What's New

The author of the Firefox security add-on NoScript, Giorgio Maone, answered questions about the WebExtensions migration of the NoScript add-on recently.

NoScript is my number one must have add-on for the Firefox web browser; in fact, it is one of the few things that keeps me from switching my main web browser as it cannot be realized in other browsers (non-Firefox based that is).

SecuritySoftView by Nirsoft is a free software program for Microsoft Windows devices that lists registered security software when run.

Security software that you install on a Windows machine can register with Security and Maintenance of the operating system. Security and Maintenance, formerly known as Action Center and Security Center, monitors firewalls, antivirus software and anti-spyware software among other things on machines running Windows to make sure these components work properly.

GNU/Linux is powerful. GNU/Linux is mighty. GNU/Linux can be confusing…

One of the things that terrifies most people about GNU/Linux is the command line. Granted, most users can get away with never touching a terminal window nowadays on most modern distributions, but when a lot of people think of GNU/Linux they instantly picture a command line interface of scrolling text and gibberish code.

Thankfully, learning to actually use the command line is not quite as daunting as one might assume, especially with the help of something known as the Man Pages.

BiglyBT is a new cross-platform open source torrent client that can be best described as a fork of Vuze / Azureus that is ad-free and without other pasted on features.

The first version of BiglyBT is pretty similar to Vuze right now, but the developers have big plans for the torrent client.

It is developed by two long-standing Azureus and Vuze developers, who have worked on the client for a long time.

Quantum is a free application for Google's Android operating system that teaches you the basics of quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics deals with the so-called microworld and the objects -- atoms or particles for instance -- that it contains.

If you like to know more about it, for instance because you are interested in physics or science, or just want some bragging rights when the next Big Bang Theory episode airs, Quantum may be a good way to start.

Microsoft released Windows 10 Build 16257, a new preview build of the upcoming Fall Creators Update for Windows 10, yesterday evening.

The new version introduces a new Eye Control feature, designed to improve accessibility by adding options to control Windows with eye movement, Microsoft Edge improvements, a color overhaul for the Windows Console, input and Windows Defender Application Guard improvements, and bug fixes.

If you have upgraded a version of Firefox to version 55 or newer, you won't be able to downgrade that version of the browser later on to an older version.

While Mozilla never really supported downgrades of the browser before, it was usually no problem to downgrade a particular version of the Firefox browser.

There are two main use cases where this happens: first, when a release version of Firefox causes issues, and when users use the same profile on different versions of the browser.

Google just pulled another Chrome extension from the official Chrome web store after it found out that the extension started to inject advertisement into sites user visited in the web browser.

A 404 not found error is displayed when you open the Chrome web store presence of the Web Developer extension right now.

The extension had a rating of 4.5 stars (out of five), and more than 3000 user ratings before it was pulled from the store.

Microsoft released KB4032188 today, a new cumulative update for Windows 10 Version 1703, the Creators Update version of the Windows 10 operating system.

The cumulative update is already distributed through Windows Update, and also available as a standalone download at the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

There are countless tools that claim to optimize your Windows system, but not nearly as many for GNU/Linux. Now, many GNU/Linux power users will likely say something like, "If you're using Linux you should be able to do all of these things on your own anyway, try using commands like X or Y," however, with popularity in GNU/Linux growing, there are likely many users out there with less experience who could make use of software like this. That's where Stacer comes into play.

Changes is a free application for Android devices that makes it easier to keep track of application updates and changelogs.

Google Play is the default store for Android applications. It is installed on may devices by default, and will also update applications automatically when updates become available.

This happens over Wi-Fi only by default, but means that Android users get the same convenient but problematic updating experience that they get when they install extensions in Google Chrome.

Artpip is a free program for Windows and Mac devices that changes the desktop wallpaper of the operating system once per day to a fine art painting.

The free version of the application is pretty straightforward in terms of use. Once you have downloaded and installed the application on your Windows machine -- I did not test the Mac version -- it will download a new fine art wallpaper each day and make it the desktop background on the device.

Play/Pause is a useful browser extension for the Firefox web browser that adds a pause option to Firefox tabs that have HTML5 media playing in them.

Firefox, like most modern browsers, displays an option in its tab bar to mute audio that plays in a tab in the browser. That's quite handy on its own, but activating mute does not block playback on the site.

Not a big problem if you are listening to Internet Radio, but if you want to listen to something from the beginning to the end, you end up having to rewind to continue playback at the position that you activated mute on.

Vivaldi Software is working hard on the next version of the popular web browser, Vivaldi 1.11. The company pushes out development builds regularly that enthusiasts can install to get a glimpse at features before they are released in stable versions of the browser.

Google started the roll out the first version of the upcoming Google Chrome adblocker to Chrome Dev and Chrome Canary versions on Android today.

Google announced some time ago that it had plans to integrate an adblocker into the Chrome web browser. Google, being an advertising company first and foremost, at least when it comes to revenue generation, faces troubling times ahead caused largely by the increasing popularity of content blockers.