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.

How to enable Flash support in Firefox

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

Flash? Is not that the technology that had so many security holes that it had to be put down? Yes and now. Flash was undoubtedly highly problematic from a security point of view. It was, however, also a technology that was widely used to create incredible applications and games.

Flash is dead and there is no option to install Flash anymore in modern web browsers. The technology lives on, however. Ruffle is an open source project that emulates Flash in modern browsers and on websites.

There are two main options here: websites may integrate Ruffle for Flash emulation so that games and apps may be played. The other option integrates Ruffle into browsers so that Flash content may be played even if the site has no Ruffle implementation.

Firefox is in an excellent position, as it supports desktop and mobile extensions. This means, that you may install Flash in Firefox for the desktop and for Android to regain Flash support. Ruffle is also available for Chromium-based browsers, but all major ones limit extensions to their desktop versions.

Microsoft is testing extensions support in Edge for Android, but it is not there yet.

Installing Ruffle in Firefox

It is not difficult to install the extension in Firefox. Just visit the official Ruffle website in Firefox and activate the “add to Firefox” option on the page to install the extension. Ruffle displays the permissions that it requires — access your data for all websites — and an add button to commence the installation.

Once installed, Ruffle will load Flash content encountered in the browser. If the site uses a Ruffle implementation it will upgrade it to the latest version, if that is not already used. If the site does not emulate Flash at all, Ruffle will load the Flash content so that it can be accessed. In other words, the Ruffle extension may also prove useful if the site uses Ruffle to provide access to Flash content.

Note: Ruffle is still a work in progress. Some games or apps may not work properly or at all because of that.

Using Ruffle to play Flash games

Once Ruffle is installed, Flash games should load automatically. This is regardless of whether the website the game is hosted on supports Ruffle or not.

Apart from certain games or apps that won’t work properly, Ruffle’s extension is also not capable of loading local Flash games in the browser.

Other than that, it is smooth sailing from this moment on. Finding Flash games and apps on the Internet is probably the hardest part at this point. Most gaming sites that supported Flash games in the past have installed Ruffle by now. The extension may still be useful on some of these sites, as it may load a newer Ruffle version that promises better compatibility and other benefits.

Firefox for Android loads Flash games and apps just like the desktop version once Ruffle is installed. It may be difficult to play them in the browser, at least on smaller screens, as the resolution may be tiny because of missing optimizations.

Alternatives

A few projects offer access to thousands of Flash games and apps. Popular ones are the Flash Games preservation project, Flashpoint, which had a size of more than 30 gigabytes back in 2018 already. It has grown to a size of 1.4 terabytes since then.

The archive has preserved more than 170,000 games and animations according to information on its website. Good news is that you do not need to download the entire archive but a smaller distribution. Games and components are then loaded on demand.

Another project is the Flash Game Archive. It is still maintained up to this point and includes a searchable directory of games on its website.

Closing words

Ruffle is an interesting option if you want to play Flash games or apps in your browser. While it does not work for all games yet, it is a valid option. Many Flash game websites have withered away since the end of Flash, others have moved on to support JavaScript games only.

Now You: have you played games online recently?

Does it work? Trick promises to speed up folder opening in Windows’ File Explorer

Posted on March 4, 2024March 4, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

We have probably all been there. The gigantic folder full of — insert a data type here — is taking ages to display all files that it contains. It does not matter if we are talking about pictures, videos, audio files, documents, or a mix of files.

Sometimes, File Explorer seems to take ages to open large folders on Windows devices. While this is caused by hardware limitations at times, a slow CPU, a tiny amount of RAM, or a slow hard drive may be blamed, it is sometimes Windows that is causing the delay.

Microsoft introduced folder types in earlier versions of Windows. The main idea behind the feature is to display data in specific ways. A folder full of images shows thumbnails of these images, which many users like.

To get there, File Explorer needs to analyze the files. If it finds a dominating type, it may set the folder to that type. Problem is, this analysis is automated and it takes time.

A solution (via Deskmodder) that promises to fix the issue has been making the rounds lately. It blocks this auto discovery from happening basically.

The solution

This solution is not new and it may come as a surprise to some that it is making the rounds again. Then again, these tricks rarely get old, but new generations may not know them at all.

About 14 years ago, I published several articles on the matter. Fix slow folders in Windows 7 recommended changing the folder type to “general items” to avoid any loading issues.

I mentioned the trick that is now making the rounds in the same year. Back in August 2010 I explained how you could enable a single view mode for all folders in Windows Explorer to speed up the loading of files and folders. Windows Explorer is the previous name of File Explorer in case you are wondering.

Registry Editor: set folder type to unspecified — File Explorer Slow Folders tweak

This tweak still works in Windows 11. Here are the steps:

Open the Start Menu, type regedit.exe, and press the Enter-key on the keyboard.
Confirm the prompt by selecting Yes.
Paste the following path into the address field in the Registry Editor window, or go there manually: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell
Check if FolderType exists. If it does not, right-click on Shell and select New > String value. Name it FolderType.
Double-click on FolderType and set its value to NotSpecified.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart the Windows PC.

The effect

The change sets the default folder type for all folders to general. In other words, File Explorer does not need to parse the files in the folder anymore to determine its type. This should speed up the opening of folders.

You may still customize certain folders by changing their folder type.

To answer the question: yes it does work in many cases. While it cannot do anything about hardware-related slowdowns, it will speed up the loading of large folders on Windows.

Several programs are available that help you do that. You may use Nirsoft’s ShellBagsView or the free software WinSetView for that. The latter comes with options to reset the views to their defaults as well.

Closing Words

If you experience issues opening folders on Windows regularly, then you may want to give this tweak a try. It may resolve the issue on your end and there is little drawback to the method.

Now You: did you know about this tweak?

Mozilla adds translations support in Firefox for Android

Posted on March 3, 2024March 3, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla is porting the private translations feature of the desktop version of its Firefox web browser to the Android version. The organization introduced translations support in Firefox 118. A core difference between Mozilla’s implementation and that in other browsers is that Mozilla’s runs locally.

When you use Google Translate or Bing Translate, data is transferred to Google or Microsoft servers. It is processed there and then returned to the browser.

Firefox translates webpages directly on the device. No data is transferred to Mozilla or elsewhere. In other words, Mozilla does not know the text that you want translated nor the site it is published on.

Firefox for Android: first look at translate feature

Translate is only available if Firefox Nightly for Android at the time. Even there, it is not visible right away but needs to be enabled by users.

Here is how that is done:

Select Menu > Settings.
Open About Firefox.
Tap five times on the Mozilla logo on the page until you get the notification that debug is enabled.
Go back to the main Settings page.
Locate the Secret Settings menu.
Toggle “Enable Firefox Translations” to turn the translate feature on.

A new translate icon is now displayed in the address bar when you open a foreign language page.

Tap on the icon to get options to translate the content into another language.

Firefox Translate for Android: the options

The main translate menu lists the source and the target language only. You may change those and hit the translate button to get the page translated immediately.

A tap on the settings icon displays translate options. Here you may enable “always” or “never” translate options. These are:

Always translate a specific language. When enabled, Firefox will translate the language automatically when it encounters it.
Never translate a language. Blocks translate functionality for pages in that specific language.
Never translate this site. Blocks translate functionality on the current site, but not on others.

Firefox uses local language pack for its translates. These need to be downloaded once for each language and this happens automatically when you select the translate option the first time for that language.

You may download all languages immediately in the Firefox settings. Note that this version of the translate feature supports only the four languages English, French, Italian, and German. All language packs have a size of about 28 megabytes.

Closing Words

It is unclear when the translate feature is rolling out in Firefox Stable for Android. It is likely that this is going to happen later in 2024, but Mozilla has not announced its plans yet in this regard.

Since translations happen locally, it is privacy-friendly. There is one downside at the moment: language support.

The desktop version of Firefox supports just a few dozen languages at this point. These will all come to Firefox for Android, but it may take a long time before Firefox’s translate feature supports the majority of languages.

Still, Mozilla is bringing another requested feature to Firefox for Android. This helps close the feature gap between Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. Also worth to note is that Firefox supports features that major Chromium-based browsers do not support. Extensions support is a major one.

While Microsoft is working on bringing extensions support to its Edge for Android browser, it is not there yet.

HP’s new All-In Plan gives you a printer and ink, but it is expensive

Posted on March 2, 2024March 2, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

HP All-In Plan is a new subscription plan from HP. The company’s previous subscription plans focused on printer ink subscriptions. Users could sign-up for a plan to get printer ink delivered to their home before they run out of it.

Called HP Instant Ink and starting at $1.49 per month, it assigned a print quota, measured in pages, to the printer. The cheapest plan is good for 10 pages per month with the option to buy more pages if the need arises.

The most expensive plan, called Business, allows users to print 700 pages for $27.99 per month.

HP improved the plans in recent time. It expanded options to laser printers by introducing Toner Plans. The plan starts at $1.99 for 50 pages of printing per month. The most expensive plan is available for $19.99 per month.

HP added options to add paper subscriptions to the plan recently in the United States.

Now comes the HP All-In Plan, which adds the printer to the subscription.

HP All-In Plan: the facts

HP promises “hassle-free printing with the HP All-In Plan”. Basically, what HP is doing is lending subscribers a printer and providing them with ink based on the selected plan.

HP advertises 24/7 Pro live support and an option to upgrade to another printer model after 2 years.

The cheapest option starts at $6.99 for an HP Envy printer and 20 pages of printing per month. HP does not reveal which HP Envy model users get; it is possible that different models may be provided. The price of a base HP Envy printer is about $70 at the time of writing.

Two additional printer models are available. The HP Envy Inspire printer, that starts at $8.99 per month, and the HP OfficeJet Pro printer, which starts at $12.99 per month.

HP Envy Inspire printers start at about $130 and the HP OfficeJet Pro also at around the same price tag. Some models are sold for more though and it is unclear which models subscribers get.

Note that some page options are only available if a more expensive printer is selected.

The maximum price per month at this time is $35.99. This gets subscribers the HP OfficeJet Pro printer and a quota of 700 pages per month.

There is one caveat: HP wants to bind users for at least 24 months. Subscribers have to pay cancellation fees to get out of plans early. These cost almost as much as the plan for the entire 24 month period.

Here they are:

Printer	After 30 days and up to 12 months	After 12 months and up to 24 months	After 24 months
HP OfficeJet Pro Plan	$270.00	$135.00	$0.00
HP ENVY Inspire Plan	$180.00	$90.00	$0.00
HP ENVY Plan	$120.00	$60.00	$0.00

If you cancel after the 30-day trial period but in the first year, you pay between $120 to $270 to HP to cancel the subscription.

The fee drops to $60 for the HP Envy plan and $135 for the HP OfficeJet Pro plan in the second year. It becomes free only after the first 24 months of subscription.

Is HP’s All-In Plan worth it?

It is simple math for the most part. How much does it cost to buy one of the listed printers and printer ink, and how does it compare to HP’s subscription service?

Buying a cheap HP Envy printer sets you back about $70. It does come with some ink to get you started right away. If you buy HP printer ink, you pay about $40 for a package with black and color ink. If you buy from third-party suppliers, you pay less or get more ink.

This comes at the risk of HP breaking printing though, unless you block driver updates.

The official ink is good for 200 black pages and 165 tri-color pages, which means 365 pages in total.

The cheapest HP All-In Plan gets you 20 pages per month for $6.99

The math for a 2 year period:

Cost of HP subscription plan: 24 x 6.99 per month = $167.76
Cost of buying the printer and ink: $70 + 2 x $40 for the ink cartridges = $150

Note that this does not take into account the ink that is included when you buy the printer nor the money you get when you sell the printer after two years of use.

Things to consider

HP’s offer does not look that bad compared to buying the printer and ink directly on first glance. You can reduce the costs to less than $40 for ink if you buy third-party printer ink cartridges, which increases the attractiveness of buying the printer directly.

Some things need to be considered:

HP All-In Plan allows you to use color printouts, black printouts or mix and match. The company makes no distinction between black and color printouts when it comes to the monthly ratio.
You can get a new printer after 2 years of use. If you buy yourself, you would need to buy another printer, but could potentially sell the old one for a discount.
You pay cancellation fees if you want to cancel the subscription between the second month and 24th month.
HP subscribers get support when they need it. It is unclear how good support is though.
HP subscribers will never run into problems with printer ink drying up and becoming unusable.
Only some unused pages of printing carry over into the next month.
HP monitors printing on the device and may “transfer information about you to advertising partners”. The partners may use the information to identify devices for targeted advertising. The printer needs to be connected to the Internet all the time.

There is a good chance that HP will raise the subscription price in the coming years. It has done so several times for its Instant Ink subscriptions already.

Closing Words

HP claims that its new All-In plan eliminates “the hassle of owning a printer and running out of ink”. What HP forgets to say is that it is usually not a hassle to own a printer, but to use one.

Lack of printer ink or dried up ink play certainly a role, but there are other factors. One of them is HP trying to block customers from using any ink but the company’s.

Subscriptions are often not the best option for consumers. In this case, it means subscribing for two years and paying more than you would if you would buy the printer and ink directly. It may look less of a hassle, as HP is taking care of sending the printer and ink to you, but it comes at the cost of having printing monitored by HP 24/7 and a loss of flexibility.

Now You: what is your take on HP’s All-In plan?

Windows Copilot: file uploads enabled. Painful, but a glimpse of the future

Posted on March 1, 2024March 1, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Windows Copilot supports file uploads now. The functionality extends the AI’s capabilities. Users could only upload images previously.

The new file upload capabilities limit file types that you may upload. Included are many plain text formats and also Microsoft Office document formats.

Uploading works by clicking on the attachment icon in the Copilot interface on Windows. A file browser opens with a filtered list. Only supported file types are listed here.

Select a file and it gets uploaded to Copilot. Note that there is no information on privacy or how the file is used by the AI or Microsoft. Better be careful what you upload.

You may then ask Copilot about the file. It may provide a summary or extract data or information from the file.

First Test: Security Spreadsheet listing February 2024 Microsoft security updates

I uploaded an Excel spreadsheet that listed the February 2024 security updates that Microsoft released.

The task I gave Copilot was simple: return all vulnerabilities with a maximum severity of critical.

The AI did return three vulnerabilities rated critical but missed the other 68 vulnerabilities rated critical. A reminder to check the max severity column resulted in the listing of 8 critical security issues. Better, but it still missed 63 others.

I decided to try another approach. This time I submitted the following command:

Check the max severity column of the Excel spreadsheet. Return product and Details information of each that has the value critical. There are 71 in total. Return all.

This time, Copilot returned 8 again, but stated that there were “many more”. Still not very helpful. I asked it again to return all 71 entries and not just the 8 it returned.

Copilot apologized for the oversight and returned 8 again only.

Second Test: Shipping label PDF document

For the second test, I decided to feed Copilot a PDF document with shipping information.

Any question I asked Copilot was met with a “cannot do, sorry” response. I uploaded a different document to see if it could provide information in that case.

This time, Copilot was able to return the correct information. It also managed to return other information, such as the ID of the shipment, correctly.

Thoughts on the current state regarding file uploads

My experience with Copilot’s file upload feature was mixed. It did well in one of three cases. While that is not enough to judge it based on that performance, it highlights on the one hand how useful AI tools can be, and on the other how far away from “trusting” an AI’s output we are.

This is not even taking into account any privacy reservations that you may have about AI.

Still, file analysis could become a huge tool for computer users and organizations. From returning vital information from spreadsheets to all sorts of post-processing and data linking features.

It is not there yet, though.

Vivaldi 6.6 update introduces massive improvements

Posted on February 29, 2024February 29, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Vivaldi Browser, contender for the world’s most customizable desktop browser, is available as a new version. Vivaldi 6.6 is a major update for the web browser. The update improves web panels, a feature of Vivaldi that allows users to display websites in a sidebar.

A web panel may display websites, e.g., Spotify, YouTube, yours truly Chipp.in, or eBay, next to other sites. One of the main uses for web panels is to control functionality of one site or service while using others.

Other new features include mail search improvements, an interesting new overview of website permissions, and the ability to set a preferred webpage color theme.

Vivaldi 6.6 is available already. Most installations of the web browser should update automatically. Users may also download the latest installer from the official Vivaldi website.

Vivaldi 6.6: web panel improvements

Vivaldi includes a few default web panels that you may launch directly from the sidebar. There is the Wikipedia web panel, for instance, which opens Wikipedia in the sidebar. You may add custom webpages and sites as web panels for easy access.

Existing web panel users may notice the new navigation options for web panels. This makes it easier to navigate back and forward, as the browser’s default navigational items are reserved for its main website view.

The second big change in regards to web panels is that extensions work there now. This means that you may install extensions, e.g. content blockers, media players, or other extensions, and use their features there as well.

Last but not least, extension developers may use the new Side Panel extension API to add “entire new Panels” to the browser.

Central Website Permission Management

Vivaldi, being a Chromium-based web browser, already includes options to manage website permissions. These can be configured globally or individually.

Global permissions apply to all websites except for sites with custom permissions. You could disable JavaScript globally and allow it to run on some sites. Other popular permissions are autoplay of media, sound, location detection, access to the microphone or camera.

Changing custom site permissions is not a straightforward process. You have to open the site in the browser and activate the Shield icon in the address bar and select Site Settings to manage them for the site in question.

This is identical in all Chromium-based browsers. Vivaldi 6.6 introduces a centralized management interface for custom permissions.

Just load vivaldi://settings/privacy/ in the browser’s address bar and scroll down to the Website Permissions section. Note that you may also go there manually by following this path: Settings > Privacy and Security > Website Permissions.

Vivaldi lists all websites with custom permissions. Just select one and you get the option to change permissions for that site right there. Custom permissions are highlighted in color, making it easy to detect them.

Note that there is no option to set permissions for individual sites to their defaults. You may reset all of them to the defaults though using the interface.

Website Color Theme setting

Another new feature in Vivaldi 6.6 is the option to set the default color theme to dark for websites. This is independent of the theme used by the browser or the operating system’s color preference.

Vivaldi 6.6 includes the option “force a dark theme on all websites” to make sure it is used on sites, even on those that do not support dark mode.

You find the options under Settings > Website Appearance, or by loading vivaldi://settings/appearance/ directly in the address bar.

Other changes in Vivaldi 6.6

The new browser version introduces a number of other updates. Here are the most important ones:

Improved the translation quality and performance of Vivaldi’s built-in translation service.
Search in Vivaldi Mail, the browser’s built-in mail client, includes advanced search options now. New filters displayed underneath the search field allow users to narrow down results, e.g., by limiting search results to a specific account or the email subject.
Import and export data from Vivaldi Notes and Reading List now.

Closing Words

Vivaldi 6.6 is a major update for the browser. It introduces several improvements for users of the browser. Notable are the permissions management interface to control custom permissions from a central page, extensions support in web panels, and the new dark mode option for websites. Vivaldi Mail users get improved search options on top of all that.

Now You: have you tried Vivaldi recently?

WinRAR 7.0 Final released: drops RAR 4 archive creation

Posted on February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

The final version of the archiving software WinRAR 7.0 is now available. The developer released four beta versions prior to the release.

WinRAR 7.0 is a major new release that introduces new functionality and changes. One of the main changes improves the use of dictionary sizes.

Support for creating RAR 4.x archives is no longer available. This does not affect the extraction of these formats, as this continues to be supported.

You can download the new version of WinRAR from the developer website. Note that many localized versions are not updated yet to version 7.0.

Follow this link to find out why you should use third-party archive software and not the Windows built-in archive extraction options.

WinRAR 7.0

The official changelog lists all improvements and changes in the new release. The main new feature improves the handling of compression dictionaries. These dictionaries may improve the compression ratio of archives.

Compression dictionary sizes larger than 1 gigabyte may now be set in the application up to a total of 64 gigabytes. The maximum size depends on the available memory of the computer WinRAR runs on.

Note: WinRAR 7.0 archives created with dictionaries larger than 4 gigabytes can only be extracted using the new version of the archiving software. It also needs to be the 64-bit version of WinRAR in this case.

The maximum dictionary size to extract is set to 4 gigabytes by default. The application shows a prompt to the user if an archive exceeds the size. It is then possible to continue with the extraction or cancel it.

This is done to prevent “unexpected excessive memory allocation” according to the changelog.

WinRAR users who want to make use of new custom dictionary sizes may create presets in the options. Here is how this is done:

Open the Settings and switch to the Compression tab.
Click on “Define dictionary sizes”.
Check or uncheck the available sizes.

The selected sizes are shown in the archive name and parameters dialog then for quick selections.

Other changes

The new WinRAR releases includes two new search options. Alternate search algorithm can be enabled when creating archives. The feature may improve the compression ratio and “sometimes” speed for “redundant data”. Downside is that it does increase memory usage and may reduce the compression speed for some types of data. The algorithm is required for dictionaries larger than 4 gigabytes.

There is also a new Exhaustive search option. This option is “much slower” according to the changelog. It is turned off by default and may improve the compression ratio further at the expense of a “much lower compression speed”.

WinRAR 7.0 comes with additional improvements. The new version supports a maximum path length of 65535 characters now. Previous versions have a path limit of 2047 characters.

There is also a new propagate mark of the web option in Settings > Security. Propagating may be prevented or enabled for certain file types only. It is interesting to note that this option is only available in the graphical user interface version. The command line version of WinRAR never propagates mark of the web.

In case you are wondering, mark of the web may prevent the opening of certain files on the system by default.

Here is a quick list of other changes:

New option to show an Attributes column. Enable it under Settings > File List > Columns.
The benchmark command supports specifying the number of threads now.
New option “remove redundant folders from extraction path” under Settings > Paths. This may remove folders, e.g., a pictures folder when the extraction path is a Pictures folder already.
New Word Wrap option for comments.
Dictionary size now also available for .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zst archives.
Search results support keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl-A to select all files.

Closing Words

WinRAR 7.0 improves the popular archive software further. Power users benefit from new dictionary sizes, which may improve the compression ratio of archives.

Now You: do you use WinRAR or another archive software?

About Microsoft Edge’s Super Drag & Drop feature

Posted on February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Super Drag & Drop is a new experimental feature of the Microsoft Edge browser. The main idea behind the feature is to improve the opening of links and running web searches in Edge.

Once enabled in Edge, it allows you to drag and drop links just a short distance to open them in the browser. Similarly, dragging & dropping text runs a search for the text.

How to enable Super Drag & Drop in Microsoft Edge

Here is how you enable the feature in Microsoft Edge. Note that the feature is integrate in Microsoft Edge 122 or newer. You may check the version by selecting Menu > Help & Feedback > About Microsoft Edge.

Load edge://flags/#edge-super-drag-drop in the address bar of the web browser.
Set the status of the experimental feature to Enabled.
Restart Microsoft Edge.

There is one additional step required to enable the feature in Microsoft Edge:

Load edge://settings/appearance in the Edge browser’s address bar.
Scroll down on the page that opens until you come to the Super Drag and Drop section.
Toggle “Enable Super Drag and Drop” on the page to turn the feature on.

Super Drag & Drop is now enabled in the browser and you may start using it. Note that there is a “Configure Super Drag and Drop” option on the settings page to configure it.

The only two options provided at the moment let you select the open mode and the website block list. Links and searches open in a background tab by default. You can change that to foreground tab in the options.

The block list prevents Super Drag and Drop from functioning on websites that you add to the list.

Using the feature in Edge

Usage of the drag and drop feature is simple. Whenever you encounter a link in Microsoft Edge, you may drag and drop it just a short distance to load it in a new tab in the browser. It is handy especially for users who do not use middle-clicks or Shift-clicks to open links in new tabs.

Current versions of Edge support dropping links onto the browser’s tab bar to open them. This feature reduces the distance the mouse has to travel to open links.

There is no option to launch multiple links that way. This ability reminds me of Snap Links, a browser extension for Firefox and other browsers. It allowed you to draw rectangles around links to open them all at once in the browser.

Anyway, Edge’s feature is limited to dragging and dropping a single link to launch it. If you want to open multiple links, you need to repeat this for each of the links individually.

The second option that the feature introduces is to run searches for text that you drag and drop. Highlight text in the browser and then use drag & drop to run a search for that text.

This feature uses the default search engine of the browser. It is refreshing that Microsoft did not hardcode it to use Bing. Clearly, this should be the norm, but in this day and age, it is often not. A program like MSEdgeRedirect helps with that under Windows.

Closing Words

Super Drag & Drop is an experimental feature that is entirely optional at this point. It may speed up the opening of links and searching for selected text in the browser. Users who use keyboard shortcuts or middle-clicks won’t benefit from it as much as users who do not.

Now You: how do you open links in your browser of choice?

How to add scroll buttons to Chrome’s tab bar

Posted on February 26, 2024February 26, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Google Chrome has a hidden setting to enable scrolling on the tab bar. This guide explains how to enable the feature in the browser.

When you open a lot of tabs in Chrome, you will come to a point where no tab gets added to the tab bar anymore. This is only a visual limitation of the browser. Tabs continue to get launched, but you cannot reach them from the tab bar.

The reason for that is that Chrome lacks tab scrolling options by default. While there are other ways to access invisible tabs, for instance by using Chrome’s Search tabs feature, it is far from ideal.

You may launch Search tabs with a click or tap on its icon in the tab bar. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-A launches it as well.

Another option that you have is to use tab groups, as you may collapse them on the tab bar. Google added the option to save tab groups recently to Chrome.

Tab Scrolling in Google Chrome

Tab Scrolling in Chrome — Tab Scroll buttons in Google Chrome

The screenshot of Google Chrome’s interface shows tab scroll buttons. The left and right buttons scroll the tab bar in the selected direction. This is useful when the open tabs do not fit on Chrome’s tab bar.

How to show tab scroll buttons in Chrome

Here is how you enable Tab Scrolling in Chrome:

Load chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip in the Google Chrome address bar.
Set the status of the feature to Enabled.
Restart Google Chrome.

Note that Chrome displays scroll buttons only if too many tabs are open. The feature comes with configuration options. Tab scrolling does not change the minimum size of tabs in Chrome by default.

You may alter that as well by changing the status of Tab Scrolling.

The available customization options change the minimum size of tabs in Google Chrome. The following states are supported:

Tabs shrink to pinned tab width.
Tabs shrink to a medium width.
Tabs shrink to a large width.
Tabs don’t shrink.

The default state reduces the size of tabs to the pinned tab width. This is the smallest option. You may change that to medium, large, or no shrinking. Fewer tabs are shown then in the tab bar as a consequence.

Here is a screenshot of the medium width setting:

Other customization options

Chrome includes several customization options to further personalize the experience. The first option adds permanent scrolling buttons to Chrome’s interface, even if all tabs are shown on the tab bar.

The second enables drag scrolling. This does not require tab buttons to show on the tab bar, and may be an option for some users.

Chrome Tab Scrolling customization options

Here is how you enable and configure the options. First, the permanent scroll buttons.

Load chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip in the address bar of the browser.
Set the feature to one of the following states:
- Enabled — the default state.
- Enabled to the right of the tab strip — places the scroll buttons on the right side.
- Enabled to the left of the tab strip — places the scroll buttons on the left side.
- Enabled on both sides of the tab strip — places them on the left and on the right side.

This setting places a set of buttons or two sets of buttons to scroll tabs on Chrome’s tab bar.

Now tab scrolling.

Load chrome://flags/#tab-scrolling-button-position in the Chrome address bar.
Set the feature to one of the following states:
- Enabled — the default state.
- Enabled tabs scrolling with constant speed.
- Enabled tabs scrolling with variable speed region.
Restart Google Chrome.

This feature enables tab scrolling using drag operations. The default option scrolls tabs at a constant speed, the other accelerates based on how far to the right you drag the selected tab.

Closing Words

Tab scrolling is an experimental feature of the Chrome browser. This means, that it could be removed at one point by Google. The feature has been available for years, however, and it seems unlikely that it is going to be removed any time soon.

Now You: how many tabs have you open in your browser?

How to save Tab Groups in Google Chrome

Posted on February 25, 2024February 25, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

The ability to create tab groups is a powerful feature that most browsers support. It allows you to group tabs together, which improves management of tabs significantly.

Tab groups can be collapsed to reduce them to a single icon on the tab bar. Excellent if you need space on the tab bar for other tabs.

Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers support tab groups, but most did not support the saving of groups. Note that saving is different from syncing.

Saving in this context means adding all sites of a tab group to the browser’s bookmarks. Bookmarks are stored locally by default, but if sync is enabled, are synced with other data to other devices.

Note: you may see the save group option in many Chromium-based browsers, not just Google Chrome. The functionality is identical.

Saving tab groups in Google Chrome

You need at least one tab group in Chrome to use the save feature. All that is required is to right-click on the tab group label and select “Save group” from the options.

Chrome adds a new icon to the label to indicate that the group has been saved. The group is saved to the bookmarks bar. One easy way to verify this is by selecting Menu > Bookmarks and lists > Show Bookmarks Bar. You may also use Ctrl-Shift-B to show or hide it.

There is one caveat. The saving option synchronizes data between the tab group and the bookmarks bar. Any change you make to the group in Chrome is automatically synced to the bookmarks folder. If you close the entire tab group, it is deleted from the bookmarks bar.

To go around this, Google has added the option to hide and show tab groups. Hiding removes the tab group from Chrome’s tab bar without deleting the saved bookmark information.

You may then launch the saved tab group again with a click on its listing in the bookmarks bar. It remains saved there when you do so.

Closing Words

The Save Group option syncs all open tabs of a group to the bookmarks bar. This is useful in conjunction with the hide group option, as it allows you to launch tab groups only when they are needed and hide them the rest of the time.

The save option is not a backup feature, on the other hand. Since it syncs all changes, tabs are removed permanently if you close them.