Mozilla released Firefox 96.0.2 to the Stable channel on January 20, 2022. The new version of the browser fixes three issues that affect Facebook, LastPass and audio play on Linux.

Firefox 96.0.2 is already available. Firefox is configured to download and install updates automatically, but users may speed up the process by selecting Menu > Help > About Firefox. The window that opens displays the current version of the browser. A check is run to find out if an update is available; if that is the case, it is downloaded and installed automatically on the system.

The official release notes list three fixes:

• Fixed an issue that caused tab height to display inconsistently on Linux when audio was played (bug 1714276)
• Fixed an issue that caused Lastpass dropdowns to appear blank in Private Browsing mode (bug 1748158)
• Fixed a crash encountered when resizing a Facebook app (bug 1746084)

The first fix resolves an issue in Firefox for Linux. According to the bug report, Firefox on Linux used to change the height of the tab bar when audio was played in the browser. Firefox displays a sound indicator in tab items when it detects audio playback; this indicator seems to have triggered the resize behavior on Linux. The update to Firefox 96.0.2 resolves the issue.

The second issue is specific to the LastPass extension. It occurred only in private browsing mode and caused the Lastpass dialog window to be displayed without any information (blank in other words). The issue is fixed when users update to the new version of Firefox.

The third and final issue listed in the release notes caused Facebook applications to crash Firefox when the application window is resized. At least some Facebook applications are affected by this, and users who use these applications may want to update to Firefox 96.0.2 to address the issue.

Firefox 96.0.2 is the third Firefox release of 2022. Mozilla released Firefox 96.0 Stable on January 11, 2022, and Firefox 96.0.1 shortly thereafter to fix critical connection issues.

The next stable version of Firefox will be released on February 8, 2022.

Now You: did you run into these issues?

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Startpage Privacy Protection is a new browser extension by the privacy-focused search engine Startpage with two main purposes: reveal privacy scores of visited websites and give users more privacy-related controls to reduce or eliminate tracking.

Startpage released the extension for Firefox and Chrome officially, but it installs in compatible browsers, e.g. Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Opera or Brave, as well without issues.

Note: The installation of the extension changes the default search engine of the browser to Startpage Search. There is no way to block the change from happening.

Once installed, you may start interacting with the extension by activating its icon. On Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, you may need to click on the general extension icon in the main toolbar of the browser and select the pin option to pin the Startpage extension icon to the toolbar for better visibility. The first click opens a wizard that walks you through main program features.

Startpage Privacy Protection displays a privacy score for each site you visit. It ranges from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. Blocked trackers and cookies are revealed in the interface, and a click on the manage link opens a detailed view of them in the extension's interface.

Each tracker has three options: block all, block only cookies, allow all. It is easy enough to switch between the options, e.g., when a site's functionality is reduced by the blocking, or when there are false positives on a site. Most trackers are blocked outright by Startpage Privacy Protection, some have only their cookies blocked.

The main interface has a switch to turn off the main functionality. A click on the settings button displays several options, which are all enabled by default:

• Global Privacy Control -- Sends Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals to all websites.
• Hyperlink auditing -- blocks link tracking using the technology.
• Prefetching -- blocks the browser from prefetching data.

The next section, called allowlist, gives you an option to add sites to the exclusion list. Sites added there won't have their trackers and cookies blocked by the extension. Just add the main domain name and the extension will do the rest.

The privacy score of allowed sites is still computed and displayed by the extension, but no blocking is taking place in that case.

The last section lists all known trackers that Startpage's extension knows about in the current version. Here you may change defaults for each individual tracker.

Closing Words

Startpage Privacy Protection blocks trackers and cookies when it is active. The privacy score may be useful to inexperienced users who never looked into privacy closely before.

The extension has a few limitations. One being that it changes the default search engine to Startpage, something which not all users may want. It is not possible to switch the search engine after installation of the extension, unless the extension is disabled. Startpage Privacy Protection lacks options to add trackers to the list it supports. Lastly, it may not block too many ads on the Internet, as its focus is on trackers.

Now You: have you tried the extension?

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Shortly after Microsoft announced that Windows 11 will run Android apps natively, Google revealed its own plans to bring Google Play Games for Windows. The platform has now been soft-launched in 3 Countries as a limited beta test.

Users who live in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan can opt in to the waitlist at the official page for Google Play Games for Windows. If you're from another Country, you can still choose to be notified when the service is available in your region.  Once you join the waitlist, you will get an email with instructions to check if your PC can run the games.

Google Play Games for Windows - Minimum System Requirements

• Windows 10 (v2004)
• Solid state drive (SSD)
• 20 GB of available storage space
• Gaming-class GPU
• 8 logical CPU cores
• 8 GB of RAM
• Windows admin account
• Hardware virtualization must be turned on
• Compatible PC device and configuration

Those are some pretty high requirements to run mobile games on a computer. The 8-core CPU requirement is especially surprising. That said, this is a beta test after all, so maybe things will change as the company optimizes the experience based on feedback from users.

How these games will run on a Windows computer still remains a mystery. I can only assume from those system requirements, specifically the virtualization part, that the app is essentially an emulator that runs on Android OS. I mean, the service does target Windows 10 users, and since it doesn't support Android apps natively, the upcoming service has to be an emulated experience, not a web-based platform like Stadia. The video below shows games being downloaded in the app.

Here's the video teaser for Google Play Games on PCs. Based on the information given on the page and seen in the video, Google Play Games for Windows will support for keyboard and mouse controls, obviously that is a must-have for any desktop program. The service will provide seamless cross-platform sync. So, you will be able to play the same games on your phone and PC, and switch between the two to pick up where you left off.

The service will offer Google Play Points for purchases made by users, that they can redeem for rewards. The sign-up page indicates that the Google Play Games moniker will refer to the PC experience, and that the mobile app is changing in the near future.

XDA and Ars Techinca report that the following games will be available at launch: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, and Three Kingdoms Tactics. The waitlist page lists more games including Asphalt 9: Legends, Township, Dragon Mania Legends, Gardenscapes, War Planet Online: MMO Game, Cash Frenzy - Casino Slots, Cookie Run: Ovenbreak, Top War: Battle Game, Idle Heroes, Last Shelter: Survival, Rise of Empires: Ice and Fire, Magic Rush: Heroes, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, etc.

Those aren't exactly awe-inspiring titles, but I realize I'm not part of the service's target audience. The Mountain View company has not revealed a launch date for its Windows gaming platform, it only says that the beta program will expand to other regions in 2022 and beyond. Windows 11 supports the Amazon App Store, and you can side-load apps from third-party sources already. It is unclear whether Google will allow users to install Android apps from the Play Store.

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The 2022 Ultimate Cisco Certification Training Bundle prepares you for several Cisco certification exams, including Cisco Certified Technician (CCT) Routing & Switching 100-490, Cisco CCNP Enterprise ENCOR (350-401) and Cisco CCNP Enterprise ENSLD (300-420).

The bundle gives you lifetime access to the following 11 courses:

1. Cisco Certified Technician (CCT) Routing & Switching 100-490
   Improve Yourself about Networking Basics, Switching & Routing & Pass the 100-490 Exam
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   Equip Yourself with The Technical Knowledge & Skills to Confidently Operate Cisco Meraki Solutions
3. Hands-On with CISCO Modeling Labs 1 And 2
   Create Models & What-if Scenarios for Real-World and Future Networks
4. Cisco CCNP Enterprise ENCOR (350-401)
   Gain the Core Knowledge & Skillset You Need to Be Successful in Implementing Technologies While Working in an Enterprise Network Environment
5. Cisco CCNP Enterprise ENSLD (300-420)
   Design Network Architecture for Cisco Enterprise Networks
6. Cisco CCNP Enterprise ENARSI (Exam 300-410)
   Implement & Troubleshoot for Advanced Routing Technologies and Services
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   Implement Core Data Center Technologies Including Network, Compute, Storage Network, Automation, & Security Through This Training Program
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   Be Ready to Take & Ace The Cisco SCOR (300-701) Exam
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   Be Ready to Take & Ace The Securing Networks with Cisco Firepower 300-710 Exam
10. Cisco CCNA 200-301
    Work Towards a Top Cisco Certification & Build a Rewarding Career as a Network Administrator
11. Cisco Certified DevNet Associate (200-901)
    Make Yourself More Marketable as a Networking Professional with Valuable Routing & Switching Skills

The entire bundle is available for $79,

Click here to open the 2022 Ultimate Cisco Certification Training Bundle on Ghacks Deals

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Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22538 is now available in the Dev Channel. This release focuses on improvements to Voice Access, Voice Typing, a couple of changes to the interface and fixes some issues that were reported by users.

Voice Access and Voice Typing

Voice Access is now compatible with the Touch Keyboard. The app displays tear drops with a number over each key to assist the user. You can use it to dictate names, email addresses, phone numbers, punctuation marks, emojis etc. Speech packs for Voice Typing are available from the Microsoft Store.

UI related improvements

The Widgets panel's icon will display the weather information, such as the temperature, directly on the Taskbar. The feature, which was introduced in Build 22518, is now available for all Insiders in the Dev Channel. If you have the taskbar aligned to the left, the Widgets icon changes to represent the weather info.

Note: I'm not sure how this happened, but the Widgets button, which used to be on the left edge prior to today's update, is back on the Centered Taskbar in my VM, and it doesn't display the weather information either. The change log says that these issues have been fixed in the update, but seem to have actually been introduced in this build for me.

The lockscreen will display the Touch Keyboard and IMEs, that you can use to enter your username and credentials. This feature is being A/B tested, so only some Insiders will be able to use the option.

The new Alt + Tab interface, along with Task View and Snap assist now uses your theme's accent color for the focus rectangle, i.e. the border that appears when you select a window.

The Network Connections Control Panel applet is back, you can access it by typing ncpa.cpl from the Start Menu.

The option to adjust the Display Calibration can be accessed from the Settings > Display > HDR page. Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs now support HTTPS boot, which is enabled by default.

Fixes in Windows 11 Build 22538

Using the hardware keys to adjust the volume level should no longer cause Explorer to crash. The Wi-Fi signal indicators in the Quick Settings will reflect the signal strength bars correctly. A bug that caused text to appear in the Settings app and other places has been patched. Scan mode in text boxes does not result in Narrator crashing. The delayed audio sync issue that occurred when playing a video after the computer woke up from sleep or hibernate, has been mitigated. Trying to open folders with the name Advanced will not open Advanced Sharing Settings anymore. The Search function should recognize input properly when you access it from the Search button or Start Menu.

Issues in Windows 11 Build 22538

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22538 still has some known issues from previous releases. But the new version brings a couple of new bugs. The date and time and Quick Settings icons are misaligned. Check the screenshot for comparison, you can see that the icons are aligned near the top instead of their usual central position.

The caret button for displaying hidden icons is displayed twice, so 2 arrow icons appear in the system tray. Only of these buttons are functional, the one on the left, the other displays the tooltip when you mouse over it, but is otherwise non-responsive. Microsoft has acknowledged these as known issues in the announcement post, and is investigating them for potential fixes. Meanwhile, users are advised to reboot the system as a temporary fix, however that didn't work for me, YMMV.

Some users are reporting that the Task Manager crashes when trying to access the Performance tab. It doesn't happen on my virtual machine. It took just over 2 hours for my virtual machine to download and install the new build. If your Windows update seems to be stuck for an hour or longer, it is normal. A Microsoft representative says that Insider Builds are full updates, i.e., not Cumulative Updates which are way faster, and as such are slow to install.

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Google released a new version of its Chrome web browser to the public. The new version of the web browser, Chrome 97.0.4692.99, is a security update that addresses 26 different issues in the browser, including one rated critical. Chrome Extended Stable has been updated as well to address the issues.

The Extended Stable is updated to a new milestone release every 8 weeks. It is designed for organizations and Enterprise customers mainly, but available for everyone.

Chrome 97.0.4692.99 and Chrome 96.0.4664.174 are already available. Google rolls out new versions over the course of days and weeks, using Chrome's automatic updating functionality for it.

Chrome users who want the updates early can run manual checks for updates. All it takes is to select Menu > Help > About Google Chrome to start the process. Chrome displays the current version and runs a check for updates. The browser should pick up the new version during the scan to download and install it. A restart is required to complete the process.

Blog posts on the Chrome Releases blog list all externally reported security issues that Google addressed in the Chrome update. One vulnerability, CVE-2022-0289, is rated critical, the highest severity rating.

[$NA][1284367] Critical CVE-2022-0289: Use after free in Safe browsing. Reported by Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero on 2022-01-05

[$20000],[NA][1260134][1260007] High CVE-2022-0290: Use after free in Site isolation. Reported by Brendon Tiszka and Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero on 2021-10-15

[$20000][1281084] High CVE-2022-0291: Inappropriate implementation in Storage. Reported by Anonymous on 2021-12-19

[$17000][1270358] High CVE-2022-0292: Inappropriate implementation in Fenced Frames. Reported by Brendon Tiszka on 2021-11-16

[$15000][1283371] High CVE-2022-0293: Use after free in Web packaging. Reported by Rong Jian and Guang Gong of 360 Alpha Lab on 2021-12-30

[$10000][1273017] High CVE-2022-0294: Inappropriate implementation in Push messaging. Reported by Rong Jian and Guang Gong of 360 Alpha Lab on 2021-11-23

[$10000][1278180] High CVE-2022-0295: Use after free in Omnibox. Reported by Weipeng Jiang (@Krace) and Guang Gong of 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2021-12-09

[$7000][1283375] High CVE-2022-0296: Use after free in Printing. Reported by koocola(@alo_cook) and Guang Gong of 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2021-12-30

[$5000][1274316] High CVE-2022-0297: Use after free in Vulkan. Reported by Cassidy Kim of Amber Security Lab, OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp. Ltd. on 2021-11-28

[$TBD][1212957] High CVE-2022-0298: Use after free in Scheduling. Reported by Yangkang (@dnpushme) of 360 ATA on 2021-05-25

[$TBD][1275438] High CVE-2022-0300: Use after free in Text Input Method Editor. Reported by Rong Jian and Guang Gong of 360 Alpha Lab on 2021-12-01

[$NA][1276331] High CVE-2022-0301: Heap buffer overflow in DevTools. Reported by Abdulrahman Alqabandi, Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2021-12-03

[$TBD][1278613] High CVE-2022-0302: Use after free in Omnibox. Reported by Weipeng Jiang (@Krace) and Guang Gong of 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2021-12-10

[$TBD][1281979] High CVE-2022-0303: Race in GPU Watchdog. Reported by Yi?it Can YILMAZ (@yilmazcanyigit) on 2021-12-22

[$TBD][1282118] High CVE-2022-0304: Use after free in Bookmarks. Reported by Rong Jian and Guang Gong of 360 Alpha Lab on 2021-12-22

[$TBD][1282354] High CVE-2022-0305: Inappropriate implementation in Service Worker API. Reported by @uwu7586 on 2021-12-23

[$NA][1283198] High CVE-2022-0306: Heap buffer overflow in PDFium. Reported by Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero on 2021-12-29

[$2000][1281881] Medium CVE-2022-0307: Use after free in Optimization Guide. Reported by Samet Bekmezci @sametbekmezci on 2021-12-21

[$2000][1282480] Medium CVE-2022-0308: Use after free in Data Transfer. Reported by @ginggilBesel on 2021-12-24

[$TBD][1240472] Medium CVE-2022-0309: Inappropriate implementation in Autofill. Reported by Alesandro Ortiz on 2021-08-17

[$TBD][1283805] Medium CVE-2022-0310: Heap buffer overflow in Task Manager. Reported by Samet Bekmezci @sametbekmezci on 2022-01-03

[$TBD][1283807] Medium CVE-2022-0311: Heap buffer overflow in Task Manager. Reported by Samet Bekmezci @sametbekmezci on 2022-01-03

Google does not seem to be aware of attacks targeting any of the vulnerabilities, as it usually reveals if that is the case in the blog posts on the Chrome Releases blog.

You can check out the Stable and Extended Channel announcements by following the links.

Now You: when do you update your browsers?

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G Suite legacy free edition was a free edition of Google's G Suite offering that customers could sign-up for prior to December 6, 2012. Google announced recently that it will end support for the G Suite legacy free edition and that customers will have to subscribe to a paid plan to continue using Google services.

G Suite legacy free edition had a limited set of business features, but it was free and users could sign-up for the service. Google stopped offering the service on December 6, 2012, but customers who signed up for it prior to that were allowed to use it after the deadline.

Nearly a decade later, Google is ending support for the G Suite legacy free edition. The decision affects all customers who signed-up for it, especially those who used it continuously.

Google plans to migrate all G Suite legacy free edition customers to Google Workspace starting May 1, 2022. Users will then be able to use the service at no cost until July 1, 2022.

If you have the G Suite legacy free edition, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep your services. The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting May 1, 2022. Starting May 1, Google will seamlessly transition you to Google Workspace, which you can use at no cost until July 1, 2022.

Plans start at $6 for individual accounts, but since G Suite legacy free supported multiple users, some users may have to pay more to keep all their user accounts, e.g. for family members.

Customers who don't want to subscribe to Google Workspace should use the data export tool to export their data.

The problem

Some customers have used the service as their main driver on the Internet, meaning they used the associated email address to sign-up for websites and services, make purchases online and on Google Play, and for all communication purposes via email.

While it is possible to migrate some of that to another service, e.g. Google Drive to local storage or another provider, it is unclear at this point how Play Store apps purchases are handled, but it appears that there is no option to migrate those to another account.

Additionally, users who signed-up for dozens or hundreds of sites over the course of the decade may need to spend quite some time changing the logins to another email address.

Now You: are you affected by the discontinuation?

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Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser will soon get a couple of new features and improvements, including several that improve the vertical tabs feature of the browser.

One of the distinguishing factors of Edge when compared to Google Chrome or vanilla Chromium is the browser's support for vertical tabs.

All desktop browsers display tabs in a horizontal bar by default. Only a few support vertical tabs, and Microsoft Edge is one of them. All it takes is to click on the icon that Edge displays on the left side of the tab bar before selecting the "turn on vertical tabs" option from the menu that opens.

All tabs are displayed in a vertical listing that is displayed on the left side in Edge when the feature is enabled.

Vertical tabs offer some benefits over the horizontal layout: better visibility, easier drag & drop operations and more space for the display of websites as the tab bar is no longer displayed (if the title bar is hidden). Vertical tabs work well on widescreen monitors especially, but since you may collapse the listing to a smaller bar, it works well on other monitors as well.

The January 2020 Feedback Summary for Microsoft Edge highlights several new features and improvements that will come to Microsoft Edge in the future.

Edge users will soon be able to move vertical tabs from the left side of the browser window to the right side. The feature has been on the list for 41 weeks but the status changed from "under review" to "planned" just recently.

Planned means that the feature will be implemented in Microsoft Edge, under review that Microsoft is evaluating it.

Planned - We have reviewed this feedback and have a plan to address it. However, we aren't ready to share a target time frame just yet.

Microsoft has yet to reveal a target version for the feature. It seems likely that it is going to launch later this year.

Closing Words

The ability to display vertical tabs on the left side of the browser window is a useful addition. Some users may prefer to see website content on the left, and vertical tabs on the left may get into the way in that case.

Now You: do you prefer vertical or horizonal tabs? (via Techdows)

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The Audible app for Windows has been discontinued. The popular audiobook streaming platform has sent users an email to inform them about the program's removal.

The app in question, which debuted in 2015, is called Audiobooks from Audible. It was discontinued on January 13th, but the listing for the UWP app is still up on the Microsoft Store, though it does carry a message that mentions the app is currently not available.

Audible app for Windows has been discontinued

What about users who already have the Audible app on their computer? A screenshot of the email message shared by a user, reveals that people who currently have the app installed cam continue to use it until July 31st, 2022. I have it installed in my laptop and it still works.

If you want to side-load the Audible app, you can use the ad-guard website to pull the AppxBundle from the Microsoft Store, and install it manually after enabling the Developer Mode from the Windows Settings app. But there is a caveat. The company will no longer allow users to access their audiobook library through the app beyond the said date.

The audiobook platform is recommending users to switch to the Audible mobile app on iOS or Android, as a means to access their purchased content. The other alternative to it, is to use the Audible Cloud Player, which is the web-based solution offered by the service that you can use from any web browser. The AudibleSync app is available from the official website, you can use it to download your audiobooks and transfer it to other devices.

It seems a little odd for the Audible app to be pulled from the Microsoft Store, considering how other companies have been bringing their apps to the app storefront. Even Amazon, which owns Audible Inc, has brought its app for Windows 11. I can only speculate that the move to discontinue the app could be due to the fact that Windows 11 supports Android apps natively, so users could run the mobile version on their computer, or maybe a newer version will be released in the future. Or perhaps a new DRM is in place via the web-player, that they didn't want to add to the desktop program?

A canned response from an Audible representative was met with criticism from users. It's never a good idea to kill an app without having a proper alternative in place. There are many reasons why people prefer to use a desktop program for their entertainment. In this scenario, you could have the audiobook player running in the background while you work, browse or while playing games, etc. The app offered a simpler and more efficient way to manage the library as well, something which cannot be said of the website, it's quite clunky.

Audible for Windows alternative

Users who are on the lookout for an alternative for the Audible app for Windows, you may try OpenAudible or Libation, both of which are open-source programs. The latter is exclusive to Windows, while the former has versions for Windows, macOS and Linux. Both tools allow you to download audiobooks from your library, convert them to MP3 files and remove the DRM for unrestricted usage.

Do you use the Audible for Windows app? Will you use switch to web player, mobile app, or a third-party tool?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Audible app for Windows has been discontinued, company advises users to switch to the Cloud Player or mobile apps appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

Firefox users who download files from the Internet will soon notice that Mozilla changed the default process from displaying a prompt for each download to downloading files automatically, just like Chrome and most Chromium-browsers.

From Firefox 97 on, Firefox will download files immediately on activation of the download link. The browser displays the downloaded file in the download panel and users may interact with it from there. Options include opening the downloaded file or managing all downloads.

Firefox 96 and older versions of Firefox displays a download prompt by default. It provides users with information about the selected file, and options to either select an application to open the file or to save it directly.

The second option downloads the file immediately, unless users have changed the default configuration of the browser.

Firefox's preferences list just one option for downloads. Users may switch from downloading all files to a single folder, e.g., downloads, to a download prompt that gives them the option to select a folder each time.

1. Select Menu > Settings to open the preferences, or load about:preferences in the address bar directly.
2. Scroll down on the General page to the Files and Applications section.
3. Downloads are configured to save files to a specific directory by default. On Windows, that is the Downloads folder (which Windows users can change).
4. Switch to "Always ask you where to save files" to get a prompt each time to select the download directory for the selected file.

Firefox displays a save to prompt each time a download is started in the browser. You may use it to save files to different folders on the local system.

Why you may want to enable download prompts

Downloads are checked by the integrated Safe Browsing component, but anything that passes the check, is downloaded automatically. Back in 2017, a new attack was discovered that used Chrome's automatic download behavior. The file in question was an old .scf file format, which Windows processed automatically when the folder is opened.

A drive by download attack, which downloads files automatically without user interaction, or getting users to click on the download link, was sufficient to plant the prepared file on the user system.

Our suggestion back then was to enable the "ask where to save each file before downloading" option in Chrome to prevent this attack from happening, as Chrome will prompt to pick a download location for the file before the file is saved to the local system.

Closing Words

Mozilla's new automatic downloading system for Firefox makes downloads more comfortable to users. Firefox users who want more control over the downloading behavior or block automatic downloads, need to enable the "always ask you where to save files" option under Downloads in the Firefox settings to achieve that.

Firefox 97 Stable is scheduled for a release on February 8, 2022.

Now You: automatic downloads or download prompts, what is your preference?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Firefox will soon download files automatically instead of displaying a prompt appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

O&O DeskInfo is a free application by the German software company O&O Software GMBH. The application displays system information on the desktop when it is run.

O&O DeskInfo has a download size of just 1 Megabyte and installs quickly because of that. The application displays two options on first start, one of which is selected by default. The app warns of unknown USB devices that are connected to the PC it runs on by default, and users may enable the autostart with Windows options.

O&O DeskInfo lists system information in a sidebar that is aligned to the right by default. The information that it displays by default includes the operating system name, version and build, the user and machine name, information about the processor, RAM and system type, CPU and RAM utilization, the IP address, and local drive information. The data is refreshed regularly.

A right-click on the system tray icon of the program displays a number of options. You may switch the display of information to full or minimal. Full adds more information to the listing, including information about the GPU, connection type, IPv6 address, DNS servers and network activity.

Options to align the sidebar display to the left side instead are provided. You may also change the appearance by modifying text and button colors, fonts or the opacity of the sidebar. A click on the label hides the sidebar on the screen, another displays it again.

Other options include changing the interface language from English to German or French, pausing the auto-updating of the data, changing the update frequency from normal to fast or slow, and to enable always on top mode for the interface.

Information can be copied to the Clipboard at any time using the context menu.

Closing Words

O&O DiskInfo is a handy program for some users and maybe also for IT-related activities. Users see important information, such as the username, IP address or operating system version right away. Some may like the display of resource usage, including network usage, that the app provides.

The program ran fine on a Windows 10 version 21H1 installation. O&O makes no mention of system requirements on the application's website. It should run fine on Windows 10 and 11 devices, but it is not clear if it will run on previous versions of Windows as well.

Now You: do you use system information tools?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post O&O DeskInfo: display system information on the Windows desktop appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

The Complete C# Master Class Course teaches you the fundamentals of the C# programming language and the .NET framework. The course has 120 lectures and 21 hours of content, and it covers topics such as primitive data types and variables, operators, conditional statements, multidimensional arrays and exceptions handling among other things.

Course access is set to lifetime, and it includes certification of completion. The entire course is available for $12.99.

Click here to access the full curriculum and other information about it on Ghacks Deals

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A week ago, we discussed Powerdir, a vulnerability in macOS that could have been used by hackers to access the user's data. The issue, which was discovered by Microsoft engineers, was fixed by Apple in a patch that shipped last year. Today, news about a Safari bug has surfaced, that can leak your browsing history and information related to your Google account.

Safari bug can leak your browsing history

Apple's browser, which is the default on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS has a security issue related to IndexedDB. This  is an API that is used by websites to store data on the device, and uses the same-origin policy. It restricts other websites, documents, scripts from accessing data belonging to a specific website. It is kind of like a sandbox for the data created by a website.

IndexedDB, or Indexed databases, are tied to a specific origin, e.g. your Google account is associated with its own database. So, theoretically, other sites should not be able to access the information stored in the database, but FingerprintJS has discovered that an exploit exists in Safari 15, that can reveal the data to other sites.

How is that possible? When a website accesses a database, the rest of the data from other tabs, windows and frames in the current session are stored in a new database. The problem here is that the newly created database shares the same name as the original one, as a result of which the database names are leaked across different origins (websites).

This in turn will allow websites to identify users by their unique ID. What's worse here is that the websites store the authenticated Google user ID in these databases. In the event someone has logged into multiple accounts, each one has its own database. The user ID is used by Google to identify the user via the People API, to fetch the publicly available personal information from the account, such as their profile picture. So, a malicious website can get this information, just because a tab or window that is active in the background can access the IndexedDB API. When you visit other websites, that data is also stored in the database, meaning your browsing history is also exposed to third-parties.

Here's an official video from the fingerprinting benchmark service, that illustrates how the vulnerability works. The website has a proof-of-concept demo page, that you can open from your macOS, iOS or iPadOS device, to test if your browser is affected by the IndexedDB bug. The demo site detects many including Alibaba, Google, Dropbox, Twitter, VK, WhatsApp, Xbox, to name a few, but many other websites could be targeted by the exploit.

I tried accessing the page on my old iPad, and Safari 14 does not seem to be impacted by the bug. But when my friend visited the demo site on his iPhone with Safari 15, the page said that his browser is vulnerable to the exploit, and revealed his unique Google ID number as proof of it.

The article first spotted by 9to5Mac, says that Apple is yet to patch this Safari bug, even though FingerprintJS had reported it to the Cupertino company on November 28th.

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Microsoft released out-of-band updates for Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, Windows 10 and other client and server versions of Windows on January 17, 2022.

Microsoft acknowledged that the January 2022 security updates were causing issues, especially on Windows Server systems.

Tip: check out our known issues overview for Windows 11, which we update regularly.

The out-of-band updates address several issues in client and server versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Windows 11 -- KB5010795

KB5010795 for Windows 11 is already available via Windows Update, as a direct download, and WSUS (by importing it). The update includes the latest servicing stack update.

The update fixes the following two issues:

• Fixes an issue that could cause IPSEC (IP Security) connections that contain Vendor IDs to fail.
• Fixes an issue that could cause removable media that is using the Resilient File System (ReFS) from failing to mount or mounting in the RAW file format.

The known issue that some " image editing programs might not render colors correctly on certain high dynamic range (HDR) displays" remains.

Windows 10 versions 20H2, 21H1 and 21H2 -- KB5010793

KB5010793 for Windows 10 is already available via Windows Update, the Microsoft Update Catalog, and as an import via WSUS.

The update addresses four issues in total:

• Fixes an issue that could cause IPSEC (IP Security) connections that contain Vendor IDs to fail.
• Fixes an issue that could cause removable media that is using the Resilient File System (ReFS) from failing to mount or mounting in the RAW file format.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Windows Servers to restart unexpectedly on domain controllers.
• Fixes an issue that prevented "Active Directory (AD) attributes from being written properly during a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) modify operation" when multiple attribute changes were made.

Microsoft lists three known issues, all of which are long-standing:

• The new Microsoft Edge may not be installed on devices that use custom ISO images or custom offline media to install new versions of Windows 10.
• Some devices may not be able to install updates after installing KB5003690 from June 2021. Windows may display the error "PSFX_E_MATCHING_BINARY_MISSING".
• when connecting devices in an untrusted domain using Remote Desktop, connections may fail to authenticate using smart card authentication. Should be resolved according to Microsoft through Known Issue Rollback.

Windows Server 2022 -- KB5010796

KB5010796 for Windows Server 2022 is available via Windows Update, as a direct download from the Microsoft Update Catalog, and as an import via WSUS. The update requires the installation of KB5005039, released August 2021.

The update fixes four issues, two of which are also fixed in Windows 11's update described above, and all four are also fixed in Windows 10's update.

• Fixes an issue that could cause IPSEC (IP Security) connections that contain Vendor IDs to fail.
• Fixes an issue that could cause removable media that is using the Resilient File System (ReFS) from failing to mount or mounting in the RAW file format.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Windows Servers to restart unexpectedly on domain controllers.
• Fixes an issue that prevented "Active Directory (AD) attributes from being written properly during a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) modify operation" when multiple attribute changes were made.

Microsoft lists one known issues: when connecting devices in an untrusted domain using Remote Desktop, connections may fail to authenticate using smart card authentication. Should be resolved according to Microsoft through Known Issue Rollback.

Other out-of-band updates

Microsoft released the following updates as well:

KB5010792 for Windows 10 version 1909 -- fixes the IPSEC issue.

KB5010790 for Windows 10 version 1607 and Windows Server 2016 -- fixes the same four issues that the Windows Server 2022 update fixes

Now You: have you installed the out-of-bound updates? (via Born)

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When Microsoft revealed the Widgets feature of its upcoming Windows 11 operating system, it hinted at the possibility that third-party widgets could become a thing in the future.

Widgets, for those who have not come across them yet, is an interface in Windows 11 that is pinned to the taskbar by default. Activate it and you see news, stock information, weather forecast and more.

All of the data comes from Microsoft services at this point, and users may enable or disable certain modules to customize what is displayed. If you are not interested in sports or news, you may turn these off to hide them.

Third-party widgets would display just like Microsoft widgets in the interface when they are installed. A recent leak suggests that Microsoft will accept different kinds of widgets technologies -- packaged apps, unpackaged apps and web -- and that users will find them predominantly on the Microsoft Store and the Widget Board.

Developers could create widgets for all kinds of purposes, from displaying hardware stats to custom RSS feeds and service-specific widgets that deliver content directly to the Windows desktop.

Closing Words

Support for third-party widgets has the potential of making the Widgets feature more useful. Companies that manufacturer hardware and OEMs could deliver widgets for their components and devices, e.g., SSD cards, temperature sensors, information about driver updates, as an alternative to relying on applications to deliver that. It could reduce the number of apps that launch with a system as well by default if done correctly.

There are downsides. One being that all the information is available only after activation of the widget icon or a gesture. Microsoft did support widgets previously in older versions of Windows, and these could be configured to display permanently on the desktop. Third-party solutions such as Rainmeter support this as well. Support for gadgets, the name Microsoft used to describe these little tools, was removed for security reasons according to Microsoft.

Using the Widgets interface is not necessarily faster than using the browser to look up information, especially if the browser is open all the time.

Microsoft has not revealed information about limitations that third-party widget developers have when it comes to creating widgets. Are these widgets limited to using Microsoft Edge and Bing Search, or are developers free when it comes to that? Microsoft created an artificial protocol for certain links on Windows 11 systems that will only open in Microsoft Edge, even though there is no technical reason for that. Microsoft has been criticized openly for the behavior, for instance by Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner.

Now You: do you use widgets? Would you if third-party support would be added?

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Vivaldi browser has been updated to build 2549.3, which is now available in the Snapshot channel. The latest release fixes a number of bugs, including an issue that I wrote about last week.

Vivaldi fixes the unusable navigation buttons issue

The browser had a bug that was causing the back, forward, reload, rewind and fast-forward buttons to become greyed out, i.e. unclickable, when a new window was opened. This issue occurred in single monitor and multi-monitor set-ups. The problem has been patched in the Snapshot channel, and the change-log for the update notes tracks the issue with the VB-85667.

The stable channel of the browser, which was updated to build 2497.35 recently, still has the issue, but now that the fix is now available in the Snapshot release, it should make its way over to the regular build soon.

Vivaldi retains option to delete search engines even after updating to Chromium 98

Vivaldi 2549.3 bumps the Chromium version from v96 to v98, skipping v97 in the process. To be precise, it is based on Chromium 98.0.4758.50.  A couple of days ago, I reported that browsers based on Chromium 97 no longer allow users to delete the default search engines from the list. I speculated that Vivaldi, like its Chromium-powered rivals, will follow suit. However, I stand corrected, as the latest version of the browser retains the option to delete said search providers. Yay, more power to the user!

There maybe a reason why the browser skipped a version. The Chromium developers who removed the option to delete the search engines, having realized that people were using the delete option to remove the search engine if it had been hijacked, have restored the delete button in the latest version of the browser. I used that example in my previous article, so I think this gives me a right to say, I told you so!

The delete button is back on Chromium 99. Chrome 98 and 99 will regain the delete option too, these builds are scheduled to be rolled out in February and March respectively. Vivaldi, however, seems to be the first to have updated to the latest code, which is great to see. Now, we have to wait for Microsoft Edge, Brave and Opera to catch up.

Other issues fixed in Vivaldi 2497.35

The built-in Capture tool, now saves screenshots in the JPG image format if selected. An issue was preventing bookmarks from being added if the last bookmark folder had been moved to the trash, this problem has been resolved. Opening the vivaldi://apps page in a private window should no longer crash the browser. The vertical tab bar can now be minimized correctly. The new build of the browser fixes an issue that was making part of the Downloads progress bar non-clickable. A crash related to media playback on devices running Windows 7 has been fixed. The option to add tasks to the Calendar from the Agenda > Tasks panel works properly. A bug that was causing multiple oAuth prompts in the Mail app has been resolved. Menu buttons will not become inactive

For a full list of changes, please refer to the official announcement.

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In a world, in which more spam is send out day after day than regular emails, it is mostly up to the individual user to do something about it. Receiving less spam in the inbox means less time wasted on it, and also less of a chance to interact with spam. One way of dealing with spam is through disposable email services.

Most Internet users have one or multiple email addresses. While many new users who use the Internet on mobiles exclusively may not use email much, the majority of computer users have one or multiple email addresses they use daily.

These email addresses have value for spammers and marketers, as they can use automation to send unsolicited emails to them. Many will be blocked by spam filters and many more will be ignored, but spam slips through, and since spam is a game of numbers, it is profitable.

One of the best defenses against spam is to keep email addresses secret; this does not always work, as it may be sold by services that you signed-up to, may leak on the Internet when a service gets hacked, or may be revealed by contacts of yours, e.g., when uploading their entire contacts list to a service or getting their computers hacked.

Disposable email addresses, such as Yopmail, as well as email relay services, such as Firefox Relay or AnonAddy, offer a useful line of defense. Basically, what they do is protect the original email address of a user with one they provide. Emails do get relayed through the services, similarly to how VPN connections relay Internet traffic through their servers to protect a user's IP address.

The use of multiple email addresses is an alternative, but it is usually not possible to create hundreds of email addresses. If you have access to a domain name and email services, you may be able to create multiple email addresses and use them.

Some providers support filters, e.g., Gmail or Outlook supports filters, which change the email address by allowing users to add text to it, but these are easily filtered out by services on the Internet and not usable in all situations.

The benefits of disposable email addresses

If used correctly, the original email address is not revealed to services or contacts. You sign-up using the disposable email address and all communication takes place between the email address and the provider of the service. Relay services forward the emails to your "real" email address.

Many disposable email providers support the creation of several email addresses. You could use one per service on the Internet that you sign-up for, which also helps identify services that sell email addresses or leaked them otherwise. It is easy enough to block or delete created email addresses to stop the flow of spam.

The selection of the provider is essential. Many free services come and go quickly, and it may be more beneficial to sign-up for a paid service instead. Commercial providers include Spamex, Firefox Relay, or 33Mail.

The drawbacks of using disposable email addresses

Organizations that operate disposable email address and relay services need to be trusted. All email communication flows through their servers, which means, that the emails are readable, unless protected.

Some email services give users access to the entire pool of addresses, which means that anyone who happens to check the inbox of a particular email address may read all incoming messages.  Deleting emails once read or using providers that give unique disposable email addresses are options to deal with that.

Another disadvantage is that services may be blacklisted, so that the email domains they support may not be used to sign-up for services on the Internet; this too can be overcome in some cases. Some providers give you access to multiple domain names, others allow you to set up your own custom domain names.

Email providers may go out of business, which may be problematic for users, depending on how the service was used. If you used it to sign-up for services on the Internet, you may have lost your ability to recover your passwords or account access.

Closing Words

Disposable email addresses and email forwarding & relay services offer a useful services to Internet users. The may protect a user's email address and privacy, if used correctly. Whether it is better to use free or paid services is up for debate. Free services generate revenue through ads and sometimes also donations, paid services through subscription fees.

Now You: do you use disposable email services or relay services? If so which, and why?

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Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the default antivirus solution of Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system. It is turned on by default, unless another security solution is installed that is recognized by the operating system as such. Previously, it was known as Windows Defender.

Most third-party antivirus solutions that support Windows 11 are recognized, but there may be the odd solution that is not.

Most Windows 11 users may want to keep Microsoft Defender Antivirus enabled if no other security solution is installed. Some may want to turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus temporarily or permanently, even if no other solution is installed. Reasons for wanting to do so include high resource use, Windows Defender Antivirus causing other issues on the system, no requirement for an antivirus solution, e.g., while using a virtual machine image of Windows 11, or simply because of wanting to decide what is running on the computer and what is not.

Enable or Disable Real-Time Protection in Windows 11

Windows Security has options to turn off certain security modules, including Real-Time Protection, in the Settings application.

Real-Time Protection can be turned off temporarily there, while all other protective modules can be turned off permanently.

Sometimes, it may be sufficient to turn of the feature for a short period of time to work around issues that are experienced.

Step 1: Open Windows Security in the Settings application

1. Select Start and Settings or use the keyboard shortcut Windows -I to open the Settings application.
2. Select Privacy & Security from the menu on the left.
3. Select Windows Security on the page that opens.

Step 2: Open Virus & Threat Protection

1. On the page that opens, select Virus & Threat protection from the list of protection areas.

This opens the Windows Security application.

Step 3: Disable Real-Time Protection

1. Select Manage Settings under Virus & threat protection settings on the page that opened.
2. Toggle Real-time protection to Off.
3. Accept the UAC prompt that is displayed when you make the change.

Microsoft reminds you on the page that the turning off is temporary:

Locates and stops malware from installing or running on your device. You can turn off this setting for a short time before it turns back on automatically.

Tip: you may disable other protective modules such as cloud-delivered protection, automatic sample submission or tamper protection here.

Disable Windows Defender Antivirus using the Group Policy Editor

To disable Windows Defender Antivirus permanently, you need to use the Group Policy Editor or the corresponding Registry setting.

Note that it is necessary to disable the Tamper Protection feature of Windows Security before you make the change. If you don't, Windows Security may turn on Windows Defender Antivirus again.

Here is how you do that:

1. Select Start and Settings or use the keyboard shortcut Windows -I to open the Settings application.
2. Select Privacy & Security from the menu on the left.
3. Select Windows Security on the page that opens.
4. On the page that opens, select Virus & Threat protection from the list of protection areas.
5. Select Manage Settings under Virus & threat protection settings on the page that opened.
6. Toggle Tamper Protection to Off on the page.

Disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus using the Group Policy Editor

1. Select Start, type gpedit.msc and select the result from the list.
2. Use the hierarchical structure on the left to go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Defender Antivirus.
3. Locate "Turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus" and double-click on the policy. If you have trouble finding it, click on the "setting" header of the column to sort the list of policies in alphabetical order.
4. Switch the state of the policy to Enabled on the page that opens.
5. Select apply then ok to save the change.
6. Restart Windows 11.

Virus & Threat protection should be off after the restart. Note that you will still see a shield icon in the system tray area as the Shield icon is the Windows Security icon, not the Microsoft Defender Antivirus icon.

Note that the feature was called Windows Defender Antivirus on Windows 10.

Other options

• Use a program such as Defender Control or Configure Defender to manage the state of the program. It is free to use and compatible with Windows 11.
• Try disabling the Windows Defender task in the Task Scheduler library, as suggested here.

Now You: which antivirus solution do you use, if any?

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FxSound is a free audio program for Microsoft Windows devices that is designed to improve the quality of sound playback.

FxSound was a commercial application called DFX Audio Enhance previously, but the developers decided to turn it into a free application.

Installation of FxSound is traightforward. Just download the latest version from the developer website and run the installer to install it on the system. The main interface displays the current audio output device as well as the selected preset.

FxSound ships with more than ten presets, including sound presets for watching movies, playing games, boosting bass or streaming video. The selection of a preset modifies the sound settings that FxSound provides in the interface.

Interested users may download bonus presets from the developer website. Presets for various music genres, including rock, country and 80's are available for download.

FxSound promises to improve the sound quality on the Windows device "by targeting and processing sound’s timbre, volume, spatial balance, and dynamics".  The effect is "clearer, louder, deeper, and balanced audio".

An equalizer is provided as well as sliders for clarity, ambience, surround sound, dynamic boost and bass boost. Each of these can be changed and custom presets may be saved as new presets so that they can be loaded whenever they should be used.

Usage is easy, and the sound quality does change depending on the selected preset or changes that you make. The outcome depends on several factors, including the audio devices of the system and the source of sound.

FxSound has a few interesting presets that promise to improve the quality of certain sounds. There is the voice preset to improve speech, the gaming preset that promises to improve the quality of sound in computer games, and several TV and movie presets that promise to improve the quality of media.

The program supports several shortcuts and options. It will switch to new connected output devices automatically by default, but this can be disabled in the options. The keyboard shortcuts are disabled by default. You may enable them in the preferences to toggle the program on or off, change presets, or change playback devices using keyboard shortcuts.

Closing Words

Does it work? FxSound did change the quality of sound during tests. You should not expect wonders, e.g., it turning low quality audio sources into an audiophile's dream, but certain presets and settings may indeed improve the quality of the sound output.

Now You: have you tried FxSound? Did it work for you?

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Most web browsers ship with a bunch of different search engines that you may switch to, if you are not a fan of the default option. In addition to changing the provider, you may delete the default search engines from the list. But it appears that Chromium based browsers no longer allow you to do it.

This change does not affect the option to set your default engine, you just won't be able to the preloaded providers. That's not necessarily a bad thing per se.

Chromium-based browsers will not allow you to delete the default search engines

A reddit user reported that Microsoft Edge has removed the ability to remove default search engines from the settings. While it is true, another user pointed out that it is not a change in Edge, but in all Chromium-based browsers. Some users says that this only affects the Windows version of the browsers, and that the Linux variants have the option.

According to a commit on the open-source project's page, the proposal to remove the delete button was made in October 2021. The developers felt that deleting the search engines was too easy, and that it was a bad thing because it would not be easy for users to add them back, as it is not possible to set the search provider for suggestions, new tag page and other specialized URLs. Following a small discussion which concluded that deleting a search provider could cause more problems than it would break, the change was approved a day later when Chromium 97 was released.

Chrome 97 was released about ten days ago, and it became the first Chromium-based browser that removed the delete button from the Manage Search Engines page. Microsoft, Opera and Brave have followed suit in removing said option from their respective browsers.

As of now, only Vivaldi, which is still based on Chromium 96, has the option to delete the default search engines. When the browser gets updated to the code based on Chromium 97, it will likely not allow users to remove the search providers. Firefox and Waterfox do not prevent users from deleting the built-in search options either.

Chromium-based browsers will continue to allow the user to edit the keywords but not the URLs.

You can still add custom search providers if you want to, and this allows you to edit the search parameters.

I think this change may not affect most users. It is a precautionary measure that could end up protecting the user in the event a malware tries to delete the default search engine, or hijack it. That said, if a malicious extension, toolbar or website, manages to use the add search engine option to inject a harmful search provider in the browser, and set it as the default provider, it wouldn't be stopped, would it? That is likely a very rare scenario, one that can easily be prevented by using an ad-blocker like uBlock Origin, avoiding illegal websites, and good old common sense of not clicking links randomly.

I will admit that I find it surprising that the removal of a simple feature in Chromium's source code impacts every browser that uses it as the base, do they have a choice? This does give Google an advantage over the competition. This got me wondering about what could happen when Google decides to kill support for v2 add-ons, and forces extensions to use Manifest V3. Will it impact other browsers in the same way? I mean, if there is no webRequest API that can be used, what could they possibly do except to rely on their own built-in ad-blockers?

What do you think? Should browsers allow you to delete the default search engines?

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