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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
