The web browser Firefox 89.0.1 is now available. The new version of Mozilla's web browser fixes a security issue and several non-security related issues.

Most Firefox installations should receive the update automatically. You can check Menu > Help > About Firefox to run a manual check for the update so that it is installed right now and not at a later point. Firefox includes automatic updates functionality that checks for updates frequently to install them once they are discovered (Mozilla is working on background updates in Firefox for Windows)

The help page that opens lists the installed version of the browser as well.

Firefox 89.0.1 addresses one security issue. The security advisory reveals that the issue has the severity rating of moderate and affects Firefox on Windows devices.

When drawing text onto a canvas with WebRender disabled, an out of bounds read could occur.

 

This bug only affects Firefox on Windows. Other operating systems are unaffected.

Besides the security fix, Firefox 89.0.1 addresses several issues, some of which are operating system specific.

The update addresses the broken scrollbars issue on some GTK themes on Linux, and performance and stability regressions with WebRender on systems running Linux.

On Mac OS X, screen flickering was fixed that happened when pages were scrolled on external monitors.

On Windows, a screen reader issue was resolved that prevented certain screen readers from interacting with Firefox.

Firefox 89.0.1 fixes font related regressions next to that, and the Enterprise policy DisableDeveloperTools, which did not have any effect anymore.

Last but not least, the new release includes updated translations and full support for Spanish (Mexico) localization.

You can check out the entire Firefox 89.0.1 release notes on the official Mozilla website. There you find links to Bugzilla, Mozllla's bug tracking website, in case you want to take a closer look at a bug.

The next major update for Firefox is Firefox 90. It is scheduled to be released on July 13, 2021.

Vivaldi Snapshot 2328.3 has been released to the public, and it introduces a couple of new features. If you thought vertical tabs and tab stacks were great, wait till you try the new way to organize your tabs.

The snapshot brings accordion tab stacks. The new feature isn't enabled by default. Navigate to Vivaldi's menu > Settings > Tabs. Scroll down the page until you see the Tab Stacking section. Toggle the Accordion Tabs option, and it is ready to use. The compact and two-level stacking options are still there, in case you were worried about that.

Open a few tabs, select them and create a stack using the tab context menu. The accordion tabs feature will collapse all tabs of the stack under a single tab, i.e., only the last tab that you accessed in the tab is shown on the tab bar. Click the arrow button to the right of the stack to display the other tabs. Or, you can mouse over the accordion tab stack to preview a list of the tabs in it. The badge next to the tab title indicates the number of tabs in a stack.

Here's an animated demo of  Vivaldi's accordion tabs.

If you switch to a different stack or a normal tab, the according stack collapses automatically, so you don't have to click the arrow. This option may look familiar to some of you, if you have used older versions of the Opera browser. If you can't recall it, you can view a screenshot of it in Martin's article.

There is no denying that accordion tabs in Vivaldi are cool, but the new addition is not without its flaws. The arrow icon is very narrow, so it takes a bit of an effort to click it correctly without hitting the next tab. It needs an easier way to do this, as some user comments have noted, a double click gesture would be a better implementation. The single-tab (stacked) view is expanded automatically if you click on the tab, which is a little annoying. For context, it should only be expanded when the arrow button is clicked. The tab expansion issue also happens if you add a new tab (drag and drop) to the stack, or if you close a tab from the hover list.

Vivaldi's users will be familiar with the tray icon that notifies you about a new update. I couldn't find a toggle for this in the settings. But automatic updates in the background without a notification does sound nice, though we'll have to wait for the next build to roll out to see how it actually works.

The release notes for Vivaldi Snapshot 2328.3 includes a slew of fixes related to tabs, menus, translate, etc. The update also patches some bugs in the browser's built-in Mail, Calendar and RSS. It fixes an issue with calendar invites that caused the browser to crash.

Oh, and if you were hoping for the volume control slider to be added for Picture-in-Picture videos, it's still not there.

Download the Vivaldi Snapshot 2328.3 version from the official website to try the new accordion tab stacks, and drop a comment to share your thoughts about the new feature.

Microsoft is bringing a revamped Windows Snap feature to Windows 11, making it easy to rearrange windows on your screen.

Yesterday, an early preview build for Windows 11 was leaked online, giving us a glimpse of what we can expect from Microsoft's next-generation operating system.

While most of the changes have been related to the appearance, wallpapers, and user interface of the operating system, a few new features are being introduced with Windows 11.

One of the new features is a redesigned window snapping feature in Windows 11 that allows you to reconfigure open windows using four different pre-made layout templates.

Revamped Windows snap feature

The Windows Snap feature was added in Windows 10 and allows you to rearrange your open windows using the mouse, keyboard, or a Snap Assist feature.

In Windows 11, you can now access four predefined Windows snap layouts by hovering your mouse cursor over the maximize button in an open window, as shown below.

You can then select the location you wish the window to snap to, with Windows 11 prompting you to choose the windows to be placed in the other areas. 

Currently, there are four pre-made layouts available, described below:

• Two equal side-by-side windows.
• Two side-by-side windows, with the left window having more screen space.
• A large left-hand window with two vertically stacked windows on the right.
• The screen is equally split between four different windows.

It is not known if Microsoft plans on allowing users to create their own custom layouts for the windows snap feature.

BleepingComputer has created the following video to demonstrate the revamped windows snap feature in action.

Microsoft is making it easier to update PowerShell on Windows 10 and Windows Server devices by releasing future updates through the Microsoft Update service.

PowerShell provides users with a command-line shell, a scripting language focused on automation, and a framework for processing PowerShell cmdlets.

It runs on all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS, and it allows working with structured data such as JSON, CSV, and XML, as well as object models and REST APIs.

Microsoft has already started working on a PowerShell release that will upgrade 7.2 preview.5 and later to 7.2 preview.7 through Microsoft Update.

Still, it will only be pushed after releasing an update on GitHub due to the significant changes to the update process and the additional validation required.

"In the past, Windows users were notified in their console that a new version of PowerShell 7 is available, but they still had to hop over to our GitHub release page to download and install it, or rely on a separate package management tool like the Windows Package Manager, Chocolatey, or Scoop," said PowerShell Senior Software Engineer Travis Plunk.

"But with Microsoft Update, you’ll get the latest PowerShell 7 updates directly in your traditional Windows Update (WU) management flow, whether that’s with Windows Update for Business, WSUS, SCCM, or the interactive WU dialog in Settings."

How to upgrade PowerShell via Microsoft Update

To update PowerShell via Microsoft Update, your computer needs to run Windows 10 RS3 (10.0.16299) or later together with PowerShell 7.2 (preview 5 or 6).

You're also required to configure your device to receive updates for Microsoft products. You can enable to feature by going to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options and toggling on "Receive updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows."

You also need to opt-in to use Microsoft Update for PowerShell 7 updates by running a script available here.

Once the PowerShell team releases the PowerShell 7.2 preview.7 update, you will be able to upgrade through the standard Windows update process.

To keep PowerShell up to date, you will need to go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and then click Check for updates.

"With today’s announcement, you’ll soon be able to try this new update process for yourself on the latest PowerShell 7.2 previews," Plunk added.

Microsoft provides more info on how to test new installs of PowerShell 7.2 preview and to report any issues you encounter in today's announcement.

A preview build for Windows 11 was leaked yesterday, giving us a glimpse of the new features and changes coming to Microsoft's next generation of Windows. One of these changes is new collections of default Windows backgrounds that can be selected for your desktop.

With Windows 11, Microsoft has revamped the default backgrounds with new 'Captured Motion', 'Flow', 'Glow', 'Sunrise' collections while removing the Flowers and Windows 10 default backgrounds.

New installations of Windows 11 will now use the following default background, which comes in both a light and dark mode, as shown below.

In addition to the new default wallpapers, Microsoft has added four new collections of wallpapers called Captured Motion, Flow, Glow, and Sunrise. Each of these collections comes with four different wallpapers, as illustrated below.

The 'Captured Motion' collection shows a still frame of different shapes while they are in motion.

The 'Flow' collection of wallpapers shows the flow of thin shapes.

The 'Glow' collection is four wallpapers showing a circular object glowing in different colors.

Finally, the 'Sunrise' collection is a set of four wallpapers that show the sun rising over various scenic landscapes.

For those who wish to see the full resolution Windows 11 background images, the Change Windows Twitter account has compiled them into an archive.

Microsoft has released the June release preview cumulative updates for all editions of Windows 10 and Windows Server versions 1809 and 1909, with fixes for issues causing VPNs to fail and blurry text on the News and Interests taskbar button.

This update is part of Microsoft's June 2021 monthly "C" update, allowing users to preview forthcoming updates and fixes scheduled for the approaching July 2021 Patch Tuesday.

After installing the KB5003698 non-security updates, you may encounter issues with system and user certificates lost when updating from Windows 10 1809 or later versions via outdated update media.

Further details on the types of updates Microsoft releases monthly can be found in the Windows 10 update servicing cadence primer.

KB5003698 update highlights

With the KB5003698 monthly release preview update, Microsoft addresses an issue that could cause VPNs to fail after renewing user auto-enrolled certificates with a "There are no more files" error message.

It also fixes an issue that may lead to audio loss when connecting a second external monitor to the system and a bug that might cause a system freeze with a 0x3B error when using AppLocker to validate files with multiple signatures.

KB5003698 also addresses a known Windows 10 issue leading to FLAC encoded music files becoming corrupted and unplayable after changing their title, artist, or other metadata.

Last but not least, the update fixes a bug causing the text on the "News and Interests" Windows Taskbar to become blurry after installing KB5001391 or later Windows 10 updates.

Other highlights included in this update:

• Updates an issue with Search box graphics on the Windows taskbar that occurs if you right-click the taskbar and turn off News and interests. This graphics issue is especially visible when using dark mode.

• Updates an issue that prevents certain screen reader apps from running. 

• Addresses an issue that might cause a stop error when you run SmbConnectStress for a prolonged duration.

What's changed

The KB5003698 Windows 10 cumulative update is considered optional, and it will not be automatically deployed since it is a preview update.

To install it, you have to go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and 'Check for updates.' You’ll then be able to download and install the update from the 'Optional updates available' area.

You can also download the June preview updates from the Microsoft Catalog. After installing KB5003698, Windows 10 1909 will be updated to build 18363.1645, while Windows 10 1809 will be upgraded to build 17763.2028 after deploying KB5003703.

Microsoft also recommends installing the latest servicing stack update (SSU) before these cumulative updates to minimize issues with this update. If using Windows Update, the latest servicing stack update will be installed for you automatically.

Here is the complete list of key quality improvements and fixes delivered with this update:

• Addresses an issue that prevents sorting from working properly when using multiple versions of National Language Support (NLS) sorting.

• Addresses a performance issue in the MultiByteToWideChar() function that occurs when it is used in a non-English locale.

• Addresses an issue that fails to properly manage touch input related memory before a user session ends.

• Addresses an issue that results in outdated group membership listings. This issue occurs because the Group Policy service (GPSVC) makes infrequent updates to the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) session. As a result, this slows the propagation of changes the Active Directory (AD) administrator makes to user or group membership.

• Addresses an issue that causes Windows to stop working when it uses AppLocker to validate a file that has multiple signatures. The error is 0x3B.

• Addresses an issue with the Set-RuleOption PowerShell command that fails to provide the option for the Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policy to treat files signed with an expired certificate as unsigned.

• Addresses an issue that might cause BitLocker to go into recovery mode after updating the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) firmware. This occurs when the "Interactive logon: Machine account lockout Threshold" policy is set and there were incorrect password attempts.

• Addresses an issue that prevents certain screen reader apps from running when Hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI) is enabled.

• Addresses an issue that causes Windows to generate many AppLocker or SmartLocker success events.

• Improves the accuracy and efficiency of sensitive data analysis in the Microsoft 365 Endpoint data loss prevention (DLP) Classification Engine.

• Addresses an issue with the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) VPN service on remote access server (RAS) servers. Periodically, users cannot connect a VPN to the server over the IKE protocol. This issue might start several hours or days after restarting the server or restarting the IKEEXT service. Some users can connect while many others cannot connect because the service is in DoS Protection mode, which limits incoming connection attempts.

• Addresses an issue that might cause a VPN to fail after renewing a user auto-enrolled certificate. The error message is, "There are no more files".

• Adds new glyphs to the InkFree.ttf font family for European languages.

• Addresses an issue that causes a loss of audio when you connect a second external monitor.

• Addresses a metadata encoding issue that causes Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) music files to become unplayable if you change their title, artist, or other metadata. For more information, see FLAC encoded music file is corrupted when metadata is edited in Windows Explorer.

• Adds support for the .hif file extension for High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) images.

• Addresses an issue that causes Remote Desktop sessions to stop responding while the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is enabled.

• Adds support for the USBTest and MeasurementClass.

• Addresses an issue in Adamsync.exe that affects the syncing of large Active Directory subtrees.

• Addresses an error that occurs when the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) bind cache is full, and the LDAP client library receives a referral.

• Addresses a redirector stop error that is caused by a race condition that occurs when the system deletes binding objects when connections close.

• Addresses an issue that might cause a stop error when you run SmbConnectStress for a prolonged duration.

• Addresses an issue that prevents users from setting or querying disk quotas on the C drive.

• Addresses an issue that causes blurry text on the news and interests button on the Windows taskbar for some display configurations.

• Addresses an issue with Search box graphics on the Windows taskbar that occurs if you use the taskbar’s context menu to turn off News and interests. This graphics issue is especially visible when using dark mode.

Earlier today, multiple screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming Windows update leaked online. This was followed up by an ISO leak allowing users to install and use Windows 11 ahead of the official announcement. If you are reluctant to install a leaked OS on your system, then don't worry as we have got you covered.

We installed the leaked Build 21996.1, so you don't have to and took it for a test drive. While the installation UI is still the same as it has been since Windows 7, Microsoft has completely overhauled the setup UI. Windows 11 setup includes the same steps as Windows 10, but with nice round corners on an off-white background that will look familiar to anyone who has used a MacOS.

While the setup screen shares some resemblance with MacOS, the desktop will look familiar to those who followed Windows 10X development closely before its untimely demise. When Microsoft ditched Windows 10X, the Redmond giant said that it plans to bring elements of Windows 10X to Windows 10. The most noticeable changes on the desktop are the taskbar at the bottom and the start menu. Both these changes are inspired by Windows 10X. The taskbar now has open app icons in the middle instead of being left aligned. The same is true for the start menu and search as both now occupy the middle part of the screen instead of opening to the left of the display.

Apart from these, I also checked out other first-party apps but those are carrying the same design. So, apps like Mail and Calendar, Calculator, Photos and Microsoft Store carry the same design as they had on Windows 10. The same goes for Windows Settings as well. Moving on to the File Manager, it looks the same as it did on Windows 10 but has the updated icons for folders. Microsoft has also updated the icons on the Action Center and those too are now rounded and look much better than the current Action Center. Another noticeable change on the desktop is the inclusion of widgets. Currently, the section opens a version of News and Interests widget that was introduced to Windows 10 earlier this year. Microsoft has also updated the task view with rounded corners and a better look that is more in line with the new UI.

Once Windows 11 was installed, I received two new updates from Microsoft. The first one was a generic update for Windows Defender but the second one was a cumulative update KB5004034 for Windows 10 Version Next.

Lastly, Microsoft has also included new startup and notification sounds for Windows 11 and there are new open and close animation for apps. The new animations were introduced in Windows 10 Insider Builds so Microsoft has been testing those for some time now.

Microsoft is expected to showcase the new Windows experience on June 24. According to rumours, Microsoft may just call the new update Windows 11 after all.

Earlier today screenshots quickly followed by a leaked build of Windows 11 Pro Build 21996.1 hit the web, and we installed it to take a look around. The first thing you will notice is that the first few stages are the same Windows installation base that has existed since Windows 7.

Once the initial ISO extraction is complete however, the setup process looks completely different. It is, however, still the same. Just a reskin, with all the options being identical to the most recent versions of Windows 10. And there is good reason for this, as this build is Windows 10 Pro with a slight reskin.

The build activated properly with a Windows 8.1 Volume License MAK key, and we were able to look through the themes. The built in themes are different, and quite nice and dark mode works as well as the most recent versions of Windows 10. Windows 10 drivers all seemed to work, and applications detect the build as Windows 10 for compatability. There is also a strange page in settings called Device Usage seemingly to sign up for additional targeted advertising.

The most noticeable difference is that it feels like a version of MacOS. Not exactly, but much closer than previous versions of windows. The animation for the start menu popping in and out of the center dock is very reminiscent off an Apple flourish.

The buttons are rounded rectangles. There is a bit of a shadow. Even though these elements have been in Windows before, coming from Windows 10 in 2021 it just feels a bit Apple inspired.

All in all this is a very early build, and the real excitement for Windows 11 is due to come from the event next week detailing the future of Windows officially. Until then, please take a look at our gallery and try to spot the differences in the comments.

An alleged preview build for Windows 11 has been leaked, confirming the new name for Microsoft's next generation of Windows and providing a glimpse of the new features.

Ever since Microsoft announced that they were unveiling their next-generation version of Windows in a June 24th Windows event, speculation about its name has been running rampant.

If this leaked build is legitimate, and it appears it is, we now have confirmation that the next version of Windows is Windows 11.

The Windows 11 ISO image was leaked today on a Chinese-speaking forum and has quickly spread throughout the Internet as users rush to install the new leaked operating system.

Links for the Windows 11 ISO are now emerging on various file sharing sites, making it difficult to contain the leak.

What's new in Windows 11

At first glance, Windows 11 looks a lot like Windows 10 with a design overhaul that includes colorful icons, rounded corners, and new animations.

These changes were expected as part of the Sun Valley update that we have been reporting on for some time.

However, there are some considerable changes in Windows 11 that were not confirmed until today.

The first change users will see during the installation of Windows 11 is a new Windows logo, which is a simpler version of the existing Windows 10 logo.

From images shared with BleepingComputer, the Windows out-of-box experience (OOBE) has received an overhaul with new colors, graphics, and the installation wizard.

Microsoft has also introduced a new light and dark mode default wallpaper in Windows 11, as shown below.

The most significant change Windows users will notice is the new Windows 11 Start Menu.

Borrowed directly from the now on-hold Windows 10X, the new Windows 11 Start Menu floats above the taskbar and is centered directly in the middle of the screen.

It is possible to change the position of the Start Menu from the center to the left side of the screen using the Windows 11 taskbar options.

The new Start Menu will be the most visible change users will likely see in Windows 11 and the one that will take the most time for users to get used to.

As Windows users worldwide install the leaked build, new features will likely be discovered and shared before Microsoft's upcoming Windows event.

It is also important to note that the leaked build may have been tampered with to include malicious programs or viruses. Therefore, be very careful if you choose to install the leaked Windows 11 build and only install it on a virtual machine or other secured devices.

BleepingComputer has contacted Microsoft to confirm if the leaked build is legitimate but has not heard back at this time.

It’s a new week, which means it’s time for a new Edge Dev build. Today, build 93.0.916.1 is heading out to Dev channel users, and there isn’t much in the way of features. This is the second release for version 93, which was released last week and brought with it improvements for macOS users such as support for biometric authentication when auto-filling content, and more. There were a few PWA improvements as well.

This week, the Redmond firm is also linking to a few announcements related to the Add-ons Growth Campaign to allow users to win prizes for installing extensions. The main goal is to “create a surge in extension downloads”, the firm says. Additionally, the company is also detailing the visibility improvements it is making to DevTools. As for features, this week’s build adds to management policies from Chrome, along with the fixes to reliability and the like.

Here is what’s new in today’s Dev channel release:

• Enabled support for a management policy from Chromium to control if CECPQ2 is Enabled.
• Enabled support for the management policy to control if Local Browser Data Share is Enabled, which lets surfaces in Windows search through the browser’s user data.

Here are the improvements that the firm is making to improve the reliability of the browser:

• Fixed an issue on Mac where the browser sometimes doesn’t open.
• Fixed a crash on launch.
• Fixed an issue where clicking on the … menu sometimes crashes the browser.
• Fixed a crash when using the Collections popup menu.
• Fixed a crash when clicking the Vertical Tabs button.
• Fixed a crash when setting the default browser.
• Fixed a crash when clicking the … menu in PWAs.
• Fixed an issue where selecting the Define option from the mini context menu crashes the browser.

And here is the list of changes that will address changed behavior:

• Fixed an issue where certain website permission Settings pages appear blank.
• Fixed an issue where searching for Settings brings up inaccurate results.
• Fixed an issue where the keyboard shortcut to enter Immersive Reader works on pages it isn’t supposed to.
• Fixed an issue where password generation puts the new password in more fields than necessary.
• Fixed an issue where the profile switcher is appearing on PWAs that aren’t eligible for profile switching.
• Fixed an issue where the … menu in PWAs sometimes doesn’t render properly.
• Fixed an issue where turning on vertical tabs when in full screen sometimes leads to tabs no longer being visible.
• Fixed an issue where UI is unexpectedly pink.
• Fixed an issue where pasting content into a Collection sometimes creates extra text notes.
• Fixed an issue where dragged vertical tabs don’t follow the mouse cursor properly.

Lastly, there are the known issues that are detailed, with some of them having been present for a while. There is the complete list:

• Certain extensions such as the Microsoft Editor extension don’t work on Linux. As soon as they’re installed, they crash and are disabled. We’re currently investigating.
• Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube. As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed. See this help article for more details.
• Some users are still running into an issue where all tabs and extensions immediately crash with a STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_HASH error. The most common cause of this error is outdated security or antivirus software from vendors like Symantec, and in those cases, updating that software will fix it.
• Users of the Kaspersky Internet Suite who have the associated extension installed may sometimes see webpages like Gmail fail to load. This failure is due to the main Kaspersky software being out of date, and is thus fixed by making sure the latest version is installed.
• Some users are still seeing favorites get duplicated. This issue should be reduced now that automatic deduplication has been introduced into Insider channels, but we’re still rolling that out in Stable. We’ve also seen duplication happen when running the manual deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.
• Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other. Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices. This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag.

As usual, the update should automatically be pulled by the browser in the background. However, you can always head into the About Microsoft Edge settings to manually check for updates and initiate the download.

Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced News and Interests, a feature that allowed Windows 10 users to access weather, news, traffic updates and more directly from the taskbar. Just last month, Microsoft started rolling out the News and Interests feature to all the Windows 10 users.

However, soon after the update was released, users started complaining about the blurry text in News and Interests on the taskbar. Earlier today, Microsoft updated its Windows 10 Health Dashboard page to acknowledge the bug. The company wrote:

Certain display configurations might cause blurry text on the news and interests button in the Windows taskbar.

The company also noted that it is working on a fix which will be available in an "upcoming release". However, it did not specify the display configurations that are affected by the bug or when can users expect a patch.

In the meantime, users can navigate to Settings > System > Display and set the recommended Scale and Layout. Furthermore, they can also switch News and Interests to 'icon only' which will hide the text and will act as a temporary workaround for the problem. If you are not happy with the feature then you can follow our guide to turn off the News and Interests widget permanently.

WinRAR is a popular commercial archive creation and extraction program, best known for supporting the RAR archive format.

WinRAR 6.02 was released earlier today and is available for download on the official website already. The update introduces important security improvements as well as other non-security related improvements and bug fixes.

A click on Help > About WinRAR displays the installed version on the device.

The official WinRAR 6.02 changelog lists two security-related improvements. The application uses HTTPS instead of HTTP from now on for its web notification window, home page and themes links. Additional checks have been implemented to make the web notifier more robust against potential threats.

An attacker needed to use advanced attacks that involved spoofing or gaining control over the DNS settings of a device, but would be able to use malicious webpages to execute existing files on a user system, if executed correctly. The move to HTTPS prevents this attack scenario entirely.

The second security-related change improves the handling of malformed archives. WinRAR 6.01 prevented the extraction of contents already, but WinRAR 6.02 improves that by refusing to process SFX (self-extracting) commands stored in archive comments if the comments reside after the beginning of the Authenticode digital signature; this is done to prevent attacks that abuse the loophole.

On the usability side, improvements are found in several areas. Error messages thrown by SFX archives will provide users with additional information in WinRAR 6.02. Previously, errors stated "cannot create file" only, which did not reveal the reason for the error. In WinRAR 6.02, the error will provide details, such as "access denied" or "file in use" when possible.

WinRAR did support the information for regular archives previously, but not for SFX archives; this changes with the release of WinRAR 6.02. Another useful addition is that the name of the unpacked file is now included in error messages related to incorrect passwords.

The release addresses two bugs. One fixes an issue that would see the error "The specified password is incorrect" thrown, despite that operations would complete successfully.

You can check the full changelog to find out about the second bug fix and several improvements to command line switches.

Now You: do you use WinRAR or another archiver?