chrome

A series of Google Chrome browser 'tools' that claims to offer free movies is the first part of a convoluted credit card scam. The people behind it seem to be playing the numbers game. The tools are distributed via the Chrome Web Store. They aren't ... the usual apps (which run independently) or extensions (which add extra functionality to the Chrome Browser), but rather themes. The idea is they change the appearance of the browser in a similar way to the early 2000s craze for installing custom-made desktop wallpaper. While a browser theme shouldn't be anything but purely decorative, the ones in ... (view more)

Google Chrome users have been surprised to discover that the Chrome browser scans their computers in search of malware. It doesn't appear to be a reason to panic, but arguably Google could have been more up front about it. The scans were spotted by ... Kelly Shortidge who works at a cyber security company. She noticed that the chrome.exe executable file (which is visible in Windows Task Manager) was scanning files in her Windows documents folder. On further investigation, she discovered Chrome has been doing this since around October, 2017. The scans are being done through Chrome Cleanup, a tool ... (view more)

Google has revealed a security flaw with the Microsoft Edge browser before Microsoft released a patch. It's a controversial move with arguments across both the tech and security industries. The flaw in question is somewhat complicated. In very ... simplified terms, the flaw is to do with how Microsoft Edge converts website code into what users see on their computer screen when visiting a website. Google realized that it could work out precisely when the browser would access part of the computer's memory and use this knowledge to effectively set a booby trap. That could then force the computer to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Emmy-Lou' writes: " Dear Dennis, I am having trouble accessing eBay. The error message I get is: 'This site can't be reached. The connection was reset.' Other times, it is 'This site can't be reached. eBay unexpectedly closed the ... connection'. On the page with the error message, it says to: 'Try: Checking the connection, checking the proxy and the firewall, and Running Windows Network Diagnostics'. The official error message is ERR_CONNECTION_RESET (but sometimes it is ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED ). Can you help? " My response: Troubleshooting this error message can be rather ... (view more)

A security firm says four malicious extensions for Google Chrome were downloaded a total of more than half a million times. It's asking why Google's vetting process didn't weed the malware earlier. Extensions in Chrome are similar to add-ons for ... other browsers - namely, third-party tools that improve the web browsing experience. Common examples include ad-blockers, password managers and tools for downloading videos from web pages (such as Youtube). Because extensions have some level of access to a user's Internet data (and even some control over their browsing), Google has some security ... (view more)

Mozilla has launched a new version of the Firefox browser aimed at winning over Google Chrome users. It says the new version is twice as fast as earlier versions of Firefox that were available this year. The key is the "web rendering engine," which ... is the part of the browser that interprets the code on a website page and visually combines it on the user's computer. Mozilla has replaced its old engine with a new one dubbed Firefox Quantum. It's also put together videos showing that Firefox is now quicker than Chrome to fully load most (but not all) of the more popular websites. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jean K. writes: " Dear Dennis, Recently my Firefox web browser updated to version 56.0.2. When I go Tools -> Add-ons , I see most of my addons are marked as ' Legacy '. I read online that when Firefox 57 is released, it will ... use ' web extensions ,' (also spelt " WebExtensions ") which will make the current addons incompatible. This is a big problem! I have been using the ' Tab Groups ' addon by Quicksaver for a while now (which groups my web browser tabs into categories) and cannot imagine life without this incredibly helpful addon. Unfortunately the developer ... (view more)

Chrome browser users should see fewer cases of web pages unexpectedly being replaced by ads and other annoyances with some upcoming updates. The changes aim to tackle unwanted content appearing in three ways. The first change deals with the problem ... of the page the user wants to visit suddenly being replaced by another page, usually advertising and often with no clear way of going back to the desired content. This is usually caused by rogue content in code on third-party ads that are meant to appear besides the content on the original web page. Auto-Redirection Won't Work Once Chrome gets the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running a Windows 10 PC, which I share with my daughter. Lately I have begun receiving Facebook notifications / popups on the lower right corner of my desktop. These notifications appear every ... few minutes and it is literally driving me insane. I cannot figure out how to shut this setting off. Searching Google for 'windows disable facebook popups' isn't of any help because I am getting different answers. One says to disable the Facebook app, another says it's a Facebook setting. I have no idea how to do either because I don't even use ... (view more)

Google is testing a built-in ad blocker for the Chrome browser. It's prompted a mixed response with some fears of a conflict of interest. The company had previously talked about adding an ad blocker as a built-in feature in Chrome, rather than the ... optional extensions that are already available from third-parties. Now the feature is being tested in the Dev and Canary version of Chrome. These are special versions where user get early access to features but with the knowledge that they may have performance flaws at this stage. It would be extremely unusual for Google not to later go ahead ... (view more)