Microsoft has already thrown in the web browser towel and has based its Edge browser on Chromium and it seems to be in a rush to put its past behind it. Perhaps even too hastily. It may now be practically dead with less than 10% of the browser market, but a recently revealed exploit continues to put users at risk because of IE's unique position. And Microsoft claims to be not in a rush to patch that up.
A recent study by the University of California, San Diego, showed four new ways to expose Internet users' browsing histories. They also showed the ways in which these histories could and can be used to target internet users with various attacks. Most of these attacks take aim psychologically, targeting the trust users have in details to which they believe only their closest friends and family have access.
It may not be at terrible as the now notorious Windows 10 October update, but for owners of certain Lenovo laptops, it might as well be. Last week, Microsoft rolled out a seemingly harmless update that, at least based on the Knowledge Base page, is just about fixing a security exploit in Internet Explorer. While majority of Windows users will install that update, even if they don’t use the ancient browser, Microsoft has now acknowledged that it is causing headaches for some Lenovo laptops in the process.
Microsoft has urged Windows users to update Internet Explorer, after Google researchers spotted serious issues in the browser that could allow a hacker to take over their computer from afar. The December 2018 Security Update Release applies to all Windows versions, not just Windows 10, Microsoft said, including Windows 8 and Windows Server, along with versions of the browser back to Internet Explorer 8.
Last week we confirmed that Microsoft would indeed be re-launching their Microsoft Edge web browser with Chromium innards - today we've got news on Chrome extensions. "It is our intention to support existing Chrome extensions," said Microsoft's Kyle Alden. It's not clear yet whether Microsoft will support a Windows 10 version of a Google Chrome sort of app store. It is confirmed that the extensions that'll work and already do work on the chrome web browser should work for Microsoft Edge with Chromium.
This morning Microsoft confirmed that the rumors were, indeed, true, that they'd be working with the Chromium open source project for Microsoft Edge. "Today we’re announcing that we intend to adopt the Chromium open source project in the development of Microsoft Edge on the desktop to create better web compatibility for our customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web developers," said Microsoft Corporate VP Joe Belfiore.
This week a new Google Search easter egg was discovered in the wild, complete with a whole bunch of adventurous paths one might take. To play Google's most recently-discovered in-product game, one must drop in on the English-language interface for Google Search. To find the game, on a desktop computer, in Google Search, search for the terms "text game" or "text adventure."
Workarounds are never fun, but sometimes you’ve got to deal with them. That was the case with WhatsApp Web and Internet Explorer, and later on with Microsoft Edge, too. If you've been using the workarounds or a different browser to compensate, good news: WhatsApp Web now officially supports both Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer, making setup as simple as a QR code.
At one point, Microsoft's web browser was considered to be the web browser, wresting the crown away from then forever king Netscape. Those were, however, Internet Explorer's golden days and the browser has since then become the butt of jokes in the Internet community. So it is almost fitting, but still with a heavy heart for some, that Microsoft has started 2016 by cutting off Internet Explorer versions 8, 9, and 10 from its font of continuous support and fixes. Same with Windows 8, which has also been a source of ridicule since its debut.
Bad news for those who use older versions of Microsoft Windows, good news for just about everyone else on the planet: Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10 are finally being killed off next Tuesday. January 12th is the browsers' official "end of life" date, or when Microsoft will no longer support them with updates and security fixes. On that date, the company will be releasing a patch to encourage current users to upgrade to IE 11, which will be supported for a bit longer, or Microsoft's new Edge browser.
This week at MWC Shanhai 2015, ZTE revealed the ZTE SmartHome, a device they call their "first ever smart home gateway." This device works with wireless protocol, ZigBee, and 4G LTE connectivity for always-connected functionality. This device is set to be the center of your smart home, with an application for smartphones and tablets to control smart home devices of all sorts. In addition to a ZTE-made app for mobile devices, this device can also be controlled via web browser from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome.
This probably comes as a shock to no one, but Microsoft is truly putting the infamous yet still widely used Internet Explorer to rest. We all expected that when Microsoft formally acknowledged the Project Spartan web browser, but now it is making that even more formal as well as technical. While Windows 10 will still ship with both the Spartan browser and Internet Explorer 11, it will draw a hard line between the two in terms of browser engines, with Spartan exclusively using the new "Edge" engine, leaving IE to become legacy.