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.
Windows 11 Snipping Tool Bing

Windows 11 Snipping Tool is getting Bing search option

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The Windows Snipping Tool is a good screenshot tool that covers a lot of use cases already. While third-party screenshot tools, including PicPick or ShareX, are usually better, the Snipping Tool is sufficient for many Windows users.

Microsoft is testing a new feature integration in the Snipping Tool currently. It integrates Bing into the tool. More precisely, it adds an option to run a visual search for content displayed by the Snipping Tool.

To use it, you select Menu > Visual Search with Bing. This opens the Bing search results for the displayed content.

You can give it a try right away. Just visit Bing Images and select the “search using an image” option on the webpage.

Here, you may upload an image or select one of the sample images displayed by Visual Search.

The feature identifies objects and people. Multiple identified objects are selectable and the search results reflect the selection. It is also possible to highlight a specific part of an image to get related content and information about it.

This is the latest in a series of new features that Microsoft baked into the Snipping Tool. Recent additions include support for text recognition among other features.

Visual Search using Copilot

Windows Copilot may display information about the active image on the Windows system. You can upload any image to Copilot or allow Copilot to access Clipboard images.

You’d have to copy the image to the clipboard first, which many screenshot tools support.

The information that Copilot provides is limited, however, and it is not visual, but text-based.

Closing Words

Microsoft continues to integrate Bing, Copilot and AI into Windows and applications. The upcoming feature update for Windows 11 heralds the beginning of AI PCs, at least according to Microsoft.

Snipping Tool users who do not need the feature can safely ignore it. It can be useful to some Snipping Tools users, but a feature like it may work better on mobile devices.

What about you? Which screenshot tool do you prefer?

Did Microsoft recant plan to introduce Windows Start menu ads?

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Back in April 2024, Microsoft changed the description of a Windows Start menu preference in an Insider build. It changed it from “show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more” to “Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, ads, and more”.

The addition of three letters — ads — seemed to confirm Microsoft’s path of turning Windows into an advertising vessel.

Current Windows versions may show ads — Microsoft likes to call them promotions, recommendations, and tips — in various places already.

  • Copilot — may return ads as part of its answers.
  • File Explorer — may show notifications to use OneDrive for backup.
  • Lock screen — may show ads when Windows Spotlight is enabled to show wallpapers.
  • Notifications — may display suggestions and tips. These may also include promotions.
  • Search — Windows 11 Search supports web results by default, which may be displayed as suggestions.
  • Settings Home — displays Microsoft 365 and/or Game Pass subscription information and options.
  • Start Menu — may show ads for apps under recommended.
  • Start Menu — account profile icon may show a warning, if not signed-in with a Microsoft account, to sync data to OneDrive.
  • Widgets — shows curated content from the Web, by default from MSN and other Microsoft services.

Did you know? There is a small tool to do away with most ads in Windows 11 (or a Reg file, if you prefer that).

With build 26212 comes the reversal

The release of build 26212 for Windows 11 changes the description again. This time, it reads: “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more”.

The word ads is gone, and so is the word shortcuts. The term new apps has been replaced with app promotions. The latter indicates that Microsoft continues to hold on to the idea of promoting Microsoft Store apps in the Start Menu.

Ads on the other hand, appear off the table for now. Since this is a development build, there is still the chance that Microsoft is making changes to the description and functionality in the future.

Microsoft never revealed how ads would look like in the Start menu. Maybe it had plans to integrate them into the new Windows 11 Start menu sidebar feature that it started testing recently.

Closing Words

The reversal is a win for the Windows community, but it is likely not the last battle that needs to be fought in regards to ads in Windows.

Should Microsoft stop pushing ads in Windows 11?

Chrome 124 0-day security update

Google fixes Chrome security issue that is exploited in the wild

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Just days after the weekly Google Chrome security update comes another security update for the web browser. This one unscheduled, as it fixes a 0-day security issue in Google Chrome that is exploited in the wild.

Google Chrome users should update the browser immediately to protect the browser and their data. Here is how that is done:

  • Open Google Chrome on a desktop system.
  • Select Menu > Help > About Google Chrome.

The browser displays the current version and runs a check for updates. It should pick up the security update and install it automatically.

Windows users may also launch a command prompt window and run winget upgrade Google.Chrome.EXE to update the browser to the latest version.

One of the following versions should be displayed by Chrome after installation of the update:

  • Chrome for Windows or Mac: 124.0.6367.201 or 124.0.6367.202
  • Chrome for Linux: 124.0.6367.201
  • Chrome Extended for Windows or Mac: 124.0.6367.201

The Chrome 0-day security issue: what we know

Google reveals little about the security issue on the official Chrome Releases website.

[N/A][339266700] High CVE-2024-4671: Use after free in Visuals. Reported by Anonymous on 2024-05-07

Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4671 exists in the wild.

The security issue is rated high and it is a use after free in Visuals. It was reported to Google on May 7, 2024, which means that it could have been exploited at least since that date. It is unclear how this issue can be exploited.

Other Chromium-based web browsers are also affected by the issue. This means that browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, or Opera are all vulnerable until an update is released.

Expect updates for these browsers in the coming hours and days.

Chrome on Android does not seem to be affected by the issue, as Google has not published an update for the browser or made an announcement on the releases blog regarding the platform.

When do you update browsers?

Driver

How to disable driver updates via Windows Update

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft’s Windows operating system may use Windows Updates to install driver updates. One of the main purposes of the feature is to ensure that recent drivers are installed for all components.

While that sounds good on paper, it has led to issues in the past: from releasing older drivers to the installation of extra tools, including those with Telemetry.

Windows administrators who want full control of driver installations may disable automatic driver updates.

Downsides

Drivers won’t be updated automatically anymore on the system as a consequence. This means that it is up to the administrator to find, download, and install new device drivers.

Drivers may introduce improvements, such as better power management, new features, bug fixes, or improved performance. They may also introduce undesirable changes, such as telemetry.

Disabling automatic driver updates in Windows using the Group Policy Editor

Do not include drivers with Windows Update

Note: the Group Policy Editor is not available in the Home edition of Windows. Home edition administrators need to modify the Registry instead to make the change directly there. See the next chapter on how to do that.

  1. Open the Start Menu.
  2. Type gpedit.msc and press the Enter-key to launch the Group Policy Editor.
    • Windows 10: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Tools > Windows Components > Windows Updates.
    • Windows 11: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Tools > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Updates.
  3. Double-click on Do not include drivers with Windows Updates.
  4. Change the status of the policy to Enabled.
  5. Restart the system.

Windows won’t download and install drivers anymore via Windows Update after the restart.

Block automatic Windows driver updates via the Registry

Block driver updates via Windows Update

The method below adds the same restriction to the Windows system. It works on any edition, including Home.

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key to launch the Registry Editor.
  3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
    • Note: if a key does not exist, e.g. WindowsUpdate, right-click on the previous value, and select New > Key. Name it accordingly and proceed.
  4. Right-click on WindowsUpdate and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
  5. Name it ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate.
  6. Double-click on the new value and set it to 1.
  7. Close the Registry Editor.
  8. Restart the system.

Closing Words

It is up to the individual user to keep automatic driver updates enabled via Windows Update or disable them. Usually, it is better to download and install drivers manually, but that requires regular checks or the use of third-party driver checkers.

Inexperienced users may want to keep the default setting, even though that may mean getting unwanted extras during driver updates.

What about you? Do you install drivers manually or let Windows do the lifting?

Amazon Prime Video Ad Free

Expect more Prime Video ads soon, including ads when you press pause

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Amazon is reportedly integrating three new ad formats into Prime Video that advertisers may run. Among them video pause ads, something that Google has also been experimenting with on YouTube.

Prime Video used to be advertisement free. This changed in early 2024 when Amazon launched ads for all Prime customers on its platform. Customers who do not want to experience ads while watching videos can pay Amazon extra, about $3 per month, to get rid of most ads.

Amazon’s integration of ads on Prime Video differed from that of its competitors. Netflix, Disney+, and most streaming services that integrated ads on their platforms have done so using extra plans.

Netflix customers, for example, can subscribe for $6.99 in the United States to access content with advertisement. The companies did not add ads to existing plans, however.

Amazon’s new ad formats

Amazon pushed ads to all existing subscribers. Soon, those who did not cancel their subscriptions or pay extra, may experience additional ad formats on the platform.

All three are displayed either when the viewer pauses playback or during commercial breaks.

The first displays advertisement when a user pauses video playback. Translucent graphics are displayed on the screen that display text and images, and also contain options to add items to the Amazon cart or to learn more.

Amazon calls the second new ad format trivia ads. These display information about a brand to the viewer, again with options to shop products or learn more about a product. Variety reports that this format may also be linked to rewards, which customers may get when they complete purchases.

The final ad format offers a carousel type of display. Advertisers may show multiple items to the viewer. These can be explored on Amazon’s site and also purchased.

Closing Words

Streaming video started out as an alternative to cable tv. In recent time, it is turning more into the products that it set out to replace. Ads and regular price jumps are just two changes that affect millions of subscribers around the world.

You may want to check out how you, as a customer, could react to this changing landscape.

What about you? Do you subscribe to streaming services?

Mozilla is adding better profile management to Firefox

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla is working on improving the profile management capabilities of its Firefox web browser. While Firefox has supported profiles for a long time, managing and switching between profiles has not been exactly user friendly.

Currently, Firefox users have two main options to manage profiles. The first is accessible by loading about:profiles in the Firefox address bar.

This opens a page that lists all available profiles, contains options to create a new profile, launch a profile in a new browser instance, or switch the default profile of Firefox.

You may alternatively start Firefox with the parameter -p or -profilemanager to launch the profile manager on startup.

Profiles: profiles are entirely separate in Firefox. This means that no personal data is shared between them. This includes bookmarks, passwords, installed extensions, preferences, and customziations.

The new Firefox profile manager

The new profile manager that Mozilla is working on integrates into the Firefox main menu. A click on the menu icon displays the name of the default profile near the top.

A click on the icon displays all available profiles and management options. The menu lists the following options currently:

  • Rename the current profile.
  • Delete the current profile.
  • Launch one of the other profiles.
  • Create a new Firefox profile.
  • Manage all Firefox profiles.

The new profile manager is a work in progress. Mozilla plans to launch it in 2024 and some of it is available in Firefox Nightly already.

For that, it is necessary to do the following:

  1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
  2. Proceed if you see a warning screen.
  3. Search for browser.profiles.enabled.
  4. Toggle the value of the preference to true with a click on the button on its right.
  5. Restart the Firefox web browser.

Closing Words

Better profile management is a welcome addition to Firefox. Long-time users of Firefox know about profiles, but this has not been highlighted to new users in a long time. Most Firefox users are probably unaware of the browser’s profile support.

Adding support to the main menu could change that for the better. You can keep taps on the development on Bugzilla.

What about you? Do you work with different user profiles?

Windows 11 File Explorer is getting duplicate tab feature

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft is working on bringing a duplicate tab feature to the File Explorer of its Windows 11 operating system.

The company rolled out tabs support in Windows 11’s File Explorer in 2022. The initial implementation lacked several features. Notably, support for dragging tabs and reopening closed ones was missing.

Updates introduced some of these features. You can now drag and drop tabs around to create new File Explorer instances or merge instances.

Soon, you will also be able to duplicate an open tab.

Windows 11 File Explorer: duplicate tab

Microsoft announced the option some time ago. It is now available in Beta insider builds of Windows 11.

To use it, all you have to do is right-click on any open tab and select the new duplicate tab option. This spawns a new tab in the same File Explorer instance that displays the same path as the source tab.

Microsoft writes:

We’re rolling out the ability to duplicate a tab by right-clicking on a tab in File Explorer.

When is this landing in stable? Microsoft does not say. A likely candidate is the Windows 22 2024 Update, which is expected in September / October of 2024.

Workaround to duplicate tabs

Here is a quick workaround to duplicate tabs right now. It has flaws and it is not as quick, but it should work in many cases.

The one requirement is that the source tab should have at least one folder listing.

  1. Middle-click on the folder in the source tab. This opens the selected folder in a new tab in File Expxlorer.
  2. Use the path to navigate back to the source folder by clicking on its name.

Closing Words

Duplicating tabs is just a small feature, but some Windows 11 users will certainly find it handy. I have to admit that I do not use tabs at all. I prefer to use two File Explorer instances whenever I need access to multiple folders, e.g., for copying files.

What about you? Do you use File Explorer tabs or use a third-party file manager with tabs support?

bounce

Mozilla is testing Bounce Tracking Protection in Firefox

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser could soon block sites and services from bounce tracking Firefox users to improve privacy.

Bounce tracking is a widely used form of tracking that redirects requests. This form of tracking happens in the background, which means that users are usually not aware of it.

Here is an example. A click on Link A should lead to Destination B. With bounce tracking, Bounce C is added, so that the request goes through Bounce C before it reaches the destination.

  • Without: Link A > Destination B
  • With: Link A > Bounce C > Destination B

There can be multiple bounces. With a bounce server involved in the loading process, users can be identified by the operators of the bounce server.

The W3C Community Group Draft report defines Bounce Tracking in the following way:

Bounce tracking refers to the use of redirects in a top-level context (including HTTP 3xx statuses, meta elements with http-equiv=refresh attributes, and script-directed navigation that doesn’t wait for user input) along with link decoration to join user identities between sites.

Bounce Tracking Protection in Firefox

Mozilla is testing the new privacy feature in Firefox Nightly currently. It runs in dry-run mode currently, which means that it is not blocking, but only reporting.

The data that is collected during the dry run helps Mozilla test and optimize the feature.

It will be enabled fully in Firefox Nightly before it lands in Firefox Stable eventually.

Not the first browser to implement the privacy feature

Mozilla is not the first web browser developer that is adding bounce tracking protection to a browser.

Brave Software introduced the feature back in October 2021 in Brave Nightly. It is now available in Brave Stable and was improved in 2022 with a feature that Brave Software called Unlinkable Bouncing.

This feature reduces the effectiveness of bounce tracking further through the use of temporary DOM storage.

Google’s Chrome browser supports bounce tracking mitigations as well, but only if third-party cookies are blocked in the browser according to this webpage.

Closing Words

Mozilla may be a little bit late to the party, but this is still a welcome privacy addition to Firefox. There is no ETA yet for the integration in Firefox Stable. Provided that tests are successful, it is likely that the feature lands in Firefox later this year.

With the new interim CEO in charge, Mozilla has launched several user-friendly features in Firefox or is working on integrating them.

Have you tried Firefox recently?

This small tool tames ads in Windows 11

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

With ads starting to appear in numerous places in Windows 11, users are trying to find ways to stop these on their devices.

Microsoft does not call these integrations ads most of the time. The company prefers terms such as promotions, experiences, or tips instead.

Recent integrations include ads for apps in the Start menu, advertisement on the Settings homepage, ads for Microsoft services like OneDrive in various sections, including when clicking on the profile icon in the Start menu or Explorer.

Users face several issues when it comes to these changes:

  • Only some of the features can be disabled on non-managed devices.
  • Settings are all over the place to make the changes.

OFGB (Oh Frick Go Back) — disable ads on Windows 11

The open source tool OFGB is a relatively new program for Windows 11 to disable ads and experiences.

The program has an easy to use interface. It displays the available options, most checked and applied automatically when it is run.

Here is the list of available preferences:

  • Disable File Explorer Ads
  • Disable Lock Screen Tips and Ads
  • Disable Settings Ads
  • Disable General Tips and Ads
  • Disable “Welcome Experience” Ads
  • Disable Personalized Ads
  • Disable “Tailored Experiences”
  • Disable Start Menu Ads.

Note: it may be necessary to run the application with elevated rights, especially if you sign in with a regular account and not an administrator account.

Second note: the program requires the .NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime, which you can download here.

Closing words

The program is for users who prefer graphical user interfaces over Registry files. It is trivial to create a Registry file that makes the same changes. If you are interested, let me know and I will create it.

The program’s UI is bare bones. It has no apply or reset option, which the developer should consider adding to improve its user friendliness.

All in all though, it offers a quick option to disable ads on Windows 11 devices.

Now it is necessary to keep up with the changes that Microsoft introduces to release updates that reflect these changes. You can check out Winaero Tweaker as well, which offers similar tweaks and many more.

What is your take on ads in operating systems? Do you use tools or programs to disable them?

How to disable the HP Insights Analytics Service on Windows

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

HP Insights Analytics Service is a service that runs on many HP devices by default. It may run, even if you install Windows 10 or 11 from scratch. It is usually an effective way of reducing bloat that manufacturers of PCs like to add to their devices.

A quick check of the Windows Task Manager returns several HP processes. Among them is HP Insights Analytics Service. The service’s actual name is HP Touchpoint Analytics Service.

It is set to run automatically on Windows start and is set up to collect and submit Telemetry data to HP.

HP says that it is using the data to improve its products and services. It may also use the data to troubleshoot issues that users experience, and to give personalized recommendations.

It is recommended to keep this enabled if you are communicating or may communicate with HP support.

Find out if HP Insights Analytics Service is running

HP Insights Analytics Service
  • Press the keys Ctrl-Shift-Esc simultaneously to open the Windows Task Manager.
  • The service is listed as one of the processes.
  • You may also switch to Details on Windows 11 devices to check if TouchpointAnalyticsClientService.exe is running.

The directory of the process is C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hpanalyticscomp.inf_amd64_b76d40fc96db3872\x64

How to disable the service on Windows

Disable HP Insights Analytics Service

You can disable the process on your Windows device in the Services Manager. Here is how that is done:

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Type Services.msc.
  3. Run the Services result.
  4. Scroll down to the letter H in the management window.
  5. Double-click on HP Insights Analytics.
  6. Activate the stop button to stop the process from running.
  7. Switch the startup type to disabled.
  8. Restart the PC.

Note: the stop option kills the process on the running machine. You can verify this in the Task Manager of the operating system.

Closing Words

There is a chance that the service is going to get enabled again. This may happen after updates or when other HP software runs.

Do you check Services or Processes regularly to make sure that no unwanted programs run on your devices?