Enter the Gecko

 

Firefox released version 89 recently with a new look named Proton. It brings a major change to the user interface in its colors and looks, giving the web browser a more modern feel.

 

Web browsers look incredibly similar these days, with the tabs on top, a menu accessible to the right, and a bookmarks bar if you so choose. However, Mozilla has been unique in these browser wars, working on improving its own Gecko engine instead of moving to WebKit or Google’s Chromium variant, as Microsoft Edge has.

 

With the new look now out on all platforms, we spoke to Mozilla about the new release, and if it has any particular hopes for WWDC next week.

A New Look

Using the new UI it prompted us to ask, why the drive to redesign it now?

 

“Late 2020, we had a vision of what we wanted Firefox to be. Currently, we're living in a frenetic time where people are dealing with really tough challenges every day. It's hard to solve problems that are popping up everywhere on the Web,” a Mozilla spokesperson tells us over email.

 

“We believe that the browser should be a piece of software that you can rely on to have your back, whether that's privacy, performance or security, and that it looks amazing and works seamlessly with the Web.”

While the UI is clearly an improvement on what came before, it also prompted the team to work on optimizing the browser overall.

“On June 1, our Firefox release had ground-breaking design work, challenging engineering work and a really great end product,” they tell us. “With this release, we took on a mission to save everyone time. On Firefox, it means making pages load faster, using less memory or simply streamlining the everyday use of the browser.

We believe we have a fresh take on the Internet and the tools we use to harness the Web.” 

In every project one makes, there’s always an aspect that you’re proud of, however minor it is. Mozilla agreed.

“The team is most proud of the Streamlined Clutter-Free Menus. We prioritized the content based on what people clicked on when they visited the menu,” we were told. 

“We made the labels less cryptic and more cohesive. Also, we removed some elements and refreshed the icons so that it was easier for people to see at a glance where they wanted to go. We worked to deliver an inviting, high quality experience so that people felt calm, no matter where they use Firefox — on a computer, phone or tablet. That meant paring down and streamlining over adding and expanding.”

 Accessibility in Proton

A new user interface also has to cater for those with accessibility needs, so we asked whether the new Proton appearance made sure to factor this in.

“For this release, we looked at the use of dark themes and colors and overall minimizing visual noise,” Mozilla explained. “This year, we will continue to work with the accessibility community to address their specific needs and incorporate them in future releases.”

It seems as though the company isn't done yet in improving accessibility for Firefox and Proton as a whole.

However, one aspect of the user interface that is already sticking out to many users are the tabs. They look as though they're more suited to touch displays, so we asked Mozilla whether this was deliberate.

“For the tabs, our primary aim was to redesign these tabs so that they floated neatly, and we added the visual indicators, like blocking autoplay videos until you’re ready to visit that tab,” Mozilla says. “More than 50% of people have four tabs or more open. We detached the tab from the browser to make it more inviting for people to move, rearrange and pull out tabs into a new window to suit your flow, and organize them so they’re easier for them to find.”

Gecko Engine on iOS 15?

Of course, we’re on the eve of Apple's WWDC where iOS 15, macOS 12 and many more updates are expected to be announced. I asked Mozilla whether they had any wishes themselves, or even if it’s just being allowed to use the Gecko engine instead of WebKit, which is a requirement for browsers in Apple’s App Store.

“Yes, the most obvious is to be able to leverage GeckoView in our Firefox iOS app. Overall, Apple is a partner and we were very excited to see the new privacy features put in place with iOS 14 and the default browser option. We're hoping for more great news for this upcoming WWDC.”

Version 11.4 update seemingly solves gremlins in the SSD works

 

 

A problem where the SSDs of Apple Macs running M1 chips were supposedly being hit with excessive wear – or at least apparent misreported excessive wear – has been fixed, according to a new report.

 

You may recall the original story about SSD wear which appeared back in February, observing that the issue was only a serious problem for a very small number of Mac owners – but nonetheless, it obviously prompted some concern.

 

Apple was never drawn to comment on the purported SSD gremlins in the works here, but AppleInsider now reports that the problem is seemingly cured in the new macOS 11.4 update (which emerged late in May) – while noting that a source within Apple told them off the record that this bug was actually a data reporting error in the software measuring SSD usage (a possibly raised back at the time).

 

In other words, the observed (in some rare cases) alarming wear-and-tear wasn’t actually happening to the drive physically (rather, it was just being misreported as happening).

 

That inside Apple source informed the tech site that the macOS 11.4 update has solved the problem, and AppleInsider confirmed that the operating system is now reporting ‘proper uptime statistics’ where it wasn’t before.

Thrash no more

One of the denizens of Twitter who flagged up the problem initially, developer Hector Martin, also separately stated (just before the release of macOS 11.4) that: “Update on the macOS SSD thrashing issue: It seems the issue is fixed in 11.4.”

Martin, however, maintains in that Twitter thread that this was an actual problem causing drive wear as opposed to a misreporting issue as indicated by AppleInsider and its source.

 

At any rate, the issue appears to have been remedied with macOS 11.4, so should now be a thing of the past once that update is applied. That 11.4 update also applies a bunch of security fixes, and cures some bugs including problems with Safari.

 

Via Tom’s Hardware

 

Sophia Script, which was formerly known as Windows 10 Setup Script, is a powerful PowerShell script to modify settings of the Windows 10 operating system.

 

The script requires that users go through it to enable or disable the tweaks to avoid future issues when using the operating system.

 

The latest version of the script supports a wrapper that makes the process easier to follow and less error prone. Sophia Script Wrapper displays all options in a graphical user interface when run. While it still takes a bit of time to go through all of the settings, as there are hundreds of them, it improves the process considerably.

 

The developers of the script and wrapper are working on an application, called Sophia App, which will make things comfortable for users.

 

 

Several test versions of the application have been released on GitHub. The app is not fully functional at this point in time, but it can be run already to get a preview of how it will look like. For now, it is advised to use the script and wrapper, but later this year, the application will replace the script and wrapper as the main tool going forward.

 

The main plan is to support all functionality of Sophia Script in SophiaApp. The main interface displays the same menu options as the wrapper already, but most are not filled with content yet. The Privacy menu is the main exception, but making changes does seem to not work at this point.

 

SophiaApp will support Windows 10 version 2004 or newer only, including the latest release at the time of writing, Windows 10 version 21H1.

 

The script version supports a wide range of tweaks to change privacy settings, the user interface and personalization, start menu, apps, scheduled tasks and more. Not all options are self-explanatory, but you can hover over an option to get a help text that provides more details on the tweak.

 

Closing Words

 

The decision to turn the script into an application may attract users to the project who stayed away from using the script because it was difficult to use. The wrapper certainly helps with that, but the app could make things even better for users.

 

We will certainly keep an eye on the development of the app and add it to our overview of privacy tweakers for Windows 10 once it is released as a stable version and found well designed and helpful.

 

Microsoft has released a new Office Insider Preview Build 14131.20008(Beta Channel) for Windows users. The new Office Insider Preview build adds no new features, instead, you get a ton of fixes for issues found in Word, PowerPoint, Office Suit. You can read the full official changelog below.

Changelog

Word

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue where comment replies were sometimes lost when coauthoring with multiple users.
• We fixed an issue where character spacing increased for specific fonts when rotating them 90 degrees.

PowerPoint

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue to ensure that a file saved using the Retry Save button on the bus bar is added to the Recent List.

Office Suite

Notable fixes

• We fixed an issue where the CLP feature previously caused unprompted saves to the SyncBacked file (File synced by OneDrive).
• We fixed an issue where the user was unable to edit files stored in OnPrem servers.

To update to the latest Microsoft Office Insider Preview Build, open any Office program and go to File> Account> Update Options> Update Now.

 

The auto-completion of passwords and payment details has to a large degree enabled the e-commerce revolution, and today we can report that Microsoft is looking to expand that capability to more areas.

 

In the latest Edge Canary builds, Microsoft is offering users to save and edit details for custom fields such as passport or account numbers, so you would only ever have to enter them once.

 

 

 

Microsoft released a new feature update for its Windows 10 operating system last month. Windows 10 version 21H1 is a smaller update that installs almost as fast on devices running Windows 10 version 2004 or 20H2 as the monthly cumulative updates the company releases.

 

The rollout is limited currently via Windows Update to devices running Windows 10 version 2004 or 20H2, and it may not be offered to all of those devices right now.

 

Microsoft is throttling the availability of the update in the first weeks after release to "ensure a reliable download experience".

 

 

Windows administrators may install the update using other means, for instance by using Microsoft's Update Assistant or Media Creation Tool. You can check out our guide on downloading and installing Windows 10 version 21H1 for details.

 

A recent update on the known issues and notifications page of Windows 10 version 21H1 on Microsoft's Docs website reveals that Microsoft has started the first phase of machine learning training to improve the delivery of updates to customer systems.

We also started the first phase in our rollout for machine learning (ML) training, targeting devices on Windows 10, version 2004 to update automatically to Windows 10, version 21H1. We will continue to train our machine learning through all phases to intelligently rollout new versions of Windows 10 and deliver a smooth update experience.

In the first phase, machine learning is trained on devices running Windows 10 version 2004 who are updated to the latest feature update automatically. Microsoft plans to use machine learning in the future to improve the delivery of updates, by rolling updates out intelligently and making the update experience smoother in the process.

 

Microsoft is using machine learning already to improve the Windows 10 update experience. The approach helps Microsoft detect and fix potential issues faster, and to prevent the distribution of problematic updates until issues are resolved.

Closing Words

The majority of feature update had several issues, some of which were detected only after the official release by Microsoft. The machine learning approach won't remove the need to backup systems before installing updates, as issues may be still be introduced that cannot be fixed using built-in features of the Windows operating system.

 

Mozilla Ideas is a new platform by Firefox maker Mozilla to improve communication with the Firefox userbase. At its core, Ideas works similarly to Uservoice and other services of its kind. Firefox users and developers may post new content on the platform, and everyone else may comment and vote on the idea.

 

The introduction on the main page reveals Mozilla's intentions with the platform:

This is where we grow our next generation of ideas, designs, experiments and products. You can take a look at the big problems we're working on, challenges we're exploring and bring your ideas to the conversation as we shape up and ship our next generation of software and services.

The service is powered by Crowdicity, a third-party service. An account is required to interact with the service, e.g. to post new ideas, leave comments or vote. A Firefox account is not supported, but you may sign-in with any email address or by using social media accounts.

 

 

Users may access the latest, top voted, most discussed or even random topics on the Ideas platform. Current ideas include re-adding the compact interface option, improving the master password protection, or providing a higher contrast default theme.

 

A click on an idea displays its description, user comments, stats, and options to subscribe to the idea or give it a thumbs up vote. Mozilla employees participate on the site, but they are not highlighted in any way.

Ideas features challenges as well. These are topics that Mozilla would like to gather ideas for. Current challenges include "stay safe and private online", "search and navigate the web", or "customizing, extensions and themes".

 

Users of the site may publish ideas related to a challenge, and when you select one, all active ideas that have been posted already are shown.

Closing words

Mozilla Ideas serves two main purposes: first, to improve communication with the Firefox userbase, and second, to move user posts from Mozilla's bug tracking site to the new Ideas platform. Mozilla employees are interacting on the Ideas platform, and it is likely that popular ideas will get the attention of the organization. Whether that will lead to changes on the platform remains to be seen.

Microsoft has started training their machine learning algorithms by automatically updating Windows 10 2004 devices to the recently released Windows 10 21H1, the May 2021 feature update.

 

In 2019, Microsoft announced that they were using machine learning to improve the reliability of the Windows Update experience.

 

"To help with the complexity of the aspects we need to evaluate, we are increasing our investments in machine learning (ML) technologies. Machine learning helps us detect potential issues more quickly and helps us decide the best time to update each PC once a new version of Windows is available," Microsoft explained in a blog post.

 

Last month, Microsoft released the Windows 10 21H1 feature update, also known as the May 2021 Update, to users as an optional update displayed when manually performing a 'Check for updates' in Windows Update.

Starting on June 2nd, Microsoft announced that they have begun to automatically upgrade Windows 10 2004 devices to Windows 10  21H1 to train their machine learning algorithms.

 

"We also started the first phase in our rollout for machine learning (ML) training, targeting devices on Windows 10, version 2004 to update automatically to Windows 10, version 21H1," Microsoft said on the Windows 10 21H1 known issues and notifications page.

 

"We will continue to train our machine learning through all phases to intelligently rollout new versions of Windows 10 and deliver a smooth update experience."
 
Microsoft states that they are throttling availability for this update over the upcoming weeks, and it may not be available to all users. 

 

For those who wish to install Windows 10 21H1 immediately, you can perform a 'Check for updates' in Windows Update and click on the 'Download and install' option when presented.

 

The new feature update is also available for deployment using the Media Creation Tool or via WSUS.

 

H/T Deskmodder.de

 

Twitter's long rumored subscription service quietly launched late last month, courtesy of an update to the app's listing on Apple's App Store. Twitter Blue costs $2.99 per month, and for that price you'll get access to a number of features such as the ability to organize tweets into folders, use custom icons, and change the app's accent color.

 

Today, the micro-blogging service formally introduced Blue, with its first iteration now rolling out in Australia and Canada. Subscribers in those countries will pay CA$3.49 or AU$4.49 to have access to several premium features mentioned above as well as the ability to revise a tweet before it goes live with "Undo Tweet". This feature allows you to set a timer of up to 30 seconds, within which you can retract your tweet and make the necessary changes before posting it. More importantly, it gives you some time window to preview your tweet before anyone else can see it.

 

 

 

 

In addition, there's a new Bookmark Folders feature with which you can organize your saved tweets in a single location where it's easier to find them. If you'd like a more convenient reading experience, then the “Reader Mode” is your thing. It lets you view threads more easily by “turning them into easy-to-read text”.

 

Twitter Blue is initially available in Australia and Canada starting today, with the goal of gathering feedback in order to build more features for subscribers. There's no word, though, as to when the service will launch in other regions.

Comments can help facilitate collaboration between employees working remotely

 

 

Collaborating with others in Google Sheets is about to become much more manageable as Google is adding new ways to find and review comments in its spreadsheet software.

 

In a new post on the Google Workspace blog, the search giant has announced that users will now be able to review comments and conversation threads in a sidebar, apply filters to find the most relevant comments and page through comment threads in a spreadsheet in the comment overlay.

 

In the new comments sidebar, Sheets users can quickly reply, resolve or create new conversations with their colleagues. However, for spreadsheets being used by large teams, users can apply filters in the sidebar to find the most relevant feedback such as comment threads that they need to respond to personally.

 

Google has also introduced a new navigator in Sheets to help users progress through comments in a spreadsheet.

Reviewing comments

Whether you're working from home or have already returned to the office, collaborating with teammates is more important than ever and comments provide an easy way to discuss issues wherever and whenever you're working.

 

With these new changes to Google Sheets, users will be able to navigate through all of the comments in a spreadsheet by clicking on the comment icon in the Appbar, the “open all comments” item in the sheet tab, the “open” button from any comment anchored to a cell and a new button in the comment overlay that allows users to page between comment threads.

 

These new features will be turned on for all Sheets users including G Suite Basic and Business customers as well as all Google Workspace customers. Google has already begun rolling out this new update in Sheets and the company plans to have it finished by mid-June.

OneDrive is getting a significant overhaul later this year

 

Microsoft is working on a major upgrade for OneDrive that is set to arrive later this year which will give users greater control over how they share files using the company's cloud storage software.

 

According to four separate posts on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, the software giant plans to overhaul the sharing experience in OneDrive with new options that will make it easier to share files and manage who has access to them once they've been shared.

 

The first update to OneDrive's sharing experience will come in the form of new options to the service's Share menu that will provide easy access to additional sharing options including email, copy link, Microsoft Teams chat and more. This feature is currently in development and just like with the rest of the new features coming to OneDrive, it will arrive in November of this year.

 

Microsoft is also working on a new “Shared with” list at the bottom of the Share dialog which will give users an at-a-glance view of everyone they've given access to a particular file.

Accessing shared files

In order to make it easier for users to access files that have been shared with them, Microsoft plans on updating the “Manage Access” experience in OneDrive. Once this update rolls out, users will have access to additional controls that will let them decide how recipients can access shared files.

 

Microsoft will also replace the Copy link button in OneDrive with a footer in its upcoming update. In this footer, users will be able to set permissions for links before copying them to share with recipients.

We'll likely hear more on the company's major update to its cloud storage service once we get closer to its release but in the meantime, you can test out the new 64-bit version of OneDrive that offers improved performance and makes it easier to transfer large files due to the fact that it can utilize all of the RAM in your Windows 10 PC.

A special Windows event is coming later this month

 

You may have heard about EdgeDeflector from an article we did in which we feature it as a way to change the behavior of the new News and Interests widget that ignores your default browser when links are opened from it. This little tool changes how Windows 10 stubbornly defaults to the Edge browser to open links from Help dialogs, Cortana and News and Interests, and instead forces it to respect what you chose in the Default apps > Web browser settings of Windows.

 

The developer of EdgeDeflector has released a new version bringing it up to version 1.2.1.0 just over a month after releasing 1.2.0.0 which was a major release. In this version there's just one important change in the release notes:

• Resolved an issue where weather links on the task bar would not open.
  (New in Windows 10 21H1.)

As a reminder, below is the release notes from the more major 1.2.0.0 version, which was released after a three and a half years hiatus, to address changes in the way Windows 10 blocks automation of setting some features during installation; much in the same way that it is no longer possible for software installations to set App defaults, this must now be done manually.

 

Here are those release notes:

• New post-installation greeting page helps user through manual installation steps.
  (Changes in Windows 10 prevents automation during installation.)
• Now installs per-user.
  (No longer requires administrative permissions to install.)
• Resolved issues that caused anti-virus programs to consider the installer and program suspicious.
• Resolved potential localization issue.

The developer warns that any old versions prior to 1.2.0.0 must be uninstalled before installing the newer versions. If you're upgrading from 1.2.0.0 to 1.2.1.0 you will not need to uninstall it first. To use, follow the steps below:

 

• Download and install EdgeDeflector v1.2.1.0 from the Releases page on GitHub,
• Go to All settings > Apps > Default apps,
• Scroll to the bottom and click Choose default apps by protocol,
• Locate MICROSOFT-EDGE in the list and click on the program icon to the right of it,
• Select EdgeDeflector from the list. Confirm the change if asked to.

 

The above process is also detailed here, which also lets you reverse the above steps, if needed. If you want to learn more about how EdgeDeflector works and why it was created, you can visit the developer's blog post on it, here.

Source: EdgeDeflector on GitHub

Google has been working on tab previews for Chrome a while now, with the first hints of the feature showing up early in 2019. The company has included hidden flags for the feature that allows users to either enable just hover cards with information or a preview image of the website as well – akin to what was present in legacy Edge. The firm introduced tab hover cards as the default behavior for the hover action on tabs with Chrome 91 that released last week.

 

However, it removed the ability to disable the tab hover card feature by getting rid of the flag in chrome://flags with version 91, allowing users to only enable or disable the hover card images. While the change is minor and might even be overlooked, feedback from some users has been negative, as they can no longer enable the legacy tooltips for tabs. Other posts from users on the Chromium bug tracker suggest that the lack of traditional tooltips is also an accessibility pain point. To address this, the firm might be looking to add a setting to Chrome that will allow users to toggle between tooltips and tab hover cards.

 

 

 

A new commit to the Chromium Gerrit (spotted by Reddit users Leopeva64-2) contains code that refers to a toggle button for tab hover cards, which can be disabled to return to the “legacy tab tooltip”. However, the commit does not guarantee that such a setting will be included in Chrome, since there is pushback from other owners, arguing against adding preference settings that impact the behavior of the browser’s features and calling for the improvement of the feature itself. The individual also links to a Core Principles document that advocates against hidden preferences.

It will be interesting to see if the firm introduces a setting for disabling the feature, or if it will address concerns and feedback by tweaking the UI itself.

 

 

 

The Windows version of Firefox can now automatically upgrade itself to the latest version in the background when the web browser is not running.

 

"Background Update is now available on Windows. This feature will allow Firefox to update, even if it is not running," the Firefox 90.0 Beta release notes read.

 

"Until now, Firefox has only downloaded and installed updates when the user runs it. This means that users that use Firefox infrequently are often out-of-date," according to Kirk Steuber, Platform Engineer at Mozilla.

 

"It also means that if they open Firefox again in response to a marketing campaign, they may not immediately get the features advertised.

 

"Background Update aims to address this problem by allowing updates to be downloaded and installed, even when the user doesn't run Firefox."

How the background update feature works 

Firefox background updates will be scheduled for the default profile every 7 hours when the browser is not running to check for new updates, download them, and install them without requiring user interaction.

 

The underlying mechanism behind the OS-level scheduled update tasks is Firefox running in a stripped-down headless "Background Task Mode."

 

While you are using Firefox, the headless Firefox process will not check for updates to avoid affecting the user experience by inadvertently forcing restarts.

 

"If you need to disable this functionality, about:preferences should show a checkbox in the 'Updates' section for you to disable, or you can set the BackgroundAppUpdate Firefox policy to false," Mozilla's Nick Alexander said.

Rolling out to all Windows users

This new feature was first rolled out to Windows Nightly users on April 12 in the form of a Background Update Agent.

 

Background Update is now part of a staged rollout to all Windows users over the next few months, as part of the Beta 89 and the Release 89 cycles.

 

However, Mozilla first announced that the feature was under development more than four years ago as a background process designed to check for updates and apply them for users with slow Internet connections and/or who don't run Firefox daily.

 

While background updates have already been announced for Windows, there are no immediate plans to implement the feature for macOS and Linux.

 

On a related note, Firefox also installs an optional service named Mozilla Maintenance Service that only launches in the background when updates are downloaded.

 

This service is designed to allow updates to be installed without requiring the user to click "Yes" in the Windows User Account Control (UAC) dialog.

 

Kali Linux 2021.2 was released today by Offensive Security and includes new themes and features, such as access to privileged ports, new tools, and a console-based configuration utility.

 

Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for cybersecurity professionals and ethical hackers to perform penetration testing and security audits.

 

With this release, the Kali Linux Team introduces the following new features outlined below.

Kaboxer 1.0 released

In May, Offensive Security announced the Kali Applications Boxer (Kaboxer) tool, which allows complex and non-standard applications to be packaged in containers along with all of their dependencies.

 

"Enter Kaboxer. Using containers we can put in complex non-standard package into a container and integrate it with the rest of the operating system, and bundle it up into the packaging eco-system," Kali explained in a blog post.

 

"This means you can apt-install a Kaboxer program and use it without needing to take any special steps."

 

With today's official release of Kaboxer, Offensive Security has introduced three new packages to Kali Linux:

 

• Covenant - Daemon using server/client network model
• Firefox (Developer Edition) - Big GUI desktop application
• Zenmap - Legacy libraries (Python 2) application

Kali-tweaks 1.0 released

The new kali-tweaks console utility allows users to customize the distribution to their specific needs by adding particular packages, configuring network repositories, customizing the shell, and enabling further support when running under a virtual machine.

The utility currently supports the following tasks:

 

• Metapackages - Installing/removing groups of tools, which may not have been available while installing Kali if you did not use the installer image
• Network Repositories - Enabling/disabling “bleeding-edge” & “experimental” branches
• Shell & Prompt - Switch between two or one line prompt, enable/disable the extra line before the prompt, or configure Bash or ZSH as the default shell
• Virtualization - Using Kali as a guest VM? Do a few actions to make the experience easier!

Unprivileged access to all TCP & UDP ports

Kali Linux users running the distro using Offensive Security's Linux kernel will now have unprivileged access to all TCP and UDP ports.

 

In the past, Kali Linux did not allow access to TCP/UDP ports 0 through 1023 as they were reserved for well-known services, and Kali was considered a desktop OS rather than a server distribution.

To connect to privileged ports for their own services, users were either port forwarding to the well-known service ports (ports 80, 443, 21, etc.) to non-standard ports or running the programs with root-level permissions.

 

However, running a server using 'sudo server' defeats the purpose of this security layer and potentially exposes the distribution to attacks.

 

With Kali Linux 2021.2, users can now access TCP and UDP ports

Complete list of changes in Kali Linux 2021.2

The complete list of changes in Kali Linux 2021.2 are:

 

• Releasing Kaboxer v1.0 - Introducing Kali Applications Boxer v1.0! Applications in containers.
• Releasing Kali-Tweaks v1.0 - Our way to make it easier to configure Kali Linux to your taste.
• Refreshed Bleeding-Edge branch - We did a complete makeover for our backend that produces packages for the latest updates.
• Disabled privileged ports - Opening a listener on ports 1024/TCP-UDP and below no longer requires super-user access.
• Theme enhancements - We added a way to quickly swap between double & one-line terminal prompt and made Xfce4 Quick launch + file manager tweaks.
• New Tools - A variety of new tools were added to Kali Linux 2021.2, with further details below.
• Desktop wallpaper & login background updates - Default images have changed with more to choose from.
• Raspberry Pi images recharged - RPi 400 fully supported, built-in bluetooth working, & first-run wait time dramatically reduced.
• Kali NetHunter support for Android 11 - Android 11 support and various other improvements for our NetHunter platform.
• More Docker support - Now supporting ARM64 & ARM v7 (along with previous AMD64).
• Parallels support - Kali is fully supported for Apple M1 users who have Parallels.
• Various bug fixes - Pkexec patched, Wireshark permissions, command-not-found issues, & more accessibility features are all resolved.

 

It wouldn't be a new Kali Linux version without some new tools and utilities, listed below:

 

• CloudBrute - Find a company infrastructure, files, and apps on the top cloud providers
• Dirsearch - Brute force directories and files in web servers
• Feroxbuster - Simple, fast, recursive content discovery
• Ghidra - Reverse engineering framework
• Pacu - AWS exploitation framework
• Peirates - Kubernetes penetration
• Quark-Engine - Android malware scoring system
• VSCode a.k.a. Visual Studio Code Open Source (“Code-OSS”) - Code editor

How to get Kali Linux 2021.2

To install a fresh version of Kali Linux 2021.2, you can download ISO images that support full installs or live distributions.

 

For those updating from a previous version, you can use the following commands to upgrade to the latest version.

echo "deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

cp -i /etc/skel/.bashrc ~/

cp -i /etc/skel/.zshrc ~/

chsh -s /bin/zsh

[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

You can then check if the upgrade to Kali Linux 2021.2 was successful using the following command:

grep VERSION /etc/os-release

 

After a bit of a hiatus, Microsoft has returned to a Tuesday schedule for Edge Dev builds as it today released version 92.0.902.2. The firm adds that this will be the last major build for version 92 as it prepares to promote the version to the Beta channel. However, there could be a few minor updates between now and when the first version 93 build makes it to the Dev channel.

 

As for this week’s update, the firm is detailing the ability for users to add a Web Capture image to Collections directly from the feature’s markup page, making it easy to quickly capture sections of or entire web pages and save it to a Collection, which is a nifty feature for students that are working on projects. The ability was first announced earlier last month.

 

Other new features include the completion of the rollout of the new Extensions menu, the Price History feature, improved options in PWAs that are installed as apps, and more. The company also recapped the announcements from last week’s Build conference, including the rollout of Edge 91 to all users.

 

Here is the entire list of features added with this week’s build:

• Added a feature flag to enter Immersive Reader automatically when navigating to an eligible page.
• Improved the … menu in PWAs and websites installed as apps to only show relevant options.
• Finished rolling out the new Extensions menu, Smart History Search, and Price History.
• Enabled by default the ability to pin the Favorites, History, etc. menus and have that state remembered, as well as the Collections popup menu.
• Added management policies to control if the setting for AAD Website SSO Using This Profile is Enabled, the Automatic HTTPS Default setting, if Internet Explorer Integration to Reload In IE Mode is Allowed, the Internet Explorer Integration Local Site List Expiration in Days, and if Local Browser Data Share is Enabled, which controls how Edge shares local user data with the Windows Search Indexer. Note that updates to documentation and administrative templates may not have happened yet.

As usual, the build also brings with it a number of fixes to improve the reliability of the browser. These include fixes for browser crashes when closing a tab or navigating between websites. Here are all the reliability improvements:

• Fixed an issue where new tabs crash as soon as they’re opened.
• Fixed an issue where navigating to certain websites sometimes crashes the browser.
• Fixed an issue where typing into a password field sometimes crashes the browser.
• Fixed a crash when closing a tab.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where closing a tab sometimes crashes the browser.
• Fixed a crash when opening InPrivate windows.
• Fixed a crash when installing a PWA or website as an app.
• Fixed a crash using Smart Copy or Web Capture.
• Fixed an issue where opening items in a Collection sometimes crashes the browser.
• Fixed an issue where searching for a setting sometimes crashes the Settings page.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where searching for settings causes the Settings page to go blank.
• Fixed an issue where the Settings page to view all permissions for a particular website is blank.
• Fixed a hang when opening the browser.
• Fixed an issue where AV1 videos sometimes don’t work.

And here are the fixes being made to address changed behavior:

• Fixed an issue where certain videos, like on Amazon, fail to play with the error “video unavailable”.
• Fixed an issue where recent tabs aren’t restored via ctrl+shift+T if a PWA or a website installed as an app has recently been closed.
• Re-enabled PWAs and websites installed as apps to be restored with the browser’s previous session.
• Fixed an issue where the dialog to restore tabs after the browser unexpectedly shuts down sometimes appears unexpectedly if certain extensions are installed.
• Fixed an issue where the Default Cookie Setting management policy unexpectedly disables the setting to Block Third-Party Cookies.
• Fixed an issue on Linux where sync doesn’t work.
• Fixed an issue with syncing favorites.
• Fixed an issue where printing multiple times sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where the History popup sometimes scrolls or goes blank unexpectedly.
• Fixed an issue where new windows couldn’t be opened from the Jumplist.
• Fixed an issue where tooltips sometimes get stuck onscreen.
• Fixed an issue where the list of trackers in the site info popup is blank.
• Fixed an issue where corrupted extensions can’t be repaired.
• Fixed an issue where favorites imported from another browser sometimes aren’t arranged correctly.
• Fixed an issue where importing certain types of data from other browsers fails.
• Fixed an issue where the “Switch to this tab” button in the address bar dropdown sometimes goes to the wrong tab.
• Fixed an issue where Web Capture or Smart Copy don’t automatically scroll when selecting content.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where keyboard shortcuts sometimes have missing or incorrect symbols.
• Fixed an issue where certain UI like the new tab button is unexpectedly colored red.
• Deprecated the management policy to control if Internet Explorer Integration Testing is Allowed.
• Obsoleted the management policy to Enable Sha 1 For Local Anchors.
• Disabled Kids Mode on Linux.

Lastly, there is the list of known issues that users must be aware of, including issues with the Microsoft Editor extension on Linux, which the firm says it is investigating. Here is the complete list of known issues with this build:

• 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 always, the update should automatically be downloaded and installed in the background. However, users can choose to head into the About Microsoft Edge setting to force check for an update and download it. As mentioned earlier, this might be one of the last major version 92 builds, which will then be promoted to the Beta channel sometime next week.

Microsoft To Do for Windows 10 gets updated with a new feature

 

Microsoft To Do for Windows 10 is getting a new update, adding a useful new feature for those who want to try the app for the first time.

 

Taking the app version to 2.45.2105.27004, the update makes it easier for the first-time users to quickly get started with To Do, thanks to the new sample lists, which are pre-created when you install the app for the first time. Apart from that, the update also brings accessibility fixes and improvements to the app sync process, thus facilitating a seamless in-app and cross-device experience for you. You can read the full official changelog below.

Changelog

1. New to To Do? You can now quickly get started with To Do with the two new sample lists we’ve pre-created for you.
2. We’ve made a few accessibility fixes and improvements to the app sync process to facilitate a seamless in-app and cross-device experience for you.

You can download the latest version of Microsoft To Do app from the below link, or you can visit Microsoft Store to install the app.

 

Microsoft is known to be working towards unifying Outlook across platforms, something that the company discussed during its Ignite conference last year. The email client is expected to move to a web-based platform powered by what the firm calls Outlook on the web Powered Experiences (OPX) and is rumored to be in the works under the Project Monarch codename.

 

While the app is expected to be released in preview form later this year and is set for a 2022 public release, Microsoft seems to have posted what looks to be screenshots of the possible offering in the release notes for the latest Office Insiders Beta Channel build.

 

The notes contain an image consisting of two Outlook windows, with the window in the foreground showing off the new Organization Explorer feature. The one in the background, however, sports a new design housing new icons, a refreshed left pane, and rounded window corners.

 

We can confirm from our testing that this is not something that is rolling out to Insiders, letting us believe that this is either a slip-up from the company or a mock-up of the upcoming email client, and not the finished product itself.

 

Additionally, the design in the image shares more in common with the desktop version of the client than the web app – which is what the unified version is expected to be based on. Though, there are the title bar icons like the web version, making the screenshots look like an amalgamation of the desktop and web clients.

 

It is possible that the Redmond firm is preparing a refreshed design for the desktop version to align with the rumored Sun Valley update for Windows 10 before moving to the OPX-based version. It is also not clear if the design is what is being readied for the next perpetual version of the productivity suite.

 

Microsoft has pushed out a fix for the Microsoft Edge 91 startup bugs and nag screens plaguing users since the new version of the browser was released.

 

Last week, Microsoft Edge 91 was released, and users immediately began reporting that the browser was not opening to their configured startup page, and a 'Use recommended browser settings' nag screen being shown too often.

Soon after we reported on these bugs, Microsoft pushed out what appears to be a configuration change, and users are now saying [1, 2] that the bugs are fixed after restarting the browser.

 

When Microsoft Edge launches, it will connect to Microsoft servers and download a configuration file specific to your device.

 

This configuration file contains various directives regarding what features are enabled, what experiments you are enrolled in, and other settings.

 

As we were affected by the bugs in the release of Microsoft Edge 91, we were able to test the new configuration changes, and the issues have been fixed on our end.

 

While it is not clear what Microsoft changed to fix these issues, you can now close the browser and restart it again for the fix to go into effect.

 

Thx to Opera for the tip!