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.
Google has released quite a few security updates for its Chrome web browser in recent months. Besides the weekly scheduled security updates, Google has released updates to address 0-day vulnerabilities in Chrome.
Today, Google released another security update for Google Chrome to address a 0-day exploit. The issue affects all desktop versions of Chrome and Chrome for Android.
Chrome users may want to install the update immediately to fix the issue. Here is how that is done on desktop systems (there is no option to speed up the installation of Chrome updates on Android):
Load chrome://settings/help in the Chrome address bar.
Chrome displays the current version and runs a check for updates.
Updates will get installed automatically at this point, but you need to restart the browser manually to complete the update.
Chrome should return the following version after installation of the update:
Chrome for Windows and Mac: 125.0.6422.112 or 125.0.6422.113
Chrome Extended Stable for Windows or Mac: 124.0.6367.233
Chrome for Linux: 125.0.6422.112
Chrome for Android: 125.0.6422.112 or 125.0.6422.113
About the Chrome security vulnerability
The official release notes page lists basic information about the vulnerability only. It is CVE-2024-5274, a Type Confusion in V8 issue. Google has rated the vulnerability as high and notes that it is exploited in the wild.
V8 is the JavaScript and WebAssembly engine that Google Chrome uses.
In other words, systems with an outdated version of Chrome may be successfully attacked. It is unclear how the issue can be exploited, however.
The last update that fixed a 0-day vulnerability in Google Chrome was released just 2 weeks ago. It is the 8th 0-day exploit fix in Chrome in this year alone.
A lot has been written about the upcoming Recall feature of Windows 11 version 24H2. Reserved exclusively for Copilot+ PCs, it will be unavailable to the majority of users who upgrade their Windows 11 PCs to the new version.
Recall, in a nutshell, takes frequent captures of the entire screen and stores them encrypted on the local system. Windows 11 users may then invoke the Recall feature to interact with the saved content.
From searching for specific information over getting summaries of watched videos or telecalls to finding that specific asparagus recipe that you looked at some time ago in Edge.
Search across time to find the content you need. Then, re-engage with it. With Recall, you have an explorable timeline of your PC’s past. Just describe how you remember it and Recall will retrieve the moment you saw it. Any photo, link, or message can be a fresh point to continue from. As you use your PC, Recall takes snapshots of your screen. Snapshots are taken every five seconds while content on the screen is different from the previous snapshot.
How Recall works
You use natural language to find something and Recall returns the information separated into text and visual matches.
Recall is shown as an icon on the Windows 11 taskbar and it may also be started using the keyboard shortcut Windows-J.
Recall displays a timeline on start that you may use to check out a specific day. Recall loads and displays the snapshots of that particular day then, allowing you to interact with the content.
Search is the heart of recall. You use natural language to find or interact with the saved content.
Type what you are looking for and Recall returns any matching snapshot. The AI feature displays hits from all apps by default, but you can filter results by a specific app to narrow down the results.
The feature distinguishes between close and related matches:
Close matches — includes at least one of the search terms or images that represent the search term.
Related matches — displays related items, e.g., cannelloni results when you searched for goat cheese pizza.
Selecting a screenshot launches the Screenray feature. Microsoft says that Screenray anayzes the snapshot and enables interactions with elements of it.
The company writes:
What you can do with each element changes based on what kind of content screenray detects. If you select a picture in the snapshot, you can copy, edit with your default .jpeg app such as Photos, or send it to another app like the Snipping Tool or Paint. When you highlight text with screenray, you can open it in a text editor or copy it.
Is Recall a privacy nightmare?
Recall records most activity on a Windows PC when it is active. It is up to the user to enable or disable Recall.
Microsoft has added options to disallow the capturing of specific apps or websites. Some of these are only available in Edge.
Recall does not capture private browsing sessions in Chromium-based browsers. In Edge, the feature may furthermore block captures of specific websites.
In other words, if you use a different browser than Edge, website filtering won’t work. If you use Firefox or another non-Chromium-based browser, everything will get recorded.
Recall runs locally only according to Microsoft. Captures are stored locally and the OCR feature runs local as well only.
The main privacy concerns
Recall runs locally only. The main concern that some users have is that someone else may gain access to the recorded data.
There are several scenarios where this may happen:
Malware infections may gain access to the data. This gives threat actors access to a user’s entire activity on the PC. It may include information about financial services they use, online accounts, password managers or security software, and confidential information in Word or Excel.
Law enforcement, including border agents, may want access to the information as it highlights (most of) the activity of a user on the Windows 11 device. Users may be coerced into giving state representatives access to their Windows PCs.
It is your choice
You may or may not use Recall. Most Windows 11 users cannot even use it, as their PCs do not meet the minimum system requirements.
If your PC supports it, you may want to ask yourself a simple question: do I really need it? Is it improving may workflows or helping me in another way?
It is a novelty feature, but how often will you make use of it once that novelty factor wanes off?
If you ask me, I won’t make use of it. All my PCs are not Copilot+ PCs and even if they were, I would turn it off as I do not need it. I know where to look when need to find something.
For businesses, it may play a bigger role. Making everything searchable, including video calls and presentations, is certainly useful in some scenarios.
What about you? Will you use the Recall feature when it comes out?
Microsoft, Google, and other search engine companies have started to add AI to the search results. Google is rolling out AI Overviews to search. This feature displays AI generated content at the top of the results.
This change has severe implications for the World Wide Web. In this article, I’m making four predictions about the future of the WWW.
Not all sites and services will be around in 5 years
AI generated results will keep a portion of searchers on the search engine’s website. The answer may suffice for a good percentage of user searches.
This impacts sites that rely on traffic from search engines. Google says that sites listed by its AI Overviews feature have received more clicks, but it is too early to tell whether only a tiny percentage of sites really benefits from it. In any event, sites on the second or third party of results will likely get less traffic.
The same may be true for certain services. Search engines like Google added more and more tools and features. You can check the weather, convert currency, get translations, do calculations or directions right from Google.
In any event, the drive towards showing more information directly on search results pages will push lots of sites out of business.
Good news is that this may level the search playing field. Companies like OpenAI may create their own search engines, which threatens the dominance of Google.
AI favors large sites and data sources
Generative AI relies on data created by humans. Without that data, it would not be able to produce any results.
For search engines, large data sources are of greater interest than smaller ones. Giving the AI access to the entirety of Wikipedia or Reddit is better than having to parse millions of smaller sites for the information.
Larger sites benefit from this, as they may sell their data to AI companies. Smaller websites do not have the means to broker deals with these companies, which means that they won’t get any compensation for their data. While they may opt-out, this also means that they won’t receive any links when the AI includes them as a source.
Ultimately, small sites are at the receiving end again when it comes to this, while large sites have a new revenue source at their disposal.
Trust will play a major role
Can AI results be trusted? AIs may hallucinate, which means that they make things up. There is also the question about the actuality of data. Since AIs rely on human generated content, they may return content that is out of date or also incorrect.
Say, you search for instructions on making a change to your Windows system. AI may return instructions that work on older versions of Windows. While you may adjust the query, there is a chance that out of date content is returned.
Trust will also play a major role in the survival of websites. Trusted sites will continue to do well, as many searchers will favor them over AI generated content. Sites that have a loyal followship may also survive.
Personality and authenticity remains important
Bland sites that just rehash news stories will have it difficult in the future. They do not really provide much value, but the business model worked, especially for established sites that can rank for pretty much any topic they write about.
Information returned by AI has no personality. It is just a robot returning information. Your favorite reviewer of video games, movies, software applications, or cars, on the other hand, may have more to offer than just the information.
This personality and authenticity of writers, podcasters, or video creators drives users towards services and sites, and may make them follow certain sites or services.
These will continue to do well, as AI cannot compete with that or mimic it satisfyingly.
Now You: what is your take on AI integrations in search, or entirely AI-powered search engines?
Microsoft configured non-managed Windows 10 systems to restart automatically after the installation of updates. This can be a huge problem for users. If you run certain processes or have important apps up and running, Windows 10 may restart regardless of that.
This happens after a certain inactivity period. Sometimes, this may result in users losing access to work or being thrown out of games or other apps. While some may reload, like Office apps, others may not reload to the state they were in prior to the initialization of the restart.
The following sections offer step-by-step instructions to stop Windows 10 from restarting the system automatically after the installation of updates.
Stop automatic restarts using the Group Policy Editor
Note: the Group Policy Editor is only available for Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. In other words, it is not available for Home editions. Please skip this section and check the Registry section below for instructions to enable the same policy on Home devices.
Open the Start Menu.
Type gpedit.msc and select Edit Group Policy from the results. This opens the Group Policy Editor.
Follow the folder structure on the left and go to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.
Double-click on No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations.
Set the policy to Enabled.
Select OK.
Double-click on Configure Automatic Updates under the same Windows Update folder.
Set the policy to Enabled.
Set the policy to Auto download and schedule the install.
Click ok.
Tip: you can also set the second policy to Notify for download and auto install to prevent any automatic downloads of updates or installations of updates.
Stop automatic reboots using the Registry
Open the Start menu.
Type regedit.msc and select Registry Editor.
Confirm the UAC prompt, if it is displayed.
Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU.
If a key does not exist, right-click on the previous key and select New > Key. Name it accordingly.
Right-click on AU and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Repeat the steps six times:
Name the first AUOptions. Double-click and set its value to 4.
Name the second NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers. Double-click on it and sets its value to 1.
Name the third NoAutoUpdate. Double-click on it and set its value to 0.
Name the fourth ScheduledInstallDay. Double-click on it and set its value to 0.
Name the fifth ScheduledInstallEveryWeek. Double-click on it and set its value to 1.
Name the sixth ScheduledInstallTime. Double-click on it and set its value to 3.
You have several options when it comes to downloading Windows ISO images. From downloading them from Microsoft using the Media Creation Tool to using tools such as Rufus to download them.
One of the easiest options to get the latest Insider or Stable ISO images is to use UUP Dump.
It supports:
All Windows releases: Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server.
All Windows channels: Public Release, Release Preview, Beta, Dev and Canary.
Quick Options to get the latest build of a specific channel.
Recently added builds to see the latest releases.
Select the desired language and click next.
Select the desired edition, e.g., Windows Home and Pro, and click next.
Make sure download method is set to download and convert to ISO.
Check conversion options:
Include updates.
Run component cleanup.
Integrate .NET Framework 3.5.
Use solid (ESD) compression.
Select create download package.
Pick a local folder and select save to download the ZIP archive to the local system.
Right-click on the download ZIP file and load the properties.
Select the unblock option and click ok to proceed.
Extract the ZIP archive.
Modify CustomAppsList.txt to select the Microsoft Store apps that you want installed when using the ISO image. Add # in front to block installation and remove # to include the installation.
Run uup_download_windows.cmd to start the process.
Note that Windows may throw a SmartScreen warning.
The process may take quite some time. Wait until you get the notification that you may press 0 to exit.
Microsoft has added support for extracting archive formats and creating ZIP archives in its Windows operating system. This is a useful feature, as it allows users to manage several popular archive formats without installation of third-party software.
If you encounter archives occasionally, say once a month, then it is usually easier to use the built-in functionality than third-party tools.
Now, Microsoft is working on bringing support to create 7-Zip and Tar archives to Windows 11. This works identical to creating zip archives.
Just right-click on and select the “compress to” option to see a list of all available archive formats. Pick the one you want and Windows will compress the selection of files to the format.
The three supported formats increase the usefulness of the feature. While Windows continues to lack support for creating other popular formats, such as Rar or Gz, adding native support for more formats is still welcome.
Third-party archive software is superior
While it is great that Windows is getting support for extracting and creating archives, most users may want to use third-party software still.
The main reason is performance. Extracting archives with Windows’ built-in extraction feature is much slower. Similarly, creating archives using Windows’ built-in compress to functionality is also much slower.
This is true for any of the supported formats. It can takes minutes longer to extract an archive using the Windows functionality. Might not be such a big problem if the functionality is needed rarely, but if you happen to extract or compress regularly, you should use third-party software such as 7-Zip or WinRAR to do so.
Closing Words
All in all, it is still a good feature addition to Windows. It improves handling of archives right out of the box. Still, most users should install third-party archive software to manage archives on Windows.
What about you? Do you use archive software? If so which and why this particular piece?
Over the last couple of days, a story about Microsoft PC Manager suggesting to reset the default search engine of Microsoft Edge to Bing made the rounds.
While I’m usually critical when Microsoft is introducing new ads on Windows or trying to persuade users to use its products, I think this new attempt is blown out of proportion.
Before you start asking how much Microsoft paid me for that opinion, hear me out.
Microsoft PC Manager
Microsoft PC Manager is available in select regions only. Created by a Microsoft team in China, it is added to Chinese Windows systems from this month onward.
The tool has a couple of options. Notable are PC boost, which tries to reduce memory usage and the space that temporary files occupy. There is also an option to manage some startup items, processes, or run a deep clean operation to free up more space.
It is a basic tool, but some users may find it useful. One of the features of PC Manager is that it can show tips to the user. These tips are also basic. One of them checks the default search engine of Microsoft Edge. If it is not Bing Search, PC Manager will suggest resetting it as a tip.
While it can be seen as yet another attempt from Microsoft to get users to use Bing Search, it can be helpful as well. The case here is if a malicious software has changed the search engine in Edge.
Yes, it does not happen as often anymore as five or so years ago, but there is still a chance of that happening.
Edge users who have changed the default search engine can also ignore the suggestion easily. While I agree that putting this as a repair tip stretches the definition of repair in many cases, it is still not as problematic as resetting search providers automatically after the installation of updates or showing annoying notifications if you happen to use the “wrong” browser.
In worst case, users select the option to have the search engine in Edge reset to Bing. It takes a couple of clicks to change the search engine again.
Closing Words
Better tools exist to handle what PC Manager offers. It is a Microsoft app, on the other hand, which may appeal to users who were burned by other booster apps or optimization apps.
All in all, it is often better not to use apps like PC Manager. Most functionality is manageable elsewhere better. For startup items, use Autoruns. For storage, try BleachBit. For processes, try the Windows Task Manager or Process Explorer.
What is your take on this? Have you used Edge or Bing Search recently?
Google is working on removing support for third-party cookies in Google Chrome. Cookies continue to be of use, for instance to save preference or as session cookies.
In an effort to make cookies more resilient to attacks, especially stealing, Google started to integrate Device Bound Session Credentials into Chromium.
The main idea here is to bind cookies to a specific device so that attackers who steal it cannot use them.
One of the main threats of cookie stealing is that malware actors may access accounts online without authentication.
Google explains how the feature works:
By binding authentication sessions to the device, DBSC aims to disrupt the cookie theft industry since exfiltrating these cookies will no longer have any value. We think this will substantially reduce the success rate of cookie theft malware. Attackers would be forced to act locally on the device, which makes on-device detection and cleanup more effective, both for anti-virus software as well as for enterprise managed devices.
Note: the feature is still in a prototype stage in Chrome. Google said in April 2024 that it is experimenting with protecting Google accounts in Chrome Beta currently.
How to enable Device Bound Session Credentials in Chrome
Google Chrome users may enable the feature in their browser already. It is an experimental feature at this stage, which means that it needs to be enabled separately.
Device Bound Session Credentials
Enables Google session credentials binding to cryptographic keys that are practically impossible to extract from the user device. This will mostly prevent the usage of bound credentials outside of the user device. – Mac, Windows, Linux
Here is how that is done:
Load chrome://flags/#enable-bound-session-credentials in the browser’s address bar.
Change the status of the flag to enabled.
Restart Google Chrome.
The security feature is enabled automatically at this point. You can revert the change at any time by changing the status to Default.
If you have installed Adobe Acrobat on Windows devices, you may receive regular notifications to make it the default PDF viewer on the system. This happens only if Adobe Acrobat is not set as the default PDF application on Windows.
Microsoft Edge is the default PDF viewer by default on Windows systems.
The notification reads: “Make Adobe Acrobat your default PDF app. Easily view, comment on PDFs, and more when you select Adobe Acrobat as your default viewer for PDF files.”.
Adobe’s support website has a support page about the prompt, or better, disabling the prompt. Problem is, it explains how this is done for an older version of the notification and only when launching Adobe Acrobat.
The actual Adobe Acrobat prompt has three main controls:
Set as default — which starts the process of making Adobe Acrobat the default PDF viewer on the Windows system.
The x-icon — which closes the notification.
The three-dots-icon — to turn off all notifications for Adobe Acrobat or open the notifications settings of the operating system.
How to disable the Adobe Acrobat prompt
Apart from making Acrobat the default PDF viewer, your best option is to activate the three-dots icon and select turn off all notifications for Adobe Acrobat.
Note that Adobe suggests a different solution on the support page. The main difference is that Adobe’s provides a solution for the message when Adobe Acrobat is started, and not for the Windows notification.
Still, if you want to disable it as well, you may do so in the Windows Registry:
Open the Start menu.
Type regedit.exe and select Registry Editor.
Confirm the UAC prompt that is shown.
Go to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\AVAlert\cCheckbox.
Double-click on iAppDoNotTakePDFOwnershipAtLaunchWin10.
Set its value to 1.
Note: if iAppDoNotTakePDFOwnershipAtLaunchWin10 does not exist, right-click on cCheckbox and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it accordingly and set its value to 1.
Closing Words
You could also remove Adobe Acrobat, if you do not need it. On most systems, it is installed for a purpose though.
When you type in Microsoft Edge, chance is that you may get a Rewrite with Copilot option displayed at times. This option is part of the browser’s writing assistance feature, which is powered by AI.
In essence, it adds Copilot’s creative writing capabilities to text fields in Edge. It works by selecting text in a text field and activating the Rewrite with Copilot option that pops up.
You may also press the shortcut Alt-I after selecting text in Edge to launch Copilot. Edge loads a small Copilot window to display a new version of the selected text.
Note the scrollbar on the right. Depending on the height of the popup window, controls may not be displayed above the fold. You find options to change the tone, format, or length of Copilot’s creation there.
A click or tap on the replace button replaces the selected text with the newly created one.
An active Internet connection is required for the functionality, as the selected text is transmitted to Microsoft servers for processing.
Some Edge users may find this useful, others may have no use for it. Good news is that it can be turned off, if it is not something that you may want to use.
Here is how that is done.
Disable Rewrite with Copilot in Edge
Select Menu > Settings, or load edge://settings/ in the address bar directly.
Switch to the Languages submenu.
Scroll down to Writing Assistance and toggle Use Compose (AI-writing) on the web to off.
The change takes effect immediately. A restart of Microsoft Edge is not required. You can restore the feature by setting the preference to on again.
Closing Words
Rewriting can be a useful feature. It is unclear how many Internet users already use AI to modify or even create texts. Clearly, there is the possibility that the feature is misused. In fact, AI is already used by spammers to create websites and fill these with textual content.
Edge users who do not need the rewriting option can turn it off in the preferences of the browser. The same feature is also accessible directly in Copilot. Many AI tools support rewriting text nowadays, including Google Gemini, DeepL, and Claude AI.
