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.
Firefox

Firefox 131 ships with Tab Previews, Temporary Permissions, and other usability improvements

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla released a new version of the Firefox web browser today. Firefox 131.0 is the new stable version of the browser. It is available for all supported operating systems and introduces several new features and improvements.

The details:

  • Site permissions may now be granted temporarily to sites.
  • Firefox displays previews when hovering over tabs.
  • Firefox Translate supports Swedish.
  • Links to text snippets on websites can now be shared.
  • Security fixes.

Firefox 131.0: new features

Temporary permissions

Firefox temporary permissions

Firefox is not the first web browser to support temporary permissions, but it is still a welcome feature. The main idea here is to allow sites access to certain features only for the session by default.

You can still enable permanent permissions. This can be useful if you use a website or app regularly and do not want to be bothered by permission prompts each time you open it.

Firefox permanent permission

Firefox revokes the permission automatically after one hour or when the tab is closed. A click on the site icon reveals whether permissions are temporary or permanent.

Tab Previews

Firefox Tab Previews

Tab previews have finally arrived in Firefox 131.0. Just hover over any open tab in the Firefox web browser and you will get a visual preview of the site or app.

You also see the page title and domain name in the preview. Previews work for local and public pages in Firefox.

Firefox users who do not like the feature can turn it off easily:

  1. Load about:preferences#general in the address bar.
  2. Scroll down to the Tabs section on the page that opens.
  3. Uncheck “Show an image preview when you hover on a tab”.

Firefox will only show the page title and domain name from now on.

Linking to text fragments

This feature allows you to link to specific text on a webpage. There does not seem to be a context menu option yet for this, which makes it a bit hard to create this type of links.

To link to text, append #:~:text=TEXT to the address and replace TEXT with text that you want to link to on the page.

Note: Firefox will always pick the first instance of that text on the page. You may need to be specific, if multiple instances of the text are on the page.

Example: https://chipp.in/software/qbittorrent-5-0-is-now-available-with-a-massive-list-of-changes/#:~:text=qBittorrent%205.0

This address highlights the first instance of qBittorrent 5.0 on the linked page.

Check out Mozilla’s detailed instructions for using the feature here.

You can check out the full release notes here.

What is your take on these features? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

qBittorrent 5.0 main interface

qBittorrent 5.0 is now available with a massive list of changes

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Do you still use torrents to download or share files? The makers of open source torrent client qBittorrent have released a major update; qBittorrent 5.0 comes with a large list of new features and changes.

The details:

  • qBittorrent 5.0 is compatible with Windows 10 and newer, macOS Big Sur or newer, and Linux.
  • Existing installations will be upgraded to the new version.
  • Some users report issues after upgrading.

Worth a read: Streaming services are moving in the wrong direction.

What is new in qBittorrent 5.0

The official release notes are long and include new features as well as fixes and other changes.

Here is a quick list of important features and changes in the new version:

  • Option to pause and resume entire BitTorrent sessions.
  • Set a shutdown timeout.
  • Mark-of-the-Web support.
  • Separate filter for tracker errors.
  • Download button if torrent was retrieved from the clipboard.
  • Deleted files may be moved to trash instead of being deleted right away.
  • Search supports regular expressions.
  • Seeding limits may be set for RSS and Watched folders in folder options.
  • Search plugins are lazy loaded.

You may check out the full list of changes here.

Problems with qBittorrent 5.0

Some users who have upgraded to the new version or tried to upgrade have reported issues on sites like Reddit.

Here is a short overview what has been reported:

  • Torrents cannot be started after upgrading to qBittorrent 5.0.
  • Search plugins may be incompatible with new version. Potential fix discussed here.
  • Getting “Error Opening File for Writing” when upgrading.
  • Theme may switch to dark mode / light mode automatically based on the OS setting.
  • Web UI is broken for some (downgrading restores functionality reportedly).

It is probably a good idea to test the new release first or wait days or even weeks before running the upgrade. In any event, it may be a good idea to create a system backup before running the upgrade.

Do you use torrent software? If so, which is your favorite and why? If not, what do you prefer to download or share files? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

The latest Windows 11 update is causing reboot issues

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft has confirmed a reboot issue that is affecting Windows 11 version 23H2. The company says that it is investigating issues that are causing multiple restarts or blue / green screens after installation of the latest update for Windows 11.

The update in question is KB5043145, which Microsoft released as an optional update for the operating system some says ago.

Affected devices reboot the system multiple times. Some may trigger automatic repair in an effort to repair the issue that is preventing the start of the Windows 11 operating system.

In other cases, users may get into the BitLocker recovery screen where they may need to enter the key to proceed.

Good to know: Microsoft plans to encrypt drives automatically with BitLocker.

Not the first time

If you follow Windows 11 news, you may remember that Microsoft confirmed a very similar issue back in July.

Back then, Microsoft confirmed that devices might boot into BitLocker recovery after installation of the — then — latest update for Windows 11.

Microsoft resolved the issue in August 2024. It is unclear if the issue is identical or related to the September 2024 issue that Microsoft confirmed this week.

Closing Words

The bulk of Windows 11 users are not affected by the new issue, as it is triggered by the optional update that Microsoft released in September 2024 for the operating system.

Microsoft has about two weeks left to address and fix the issue before the next cumulative update gets released. If Microsoft fails to to so, it will impact more users.

The next Patch Tuesday updates will be released on October 9, 2024 for Windows 11 version 23H2 and other supported systems.

The issue highlights again why most users may want to ignore the optional — beta — updates that Microsoft releases at the end of each month. These may introduce issues and bugs. If you do not want beta updates, do not install them and wait for the inclusion less than three weeks later as part of the cumulative security updates.

What is your take on optional updates? Do you install them or skip them? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Recall: Microsoft’s second attempt begins with security and privacy changes

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The initial announcement of the AI feature Recall is a great example of shooting yourself in the foot. When Microsoft announced Recall, it floated on a wave of positive and encouraging AI news and developments.

Recall was never tested in Insider builds prior to the announcement, at least to my knowledge. While the reason for that decision is unknown, it is possible that Microsoft wanted to launch the new Copilot+ PCs with a banger.

Microsoft did not anticipate the criticism that it received after the announcement. These complaints were valid and could have been avoided if Microsoft would have received feedback from beta testers outside the company.

Privacy and security were at the center of the issue. Recall was enabled by default, which meant that users had to disable it, if they did not want to use it. It recorded the screen every 5 seconds and saved the data in a database that was not protected during runtime.

Microsoft pulled Recall shortly thereafter and promised to do better. Today. Microsoft revealed the improved version of Recall on its Windows Experience website.

Has it improved? Lets find out.

Recall Security

Microsoft makes four statements in regards to security:

  • Recall is opt-in — The option is shown during the setup experience and users need to enable the feature to use it.
  • Recall data is encrypted — Snapshots and information is stored in an encrypted database. Keys are protected using TPM and are linked to the user’s Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security identity.
  • A core service is further isolated — Microsoft says that the service responsible for accessing snapshots and data runs in a secure VBS Enclave. Only data that the user requests is getting outside, according to Microsoft.
  • Recall uses Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security – This is done to authorize Recall operations.

Particularly interesting is the fact that users may uninstall Recall. Microsoft introduced the option under Optional Features some time ago, then pulled it again saying that it was a bug. Now it turns out that Recall can be uninstalled fully, if the user so desires.

Microsoft addresses main criticisms with the change. Making Recall opt-in will reduce usage, but it ensures that unsuspecting users do not have screenshots of their activity taken every five seconds by the feature.

Recall Privacy

Next to security, Microsoft says that it has also improved privacy controls. Apart from making Recall opt-in, Microsoft highlights the following options to users who choose to enable the AI-feature.

  • In-private browsing data is never captured or saved. This is true for supported browsers. Microsoft lists Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and other Chromium-based browsers.
  • Specific apps or websites viewed in browsers may be filtered. Works only in Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
  • Users control how much disk space Recall uses and how long content is retained.
  • Sensitive content filtering is enabled by default. This helps protect passwords, credit card numbers and the like to a degree.
  • Options to delete a time range, or all content from an app or website, or “anything and everything found in Recall search”.
  • An icon visualizes when snapshots are saved. Allows to pause snapshots.

Closing Words

Some of the features existed in the first version already. Microsoft has addressed the major points of criticism. While it is too early to tell how this will all work out, as Recall has not been released yet, it is giving users who are interested in the feature more control and better security.

Those who have no interest in the feature can either ignore it, by making sure not to opt-in during setup, or to remove it from the system entirely, if they prefer that.

You can check out the full blog post, which includes many security details, here.

What is your take on the changes? Do they go far enough, or is still something amiss? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

If you want to share Disney+, you need to pay for extra member slots now

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Disney announced the rollout of extra member slots option in many regions today. The company follows Netflix’s example, which cracked down on password sharing and introduced extra member slots some time ago.

Good to know: Extra member slots allow subscribers to gift a membership to a non-household viewer.

The details:

  • Subscribers may add one extra member slot to their account.
  • This costs $6.99 (Standard) or $9.99 (Premium) per month in the US.
  • Price varies from region to region.

Disney is also starting to crack down on password sharing. Like Netflix, Disney is starting to block access to its service, if it notices access from a different location.

Viewers may see “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account”. Subscribers do have the option to select “I’m away from home” or “Update household”.

The first option may be used while away from home for a limited period, the second if a subscriber moved permanently to a new location.

Either option requires a one-time passcode that is sent to the email address associated with the account holder.

Also of interest: How to cope with a changing streaming landscape that is pushing ads and higher prices.

It is interesting to note that an extra slot for Disney+ Premium is more expensive than an extra slot for Netflix Premium. Netflix charges $7.99 in the US for that, Disney $9.99 per month.

It is interesting to note that an extra Basic member costs $6.99 in the US, which is just $1 less than the plan itself.

The core difference between Basic and Premium is that Basic comes with ads and lack of Dolby Atmos audio support. Downloads are also not permitted.

Extra members have other limitations:

  • One stream only at a time.
  • One profile only.
  • Access to the same features and content as the account holder.

Closing Words

Sharing Disney+ passwords will come to an end largely in the coming weeks and months. Just like Netflix, Disney is pushing extra viewers off the service. Apart from stopping to watch Disney+, there are only two feasible (legal) options left:

  • Buy an extra member slot, which nearly costs as much as a regular subscription.
  • Subscribe to Disney+ directly.

It remains to be seen if Disney will see a drop and then an increase in subscribers after its password crackdown hammers down on subscribers in full force.

Are you subscribed to any streaming service? If so, to which and why? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Cookies

Google services dominated web tracking last year

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

When it comes to user tracking on the Internet, Google continues to have a firm hold on the top positions. Kaspersky released its annual web tracking report for the past year.

The data comes from a Do Not Track plugin that Kaspersky uses in its software products. It is designed to prevent different forms of tracking, but is disabled by default.

The key findings:

  • Google dominates tracking on the Internet.
  • Other companies that track users are Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo.

Note: The data comes from products from a single company. It may not reflect the monitoring landscape as accurately as possible because of that.

Google’s dominance becomes clear when you look at regional tracking. Here in Europe, Google Display & Video 360, and Google Analytics are the dominating trackers with an exposure of 17.27% and 11.93%. Third-placed Amazon sits at 9.13% and fourth placed Criteo at 6.80.

Then it is Google again with YouTube Analytics (5.65%), Microsoft with Bing (5.33%) and Google again with Adsense (5.23%).

In North America, it is again Google Display & Video 360 (16.84%) that dominates. Amazon is second this time (9.08%), but then it is Google again with Analytics (8.42%). Google is also placed fifth and sixth in North America.

The situation is similar in other regions. In Latin America, Google holds the first three spots and the fifth. In the Middle East, Google holds the first four spots. In Africa, it is the top three and the sixth.

It is interesting to note that some Google services lost eyes on users compared to the year before in many regions. Growth was limited to East Asia and Commonwealth of independent states. Google’s monitoring declined in all other regions, but it still dominates by a large margin.

Google Adsense and YouTube Analytics are the two exceptions. They managed to increase significantly in nearly every region.

You can check out the entire report on the Secure List website.

How do you protect yourself from tracking? Do you run content blockers? Other options? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Arc Browser maker considering subscription-based features

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Arc Browser is a relatively recent web browser that is based on Chromium. About a year ago, the CEO of the Browser Company, Josh Miller, answered a question in a video that has been on the mind of many: how will the company make money with Arc Browser.

Part of the answer included revenue opportunities that the company would not pursue. This included selling user data. Among the listed possibilities that Arc was pursuing was specific Enterprise editions and also a feature called Boosts.

Boosts are small modifications to certain features on websites. There are boosts to increase the interface of AI chat clients, to blur information in chats, or to localize game times on sports websites.

This may remind veteran Internet users of userScripts, which use a combination of JavaScript and CSS for changing functionality on websites.

Some Arc features may require a subscription

New information about future monetization came to light in an interview with Josh Miller at The Verge.

Here are the main takeaways:

  • Current functionality will remain free. Nothing is going to be taken away to justify paying for the product.
  • Subscriptions are one option, but nothing has been decided on yet.
  • Other options are “usage-based” or “some sort of token system” according to Miller.

The idea seems to be to introduce new features that are either exclusive to paying users or less limited than a free version.

Closing Words

I tried Arc Browser several times. While I like some features, It is clearly lacking features in other departments that I want in a browser. I do dislike the forced account registration on start.

It seems at least that the company won’t remove features from the browser to put them behind a subscription or other form of payment.

It remains to be seen what the future will hold for Arc. It will get interesting if the monetization plans to not lead to the required results from investors.

Have you tried Arc Browser? Feel free to write a comment down below.

Tab Group in Firefox

Firefox is getting Tab Groups – and you may try the feature already

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Tab Groups is a useful browser feature that allows you to group open websites together for better management. Most Chromium-based browsers support Tab Groups, as Google implemented them in Chromium and Chrome.

That’s one of the advantages of using an established browser source that is developed constantly. Don’t get me wrong, there are also disadvantages, like the death of Manifest V2 extensions support, which Google put into Chromium.

It is interesting to note that Mozilla introduced Tab Groups into Firefox at a time when Chrome and Chromium-based browsers did not really support it. Called Panorama, Mozilla launched it in 2010 as a way for users to group tabs.

While the implementation was not as elegant as what Google introduced in Chromium and Chrome, it was nevertheless a useful feature to some. Firefox extensions like TabGroups Manager would improve accessibility and usability. Mozilla decided to kill tab groups in Firefox eventually.

A few months ago, Mozilla announced that it would listen to feature requests from the community. Next to vertical tabs, Firefox would also get support for tab groups.

Tab Groups in Firefox Nightly

Firefox Tab Groups Enable

First bits of code have now landed in Firefox Nightly.

Note: Tab Groups in Firefox is not feature-complete at this point. There is no point in criticism Mozilla at this point, as development is still ongoing.

With that said, Firefox users who want to follow the development may enable Tab Groups in Firefox in the following way:

  • Make sure that Firefox Nightly is up to date (check Menu > Help > About Firefox Nightly).
  • Load about:config in the browser’s address bar.
  • Search for browser.tabs.groups.enabled.
  • Click on the toggle icon to set the value to true.
  • Restart Firefox.

Right-click on a tab and select “Add tab to new group” to create a new tab group in Firefox. You can drag & drop tabs between groups already. Some features, such as the ability to collapse and expand groups, are not implemented yet.

What is your take on tab groups in Firefox? Do you plan to use the feature once it lands? Feel free to write a comment down below.

Invidious blocked

You can’t use Invidious anymore to watch YouTube videos

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

All publicly hosted Invidious instances are blocked from playing YouTube videos. When you try the third-party solution right now, you receive error messages with no option to bypass it.

Note: this may impact other YouTube frontends as well.

Good to know: Invidious is an open source solution to play YouTube videos on publicly or self-hosted servers. All videos played come without ads or tracking, which is the main reason for users to use the service.

A message on the official repository of the service confirms that Google has shut down the latest workaround that it still had to play YouTube videos on Invidious instances.

Sad news for everyone. YouTube/Google has patched the latest workaround that we had in order to restore the video playback functionality.

Right now we have no other solutions/fixes. You may be able to get Invidious working on residential IP addresses (like at home) but on datacenter IP addresses Invidious won’t work anymore.

The development team is not giving up, but admits that it might take months before another workaround is found.

Users may be able to use self-hosted instances to bypass the block according to the announcement, but there is no guarantee that this is going to work in all cases.

Invididious users who want to give it a try can check out instructions here. Note that this requires a fairly good understanding of the used technologies.

This is not the first time that YouTube managed to break Invidious. The main issue now is that the makers have no workaround anymore to bypass YouTube’s blockage.

While there is a chance that they find another workaround, it looks as if Google has won the cat and mouse game for now.

Have you used Invidious in the past? If so, what do you plan to do now? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Edge Extensions performance issue

Microsoft Edge: performance-dragging extension warnings in the works

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Browser extensions can be very useful. From the ultra-useful content blocker to extensions designed for specific tasks. They can make your life on the Internet easier or better.

While most extensions may not impact performance noticeable, some may. That is a problem, as it may not always be obvious which one is to blame. Some userrs may even blame the browser, which is not something that browser makers want.

Microsoft is working on integrating warnings in Edge to warn users about extensions that impact the browsing performance.

The details:

  • The feature is available in Edge 130 and newer only.
  • It needs to be enabled.
  • Edge monitors the performance of extensions when enabled.

Note that the feature monitors performance only.

Tip: Microsoft is testing several new features. There is Super Drag & Drop or a RAM limiter that you may try.

How to enable the feature

Starting with Edge 130, some users of the browser will have the new performance detector enabled by default. Most users won’t, but there is an option to turn it on.

Here is how you enable it in Edge

  1. Load edge://flags/#edge-performance-extension-detection in the browser’s address bar.
  2. Change the value of Extension performance detector to Enabled.
  3. Restart Microsoft Edge.

The feature runs in the background from that moment on.

How the extension performance detector works in Edge

Microsoft describes the feature in the following way:

Enables detection and optional disabling of user-added extensions if they impact page load time. Alerts will appear in browser essentials.

This is not too helpful, but Microsoft published a blog post as well that provides additional details.

There, Microsoft says that Edge will alert the user if it notices persistent extension slowdowns that impact the browsing experience.

A click on the browser essentials icon in Edge displays information about extensions that Edge found to slow down browsing consistently.

Each extension is listed with the percentage of slowdown and an option to disable it. Disabling is optional, and you may also select to get a reminder at a later time.

Most users who use extensions will not see the alerts according to Microsoft.

Closing Words

Whether the performance monitor for extensions is useful or not depends on the individual user. It may help users who install lots of extensions in the browser and users who noticed slowdowns after installing extensions.

The alerts may help identify performance issues, which is useful. Still, some extensions may be too valuable even though they may impact the browsing performance or experience.

Do you run extensions in your browser that you would not disable under any circumstances? Feel free to leave a comment down below.