Newsletter Archives

• Netmarketshare says Chrome’s getting even more market share, while IE and Edge continue to circle the drain

  Posted on November 1, 2018 at 10:29 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Although Edge itself has gone up by a minuscule amount, IE 11 went down by more than Edge.

  All hail Chrome.

  

  See Gregg Keizer’s analysis in Computerworld.

  According to California-based analytics company Net Applications, IE’s and Edge’s share dropped by a quarter of a percentage point in October, ending at 13.8%, a record for the century and a number not seen by Microsoft since IE first took on Netscape Navigator in the 1990s.

  Windows News Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, NetMarketshare

• Bank-Grade Security

  Posted on July 25, 2018 at 01:15 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Before you do your online banking next, you might like to check out a website that rates the security of bank websites. It might have you rethinking just how secure they are.

  Bank Grade Security
  When companies say they have “Bank Grade Security” they imply that it is a good thing.
  In reality banks have poor security

  Check it out at https://bankgradesecurity.com/

   
  And while you are looking at online security issues, today marks the release of Chrome 68, which marks sites not using HTTPS as insecure. Security Researchers Troy Hunt and Scott Helme have just launched a new website, listing websites not using https. It’s not reassuring to see universities, government departments and many popular sites not using https yet, but there are early reports of sites changing to https as a result.

  You’ll find it at https://whynohttps.com

  Other Bank-Grade Security, banking sites, Browser security, Chrome

• New version of Chrome guards against Spectre-like attacks, but eats more memory

  Posted on July 13, 2018 at 06:02 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  We still haven’t seen a commercial implementation of the Meltdown or Spectre security vectors, but Google’s had this “site isolation” technology in the works for six years. This week, they flipped the switch. Now, your copy of Chrome on Windows will gobble even more memory. But you’ll be protected from Spectre attacks coming from the most likely source — your browser.

  Gregg Keizer in Computerworld:

  Google has switched on Site Isolation for the vast majority of Chrome users – 99% of them by the search giant’s account.

  Good article. Check it out.

  Nipping Spectre in the browser sure beats the all-on assault that’s unfolding in the rest of the ecosystem. I continue to maintain that the first major Meltdown and Spectre infections we’ll see in the wild will come through the browser.

  Windows Patches/Security Chrome, Site isolation, Spectre

• Universal Windows Programs (“Metro apps”) aren’t dead yet, but there’s a better alternative on the horizon

  Posted on February 6, 2018 at 11:56 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft just announced that it’s going to start building Progressive Web App support into Edge and Win10.

  Progressive Web Apps aren’t so much Google’s much-better alternative to Win10-only Universal Windows Programs (formerly known as “Metro apps” or “Universal apps” or “Windows Store Apps” or any of a half-dozen other monikers) as they are a genuine attempt to make browser-based applications look and feel more like regular ol’ apps.

  Chances are very good you’ve never seen a PWA in action. But they’re definitely coming. At some point.

  The theoretical benefits of PWAs over UWPs are enormous. Just for starters, UWPs can only run in the stripped-down Win10 environment. PWAs, on the other hand, should be able to run on just about anything that supports a browser — particularly Chrome, or ChromeOS. Yeah, that includes Chromebooks, at least at some point.

  The browser requirement has vanished in the past couple of years, banking on a concept called service worker. Horrible name, but web folks are good at horrible names. Paul Thurrott described service workers months ago:

  Google’s initial take on PWAs wasn’t that compelling: The full resources of Chrome needed to load each time a PWA ran, and there was no minimal user interface or runtime. But when Google introduced the notion of service worker, the technological core of what we now know as PWAs, it was a big differentiator. With service workers, PWAs could work like native apps, offering features like offline support, background processing, and more.

  It now looks to me as if there’s going to be a headlong dash into developing PWAs — and that UWP’s days are numbered. Time will tell.

  UPDATE: Mary Jo Foley has a calendar for future developments in Microsoft’s side of the PWA wars, in her ZDNet blog.

  Uncategorized Chrome, ChromeOS, Progressive Web App, service worker, UWP

• Edge is in much worse shape than originally thought

  Posted on December 12, 2017 at 08:13 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Great analysis from Gregg Keizer at Computerworld:

  Analytics firm Net Applications revised its methodology to cull bots from its browser share numbers and found that as much as half of the traffic to Edge on Windows 10 was artificially inflated.

  For those running Windows 10, Edge accounts for 10 to 11% of all browser usage, and IE hovers below 10%.

  With Firefox’s new-found moxie, we have a real horse race going here. May the best browser win.

  Until the next one comes along.

  Windows News Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer

• Recently updated topics you may have missed

  Posted on October 19, 2017 at 02:09 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  It’s possible you may have missed recent security updates that have been made to Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird, Java and Flash Player. The following topics have now been updated with the US-Cert alerts, with links:

  Chrome Security Update: US-CERT (Browser)

  Mozilla Security Update: US-CERT (Firefox)

  Mozilla Security Update: US-CERT (Thunderbird)

  Oracle Security Update: US-CERT (Java etc)

  1000002: Links to Flash update resources

  Subscribers to those topics should have received emails with details of the new posts. However, we have had some reports that some people are currently not receiving those emails. If your subscription emails aren’t working, please let us know.

   
  Also updated recently is AKB3000005: On the subject of Botnets, which was posted last month, but promptly disappeared in a backup-reset of the site.

  Other AskWoody, botnet, Chrome, Firefox, Flash, Java, Thunderbird

• Chrome readies built-in ad blocker in early version of Canary

  Posted on August 7, 2017 at 11:58 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Gregg Keizer at Computerworld has the story.

  Far-reaching consequences to this one, folks.

  Windows News ad blocker, Chrome

• Google Chrome won’t be allowed on Windows 10 S

  Posted on May 10, 2017 at 05:05 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  If you haven’t read Ed Bott’s latest ZDNet article, and you’re even remotely interested in Win10 S, hurry over there and absorb it.

  The approach — forcing browser makers to use the native plumbing — isn’t new. Apple requires iOS browsers to use WebKit, for example (see Paul Krill’s article). We saw something similar with the IE-as-default wars in Windows 8.

  Microsoft’s between a rock and a hard place, but the decision doesn’t surprise me at all. What does surprise me is that it’s laid out in black and white. I expected to see months of waffling.

  In my opinion, keeping Chrome off Win10 S is just another nail in Win10 S’s coffin. But it really couldn’t be any other way.

  Windows News Chrome, WebKit, Windows 10 S

• Numbers are out: Depending on whom you believe, IE lost to Chrome, Win7 under 50%

  Posted on May 1, 2016 at 16:21 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I always take the numbers with a bag of salt, but…

  According to Gregg Keizer at Computerworld, Net Applications says that Chrome now leads IE in usage, with 41.7% vs 41.4%.

  According to Emil Protalinski at VentureBeat, Net Applications says that. among Windows users, Win10 is at 14%, Win 8 and 8.1 are at 12%, Win 7 is down to 49%, and XP hits 10%. Vista and older versions account for 4%.

  That means Win8+8.1 is actually up compared to last month. You really can’t trust these numbers very much.

  Protalinski gives some back-of-the-envelope analysis of Microsoft’s Win10 numbers – 275 million Monthly Active Users as last disclosed – but you need to keep in mind that Microsoft and Net Applications measure two completely different sets. Microsoft’s MAU should say how many individuals are using Windows 10 (although the definition is very much up in the air). Net Application relies on a count of hits on web sites that’s modified based on geographical location.

  UPDATE: Simon Sharwood of The Reg is out with his analysis. I’m not sure how the numbers support his conclusion that ” it looks like business is slowing its adoption of Windows 10,” but it’s a provocative thought nonetheless.

  Roughly:

  Win10 = 14 to 18%

  Win7 = 45 to 49%

  Win8+8.1 = 9 to 14%

  XP = 8 to 10%

  There are also notes all over the web that talk about how Net Applications didn’t bother to separate out IE from Edge. Speculation runs rampant that Edge adoption is so low it’s little more than a roundoff error.

  Windows News Chrome, Internet Explorer, Windows 10, Windows 7

• Will Google let Android apps run on Chrome?

  Posted on April 25, 2016 at 08:46 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Paul Thurrott has an interesting take on the topic, based on a report by Ron Amadeo on Ars Technica.

  The goal is simple: Allow any Android app to run on ChromeOS, or on the Chrome browser. Yes, the Chrome browser running in Windows, too.

  If Google can pull it off, it’ll be a game changer.

  Windows News Android, Chrome

• New third party program updates

  Posted on January 27, 2016 at 14:28 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Randy the Tech Professor has a list of the latest versions of important programs that you may be running:

  Chrome, Java, Opera, Foxit, Skype, Flash Player, Acrobat Reader.

  Here’s Randy’s listing.

  Other Acrobat Reader, Chrome, Flash Player, Foxit, Java, Opera, Skype

• Randy the Tech Professor: Updates for Flash, Shockwave, iTunes, Chrome and Firefox

  Posted on September 29, 2015 at 06:47 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Randy the Tech Professor has just posted his update list for September.

  If you use Flash, Shockwave, iTunes, Google Chrome or Firefox, it’s worth a quick check to make sure you’re up to date.

  Other Chrome, Firefox, Flash, iTunes, Shockwave
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