or everywhere.

Microsoft, for instance, removed ebooks from the Microsoft Store in 2019. In 2009, Amazon removed the book 1984 (of all books) from customer devices, because the rights holder decided to pull it from the company store.

Valve removed games as well in the past. In 2013, it removed the game Order of War: Challenge from user accounts because Square Enix closed down the multiplayer servers.

As a gamer, you only have one option to ensure permanent access to your games: buy physical copies.

Note that the option may or may not work well. Physical copies are on their way out in the long run. Also, to play games, you may need updates or link them on Steam, which eliminates the purpose of owning a physical copy.

Some games may also be sold in stores, but they come with a code only. This code is a one-time use only. Nintendo does this a lot and you may want to make sure that the game cartridge is in the box before you purchase the game.

What is your opinion on this? Do you buy digital games or prefer physical copies? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Western Digital users report BlueScreens on Windows 11 24H2 (workaround)

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Reports suggest that some Wester Digital users have problems with Bluescreens on devices with Windows 11 version 24H2.

Microsoft has not acknowledged the issue yet, but reports from the official Western Digital forum suggest that there is indeed an issue.

The post Windows 24H2 + WD = blue screens has 52 replies at the time of writing. It states that “multiple users are having issues with constant blue screens since updating to Windows 24H2”.

Multiple storage devices and firmware versions appear affected. To name the two mentioned the most:

  • WD SN770
  • WD SN580

The Event Viewer shows two related errors:

  • stornvme (this is the system-supplied storage miniport driver.
  • The driver detected a controller error on \Device\RaidPort1 or 2.

Some users rolled back to Windows 11 version 23H2 stating that this has resolved the issue.

Workaround for BlueScreen issues

Note that the workaround requires editing of the Registry. It is recommended to create a system backup, for instance using Paragon Backup & Recovery Free, before making changes to the system.

  1. Open Start.
  2. Type regedit.exe
  3. Select Registry Editor.
  4. Confirm the security prompt.
  5. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort.
  6. Right-click on HMBAllocationPolicy and set the value to 0.
  7. If HMBAllocationPolicy does not exist, right-click on StorPort and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
  8. Restart the PC.

This should fix the BlueScreens. Some users have reported performance issues after the reboot. Some have set that setting the value to 2 improved the performance on their devices.

The policy supports the following values:

  • 0 — HMB is disabled.
  • 1 — HMB is set to 8 MB buffer.
  • 2 — HMB is set to 64 MB buffer.
  • 3 — firmware controlled buffer size.

You may need to play around with these values to see which works best on your end.

Which hard drives do you use in your PCs? Do you have a Western Digital drive and are affected by the issue? Feel free to leave a comment down below. (via Deskmodder)

AI Blocklist blocks AI-generated images from image search engines

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

AI is widely used to generate images. There are numerous services available to generate images using AI. All it takes are instructions and the AI generates the image.

These images may be published and they may land in search engines. It is often difficult to distinguish them from human-created images. If you do not want these in search, then you may be interested in AI Blocklist.

It contains about 1,000 URLs currently that are known to publish AI-generated images. When you apply the blocklist in content blockers like uBlock Origin, these will be blocked from image search engines such as Google Images or Bing Images.

You may be interested in this as well:

Keep on blocking in a free world: how to switch from Chrome to Firefox

The list can be installed in several ways and the GitHub repository has instructions for uBlock Origin, uBlacklist, AdGuard and Pi-Hole.

Good to know: uBlacklist is an extension that blocks domains that you specify from search results.

Install the AI Blacklist in uBlock Origin

Here is how you install the list in uBlock Origin:

  1. Activate the icon of the uBlock Origin extension in the browser that you are using.
  2. Click or tap on the cogwheel-icon in the interface that opens.
  3. Switch to the Filter lists tab.
  4. Expand the Import section at the bottom of the page.
  5. Paste the following address into it: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist/main/list.txt
  6. Click apply changes.

The list is now activate. Note that you can open it in the browser directly to check it out before you apply it.

To remove it, simply delete the line under import and select apply changes again.

Since it is a web-based list, it is updated in uBlock Origin whenever the list is updated on the GitHub repository.

Additional instructions are available on the Github repository. There you also find instructions in integrating the list in AdGuard or Pi-Hole.

Closing Words

The extension is useful if you search for images regularly and want to reduce AI-generated images in the search results. The maintainer says that it works better in uBlacklist, as it is designed specifically for filtering sites in search engines.

Do you use filters to block certain sites or content in search? Or do you simply skip that content when you encounter it? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

In an effort to push ads, Google is now hiding the skip button on YouTube for some

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Reports suggest that Google is testing a new option to increase eyes on ads and the playtime of ads on YouTube.

The latest test targets the skip button in the mobile app and on the YouTube website.

Good to know. Skip allows you to end several ad formats prematurely, usually after five seconds of playtime.

Obfuscation of the skip button is Google’s latest attempt to push ads. The company is also at war with content blockers and third-party interfaces, and the users who use them.

Apart from that, it continues to push new ad formats, including longer playing ads, pause ads, and unskippable ads, to more and more viewers.

Though shall not skip ads, says Google

The latest test obfuscates the skip button on YouTube while ads are playing. A screenshot published on Reddit shows the trick clearly.

Skip is still available, but it is barely visible. If you do not know what to look for, you may not notice that skip continues to be available.

Tip: at least on PC, you can use a content blocker to get rid of ads on YouTube.

I could not replicate this on several devices. It is possible that Google is running limited tests to evaluate the response of YouTube users. Another possibility is that the company is rolling out the feature to all users over time.

Google’s YouTube strategy

Google has two main revenue sources when it comes to YouTube:

  • Ads
  • Premium subscriptions.

While Google continues to test the boundaries regarding ads on the site, it is a the same time pushing Premium subscriptions. Users who are fed up with ads and not tech-savvy enough to use alternatives, may subscribe to Premium to get rid of ads.

Do you watch videos on YouTube? If so, what is your take on ads? Or are you a Premium subscriber? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

KeePass 2.57.1

KeePass 2.57.1 Security Update is now available after a code analysis

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Good news for everyone who is using the password manager KeePass. A new update is now available that fixes two minor security issues in the client. These have come to light during a code analysis that was sponsored and run by the German Federal Office for Information Security and MGM Security Partners.

The new is good, because no medium, high, or critical issues were discovered during the audit. Note that the audit focused on the actual KeePass application and not third-party forks or plugins.

Also good to know:

Should you save passwords in a browser?

The full report will be published on this (German) website later on. Previous reports have been in German, and it is likely that the KeePass report will also be available in German only.

KeePass users may want to upgrade the password manager to the new version as soon as possible. The two discovered security issues have a low severity rating.

The official release notes go through the findings and provide notes on the discovered issues. It is unfortunately difficult to understand at this point as the report is not quoted.

Closing Words

The results of the code audit should instill confidence in the password manager. I’m keeping an eye on the download page of the report to read it once it is published.

Which password manager do you use? Is it KeePass or something else? Leave a comment down below to let us all know!

Google removes Kaspersky antivirus from Google Play

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Things are heating up for the Russia-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky. After the company’s antivirus desktop version was hit by a ban in the United States, it is facing a second major drawback.

The details:

  • Google removed Kaspersky’s antivirus app from Google Play worldwide.
  • Google confirmed the removal.
  • Kaspersky apps remain available on the Apple App Store, third-party Android stores, and direct downloads.

Related content

Google services dominated web tracking last year

Google confirmed the removal of Kaspersky apps from Google Play in a statement to Bleeping Computer:

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security recently announced a variety of restrictions on Kaspersky. As a result, we have removed Kaspersky’s apps from Google Play.

A search for Kaspersky or any Kaspersky app comes up empty on Google Play. Other antivirus apps are highlighted instead.

Kaspersky says that users may download their apps from third-party sources or from Kaspersky directly.

Kaspersky representatives say that the company is investigating the removal of its apps from the Play Store. It seems unlikely that the apps will be reinstated any time soon.

The removal is another heavy blow for the cybersecurity company. While alternatives remain available, the bulk of Android users rely on the Play Store for all-things app related.

Closing Words

Whether you truly need an antivirus solution for Android is up for debate. A good trusted VPN on the other hand is a recommended addition, if you happen to connect your device to public or third-party wireless networks at times.

What is your take on all of this? Do yo use extra security apps on Android or iOS? If so, which do you use and for what purpose? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Google is adding anti-theft protections to Android

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google announced a new set of features designed to protect Android devices against theft in May. At least some of these features are now rolling out on first devices.

The following anti-theft protections are implemented:

  • Require device or Google account credentials to set up an Android device after factory reset.
  • Private area on the device that may be locked with a separate pin.
  • More authentication prompts for changes of sensitive settings.
  • Option to require enhanced authentication for certain features.

Good to know: Factory reset protection and private space is included in Android 15. The enhanced protections “will be released to select devices” this year, according to Google.

Related content

How to turn your Android device into an Internet hotspot

Let’s take a closer look at the features.

Factor reset upgrade prevents a reset by a thief

One options that thieves had until now was to factory reset the phone before selling it on the blackmarket.

Google wants to make this more difficult by requiring credentials before the device can be set up again.

Private area with extra protection

The private area feature enables Android users to lock sensitive apps behind another pin. This prevents direct access to the selected apps. Besides finance and health apps, you may also secure other apps or games, for instance social or messaging apps.

Additional authentication prompts for sensitive settings

Last but not least, Google is adding more protections for sensitive settings. Changing these requires the pin, password or biometric authentication.

The main purpose is to keep unauthorized users, e.g., a thief, from making changes that disable security settings such as Find My Device.

There is also a new option to require additional authentication for sensitive settings. Google mentions viewing or editing “critical Google account and device settings”. These require biometric authentication.

Closing Words

Some of the features are rolling out already to Android users in the United States, according to a post by Mishall Rahman on Threads. Most Android users are probably still waiting for Android 15 on their devices.

You can read Google’s announcement here.

What is your take on the new security features? Will you use them when they become available? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.