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.

Google turns Safe Browsing real-time checks on in Chrome

Posted on March 15, 2024March 15, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Announced last year, Google has now enabled real-time Safe Browsing checks in its Chrome web browser.

Safe Browsing is a security component of the Google Chrome web browser. Its main purpose is to warn users about malicious websites or downloads. This includes protections against known phishing websites and malware.

Google Chrome used a local list of known malicious sites by default previously. This list was updated every 30 to 60 minutes by the browser. This meant that there was a short period in which new known threats were not blocked by the browser.

Google calculated that “average malicious” sites exist for less than 10 minutes. In other words, a good portion of malicious sites do not exist anymore when Chrome updates the local Safe Browsing list.

Chrome users could switch the security setting to enhanced to get real-time checks. This new real-time checking of threats is now available in all Safe Browsing modes.

Safe Browsing changes

Google Chrome uses a Safe Browsing list on Google servers now to check any site that is getting opened against it. This improves the protection of users. Google estimates that this should improve the blocking of phishing attempts by 25%.

The change is rolling out to Chrome desktop users already. Android will also get the change “later this month” according to Google.

The option to enable Enhanced Protection is still available. This includes real-time checks as well, but also use of “AI to block attacks, provides deep file scans and offers extra protection from malicious Chrome extensions”.

What about privacy?

Google says that the new real-time nature of Safe Browsing checks is privacy-preserving.

Here is what happens in Chrome when a site is visited (according to Google):

The cache is checked to see if the site is known to be safe already.
If it is not in the cache, Chrome needs to check it against the remote Safe Browsing list.
Chrome starts by obfuscating the URL locally into 32-byte full hashes.
The hash is then truncated into 4-byte long chunks.
These are encrypted by Google Chrome and transferred to a “privacy server”.
The privacy server removes “potential user identifiers” before forwarding the encrypted hash chunks to the Safe Browsing server.
There the data is decrypted and checked against the database.
If a match is found, Chrome shows a warning to the user.

Google entered into a partnership with Fastly to “operate an Oblivious HTTP privacy server” that sits between the Chrome web browser and Safe Browsing.

The main idea behind Oblivious HTTP is to block the receiving server from linking requests to specific clients. Google published a blog post on the Chrome Security blog that offers additional information on the implementation in Chrome and server infrastructure.

Closing Words

Real-time checks should improve protection for users without impacting their privacy. Other browsers who also use Safe Browsing may not be affected by the change if they download Safe Browsing lists instead of using real-time checks.

Those who use Chrome but do not want these real-time checks can turn off Safe Browsing

WingetUI 3.0 Stable is now available

Posted on March 14, 2024March 14, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

A new version of WingetUI, a universal UI for package managers, is now available. WingetUI 3.0 features a fully redesigned interface that the developers promise is more responsive and visually pleasing.

Packages should load faster under in the new version, and the application’s package importing and exporting functionality has also been improved.

You can check out my review of WingetUI to find out more about the software. Only this much: the app gives you access to several popular package managers, including winget, but also others such as Chocolatey. You may use these to install new programs on Windows machines, upgrade installed programs, and also uninstall applications.

These operations work in batch mode or for individual apps.

Note: the application will be renamed to UnigetUI in the future. This is done to reflect that it supports multiple package managers and not just winget.

WingetUI 3.0

The latest version of the open source tool requires .NET 8. Missing components will get installed on Windows machines during installation.

The new interface looks different when compared to the old. The main access points were moved from the top to the sidebar. There you find the options to discover packages, view installed packages and package bundles, check software updates, and more.

Some sections displays filters when opened. When you launch discovery, which you use to find new apps, you get a list of filters to customize the output. These allow you to change the search mode and filter by package manager.

It still takes just a couple of clicks to install one or multiple applications. The assortment of optional actions does not appear to have changed and is still displayed at the top. You may use them to install apps as an administrator or skip integrity checks. These may still look confusing to new users, as only a few have text labels. You may hover over them to get a tooltip though.

One of the best features of winget, and thus also WingetUI, is the ability to upgrade all supported applications at once. WingetUI checks for updates on launch and displays all of them in the update section.

Closing Words

The new version of WingetUI worked well during tests. It had a slight display problem on a laptop that used the recommended 200% scaling. If you check the screenshot, you will notice that the sidebar’s scrollbar overlaps it slightly.

Other than that, it worked well during tests. You may still use winget for all the operations, but this requires running commands from Terminal. Also, you do not get extra access to other package managers and tools.

In closing, WingetUI 3.0 improves the application further without taking anything away from it. You can download the latest version from the project’s GitHub repository.

Mozilla adds new languages to Firefox Translations

Posted on March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser supports native language translations since Firefox 118 in desktop and Android versions of the browser. This feature, called Firefox Translations, supports additional languages now.

One of the main distinguishing factors between Mozilla’s implementation of a translate feature in Firefox and that in other browsers is that Firefox’s runs locally.

Translations happen on the local device. All that is required for that is the downloading of a language pack for each language. Google, Microsoft, and other browser makers use cloud-based translation services. The consequence here is that information is submitted to company servers. Google and Microsoft know about the text that gets translated. Not a problem for some, but if you value privacy, you may prefer Mozilla’s implementation.

Firefox Translations improvements

Firefox Stable supported a good dozen languages up until now. These were Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese.

The Estonian language is added to the list of fully supported languages.

Mozilla added support for additional languages, but these are limited to being translated. In other words, Firefox cannot translate other languages into these languages yet.

The additional languages are Finish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Support for these new languages is added remotely to Firefox, an update of the browser is not required. You should see the languages listed already on about:preferences#general under Translations.

Support for additional languages in development

Mozilla is working on adding support for additional languages to Firefox. Users who run development versions of Firefox gain access to additional languages or capabilities.

The focus is on European languages, with Persian (Farsi) being the exception.

Dev users get full access to Czech and Persian (Farsi). Additionally, support for translating Catalan, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) are also available. Lastly, support for translating languages into Hungarian, Russian, and Ukrainian is also available.

Closing Words

Firefox’s translation feature supports many European languages already. Several are still missing, including Danish, Swedish, and Croatian among others.

Support for non-European languages is lacking severely at this stage. These still require the use of other translation services at the time of writing and the foreseeable future.

Now You: which translation service do you use? (via Sören Hentzschel)

Speedometer 3.0: new browser benchmark released

Posted on March 12, 2024March 12, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Speedometer 3.0 is the latest version of the browser benchmark developed in a joint effort by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla.

Browser benchmarks were a craze for many years on the Internet, but popularity has gone down significantly in the last years.

When Google launched Chrome, it hammered home the fact that the browser was offering better performance with browser benchmarks. It was true at the time and brilliant marketing.

Mozilla, Microsoft, and other browser makers scrambled, but they had huge troubles closing the gap to Chrome.

Today, browser benchmarks are niche again. Developers and organizations may use them, but they play little role for regular Internet users. One reason for that is that browser makers have stopped using them for marketing for the most part. And the reason for that is that the gap is not as large anymore as it was 15 years ago.

Speedometer 3.0

Speedometer 3.0 is a browser benchmark by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla. Visit the benchmark’s website in any browser and hit the “start test” button to run it.

The benchmark runs automatically from that point on. It make take a minute or two to complete the test and a score is displayed in the end. This score depends largely on the performance of the device and the browser that you use.

Speedometer 3.0 replaces the second version of the benchmark. Apple and Google collaborated in 2018 to release it to the public.

The new iteration improves “how Speedometer captures and calculates scores” and it comes with “an even wider variety of workloads”. In essence, the developers of Speedometer have updated the workloads used to test the performance of the browser to take into account changes in the last six years on the Internet.

This means that a different set of frameworks is used in the tests. New browser and JavaScript APIs are tested, and more complex computations are run as well.

You may check out Google’s post on its Chromium blog for the company’s take on the changes. Microsoft published its take on the benchmark update here.

Closing Words

Most web browsers share a common core. This is true for all Chromium-based browsers. Performance, therefore, is nearly identical when it comes to the likes of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, or Opera. Mozilla with its Firefox web browser and Apple with its Safari browser use different engines, and results may differ more on the same machine because of that.

Unlike computer benchmarks, which may show tweaking potential, browser benchmarks come with little optimization potential. Apart from installing the latest drivers on the machine, there is little one can do to improve the performance of a browser to get better scores in benchmarks.

With that said, it is still interesting to see how your browser or system performs.

Now You: do you use benchmarks?

About YouTube’s Try searching to get started message

Posted on March 11, 2024March 11, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

More and more YouTube users see the “Try searching to get started” message when they open the YouTube website. Usually, YouTube displays a list of recommended videos when users launch the site. What is displayed there depends on whether you are signed-in or not.

If you are signed-in, you see recommendations based on past searches, played videos, and also subscriptions. Users who are not signed-in see general recommendations instead.

It appears that Google is changing the YouTube experience for anonymous users. These see the aforementioned message when they load YouTube in a web browser.

In other words, YouTube suggests not a single video for users who are not signed in to the site.

While YouTube suggests to search for videos to help it generate a feed of recommended videos, it does not appear to work that way at the time of writing.

Even if you run searches and play videos, YouTube continues to show the message on its frontpage.

Some users may also see “Your YouTube history is off” instead, even though they are signed out.

A click on the update setting button opens the personalization settings & cookie page on YouTube. While it is possible to enable the YouTube history there, even if you are not signed in, it does not seem to have an effect.

YouTube displays the try searching to get started message after confirmation on the page.

The meaning of “Try searching to get started”

Google published no confirmation of the change at this point. It is clear that logged out users are affected by this.

It is another option to stop binging so much on YouTube, but not that helpful for users who want to see recommendations.

Google is already being criticized on Twitter, Reddit, and other sites for the change. The main point of criticism is that it appears that Google is pushing users to signing in to continue getting video recommendations.

Recommendations are also not shown in private browsing windows. It is unclear if this is an error on YouTube’s part or a deliberate rollout of the feature.

Since the proposed action, “searching”, does nothing at the time, it looks more like an error. Still, it is possible that this is the new default for users who are not signed-in to the site.

Closing Words

There is a good chance that logged out YouTube users will watch less content on the site. The constant barrage of recommendations stops, which leaves manual searches and related videos as the only option of exploration.

Google will likely post an official statement at one point. For now, it looks like a half-baked implementation of the change.

ShareX 16 launches with screen capturing and recording improvements

Posted on March 10, 2024March 10, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

ShareX 16.0.0 was released this week. The latest version of the open source screen capturing, recording, and sharing program for comes with a huge list of changes and improvements.

ShareX is a popular option when it comes to recording or capturing the screen on Windows. It supports a ton of capturing methods, from fullscreen and region to scrolling captures and even automated captures.

The application’s post-capturing options are equally impressive. These include options to edit images locally, use OCR for text detection, and upload the captures to the Internet. ShareX is a power-users tool.

Note: the release is already available on GitHub, but not on the official website.

ShareX 16.0.0

The latest version of ShareX comes with a long list of changes. Notable is that the developers have rewritten the application’s scrolling capture mode from scratch to improve it.

This allows users to capture an entire website or application, and not just the visible part.

The improved capturing mode has an entirely new algorithm that provides better detection and combining accuracy. It has a fallback option to the old algorithm if it fails. Some options were removed and the new algorithm tries to automate the process as much as possible to make things simpler and easier to use.

The entire process of combining images should perform better on user systems as well.

Scrolling capture has a few new options as well. It is now possible to delay the start, set the scroll delay and amount, and use automatic uploading or saving.

The new feature works well with Windows 11’s new super resolution feature.

Other changes in the release

Here is a list of other changes in the release:

Video editor improvements — added AV1, NVENC H.264 & HEVC, QuickSync H.264 & HEVC, and AMF H.264 & HEVC encoders. There is a new “use bitrate” option to set a custom bitrate and to skip using the audio encoder for the files GIF, WEBP, PNG, or APNG.
Image editor — supports “proper” undo and redo now. Also new is a “load image from URL” button and the keyboard shortcut CTRL-C is now used to copy the image to the Clipboard.
Image beautifier — New tool to apply image effects to captures. This includes shadows, padding and margin, or making changes to the background.
Image effects — added several image effects to various sections, e.g., auto resize option to Shadow effects.
OCR — improved upscaling of images before applying OCR.

Closing Words

ShareX is an excellent image capturing and recording tool. The new version improves the program in several key areas. While I still prefer PicPick, ShareX is clearly an excellent tool when it comes to recording or capturing screens on Windows devices.

Now You: which screen capturing software, if any, do you use?

Exclusive: Mozilla CEO confirms that Tab Groups are coming to Firefox

Posted on March 9, 2024March 9, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

More than eight years after Mozilla decided to remove tab groups from Firefox, the organization confirmed today that tab groups will make a comeback.

When Mozilla launched Firefox’s Panorama feature, which introduced tab groups in Firefox years before Google implemented the feature in Chrome, it was ahead of its time.

Tab groups improve tab manageability by allowing users to put multiple tabs into groups in the tab bar. These groups may be collapsed to free up room on the taskbar.

While Mozilla did introduced Tab Groups before Google, it was Google that made them practicable to use.

Current implementations in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers are easy to use. It is an elegant solution. Panorama on the other hand showed tabs of the active group only to the user.

Mozilla announced the end of tab groups in Firefox about nine years ago. The organization cited low usage, a lack of quality, and high maintenance costs.

Mozilla CEO confirms Tab Groups

This month, something remarkable happened. Firefox user Belfox published a letter to Mozilla CEO Laura Chambers. In it, they asked Chambers to consider adding a tab grouping feature to the browser.

Firefox lacks proper tab grouping support. All Chromium-based browsers support it, thanks to the shared codebase. Belfox noted that tab groups was the top requested feature on Mozilla’s Connect website.

Nothing happened for about a week, but then, Chambers replied to the user on the Mozilla Discourse website.

She wrote:

Hello! Thanks for reaching out. I have some good news! I checked in with the team, and they have prioritized the work and have a people assigned to work on it.

In other words; Mozilla’s CEO confirmed that a team is working on tab groups and that it is a development priority.

The response is remarkable. Not because of confirming that tab groups will (likely) come to Firefox. It is remarkable because it is the first time in a very long time that Mozilla’s CEO communicates directly with the community.

Not with a letter or blog post, but in a discussion.

Chambers confirmed that Firefox would become a priority at Mozilla again after taking over the reigns from Mitchell Baker. It seems that she is making good on the promise.

This direct interaction with the Firefox base could help bring management, developers, and users closer together again. It gives hopes to a community, of which no small part felt neglected in recent years.

Closing Words

Firefox is getting tab grouping support, which is good news for users of the browser. The CEO partaking in discussions about the browser and responding to user requests is even bigger than that.

Chambers remains CEO for a limited time only. A successor has not been found yet and it remains to be seen if the future Mozilla captain will follow her lead.

Mozilla is also working on bringing tab previews to Firefox.

Now You: do you use tab groups?

Under New Management: Chrome extension checks if extension owner has changed

Posted on March 7, 2024March 7, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Under New Management is a new extension for Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers. Its main purpose is to notify users when the owner of installed extensions changes.

Here is why that is important: an entire ecosystem of companies exist that buy extensions to, usually, exploit the userbase and extract as much money as possible from it.

Popular extensions may sell for five or even six figures. This is mostly based on the userbase, but factors such as the rating, comments, or track record play a role as well.

When an extension gets sold, the new owners may implement money making functions. These cross borders often, for instance, by tracking users and selling data, or by changing ads on the screen or affiliate links.

The main problem for users is that ownership changes are not announced by the browser. It would be simple, but no browser does that at the moment.

Under New Management

Under New Management adds checks and notifications to Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers.

The developer describes how the extension works on its GitHub repository site:

Intermittenty checks your installed extensions to see if the developer information listed on the Chrome Web Store has changed. If anything is different, the extension icon will display a red badge, alerting you to the change.

The extension checks the Chrome Web Store for changes and warns users if it detects any.

It checks the following parameters:

Developer name
Developer website
Extension name
Offered by name
Developer email
Extension ID

If any of these change, it will notify you about it. All it takes is to install the extension in a Chromium-based browser.

Note: there is a chance that an extension may get sold but that the information is not changed.

Blocking automatic extension updates in Google Chrome

Another option that you have is to block automatic extension updates. Google Chrome and most Chromium-based browsers do not offer any Setting in this regard, however.

The idea here is to verify extension updates before allowing them.

As a side note, Mozilla Firefox does. Load about:addons in the browser’s address bar, activate the settings icon on the page and uncheck “pdate Add-ons Automatically” with a click on the entry.

Extensions won’t auto-update from that moment up, but you may still update them.

The only option for Chrome and most Chromium-based browsers is a bit complicated. It requires that you enable Developer Mode in the browser and load the extension in its unpacked state. Note that I have not tried this extensively.

Unpacked extensions do not get updated automatically, as they are loaded from the local system. It gives you control, but it means that you have to update these extensions manually each time.

Now You: how many and which extensions do you use?

Windows 11’s AI Explorer could be a useful tool and a privacy nightmare

Posted on March 6, 2024March 6, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

We do not know much about Windows AI PCs, AI Explorer, or other plans of Microsoft to bake more AI into its operating system.

The only thing we do know is that the upcoming feature update for Windows 11 will focus strongly on AI. At least some of these AI features may require special hardware, a neural processing unit to be precise.

The latest feature that may be introduced in Windows 11 2024 Update, also known as Windows 11 version 24H2, is AI Explorer.

Windows Central posted about AI Explorer citing unnamed sources at Microsoft. According to the site, AI Explorer is an “advanced Copilot” feature that separates AI PCs from non-AI PCs.

The feature tracks what a user does on the PC, everywhere, including in third-party apps, and makes all of this searchable using natural language.

One example: you could ask the AI to find all restaurants that a specific person liked. It will then go ahead and try to retrieve the information using the data that it collected in the past.

You could also ask the AI to return everything about dinosaurs, and it will return text, images, websites and pretty much anything else that matches the query.

That is the theory at least.

Privacy nightmare in the making?

This feature is unconfirmed. Windows Central is usually well informed, but things may change before an official release.

Microsoft declined to comment, which also means that we know little about the feature. How is the data collected? Do users get options to block data collecting in apps? Where it is stored? Does it require an active Internet connection? Is data submitted to Microsoft?

AI Explorer could be an interesting feature if everything is processed and stored locally. It could also be a privacy nightmare, if data is processed and/or stored remotely.

Would you trust a company with access to everything that you do on your computer?

The NPU requirement could mean that everything is handled locally on the system. If true, it could fizzle out the privacy fears of many users. Who knows, Microsoft might even turn Windows Copilot into a useful tool by enabling local processing of Windows-specific tasks and commands.

Not so fast

These AI features will be introduced in development builds before the final release. The integration will provide answers to some of the questions.

Microsoft is extremely tight lipped about its vision for AI PCs. First Surface devices that are AI PCs will become available later this month. These won’t include the functionality yet, as this will come later this year in the 2024 update for Windows 11.

In other words, you get an AI PC that works similarly to non-AI PCs for the time being.

Now You: what is your take on AI Explorer?

Microsoft announces retirement of Windows Subsystem for Android

Posted on March 5, 2024March 5, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft announced the retirement of the Windows Subsystem for Android today. The subsystem was heralded as one of Windows 11’s upcoming features prior to the launch of the operating system more than 3 years ago.

The store allowed developers and users to run certain Android applications directly on Windows 11 machines. Microsoft partnered with Amazon to bring the Amazon Appstore to Windows 11. This limited availability of apps on Windows 11, as Google Play was not supported.

The announcement on the official Windows Subsystem for Android website offers the following information on the retirement.

Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android™️ (WSA). As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025.

Microsoft ends support for the Amazon Appstore and all apps and games that depend on the Windows Subsystem for Android on March 5, 2025. Windows 11 users who installed Android apps or games on their devices will have continued access to these through March 5, 2025.

Installations of the Amazon Appstore are still available at the time of writing. Microsoft Store will prevent installations starting March 6, 2024.

Microsoft offers no reason for the deprecation of the feature. Windows Subsystem for Android was available in a few dozen countries only including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan. The feature had specific system requirements on top of that: a 64-bit processor, virtualization support, 16 GB of RAM and a Solid State Drive. The last two requirements were recommended but not enforced.

The deprecation of the entire Windows Subsystem for Android puts an end to any Microsoft Store application that used it to install Android apps on the Windows device.

The last update of the Windows Subsystem for Android was released less than a year ago. It introduced file sharing capabilities between the subsystem and the Windows 11 host machine.

Alternatives to the Amazon AppStore

One alternative that continues to work for developers and users is BlueStack. It is a third-party solution that focuses on bringing Android games to PC. BlueStack claims that it offers more than 2 million Android games to PC players.

Google launched Google Play Games recently to bring a selection of Android games to PC. The software is still in beta at the time of writing and limits games to a fraction of what is available on Google Play.