Wednesday Newsbytes: Firefox blames Google for its demise, Windows 10 Version Update Coming Soon, Windows 11’s Update Causing Blue Screens, Microsoft’s Password Trick… and more!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature some news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Mozilla blames Google’s lock-in practices for Firefox’s demise
Making the case not everyone likes Chrome
There used to be a time when Google’s Chrome browser had tough competition from Mozilla’s Firefox and, to some degree, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Those two, however, have fizzled out over time as Chrome became the undisputed king of the web space. Now, Mozilla is calling out Google and other companies for anticompetitive practices that have led not only to Firefox’s downfall but for limiting user choice as well.
Mozilla has just published a report (via TechCrunch) that attempts to document how Google, Apple, and Microsoft have exerted their influence over their users in an attempt to benefit their own ecosystem of apps, and in turn, their browser. After all, Google makes the Chrome browser and Android, Apple makes Safari and macOS/iOS, and Microsoft makes Edge and Windows. All of them have, to varying degrees, swayed users to their browsers and have purposefully made it difficult to switch to another browser through heavy integration and a train of prompts to prevent conversion.
Accessing Google from a non-Chrome browser will show a prompt for you to download Chrome and, if you’re on Windows, you might already be familiar with Microsoft’s constant pleas to get you to use Edge. These strategies are successful to some extent and an unfair advantage against third parties like Mozilla, which don’t have that kind of pull on users.
Whether that’s the whole story regarding how Firefox fell off as one of the top browsers is another story, but Mozilla does have a point…
The next Windows 10 feature update is coming in October
Microsoft released the first feature update for Windows 11 this week. The Windows 11 2022 Update introduced several usability improvements and changes to Microsoft’s newest operating system and additional content, including File Explorer tabs, will be launched next month.
Some Windows 10 devices will likely be upgraded to Windows 11 now. Windows 10 devices that are not compatible with Windows 11 can also be upgraded, bypassing the system requirements. Microsoft advises against this, and most Windows 10 users may prefer the less-stressful option of staying on Windows 10. The curious may check out ‘should you upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11‘ for additional information.
When Microsoft announced the Windows 11 feature update this week, it revealed what is coming next for Windows 10.
‘As I have previously noted, for customers who are using a device that is not eligible for Windows 11, Windows 10 is a great place to be. Windows 10 will be serviced through Oct. 14, 2025 and we have announced that the next feature update to Windows 10, version 22H2, is coming next month, continuing to offer you both support and choice with Windows’.
The next feature update for Windows 10, Windows 10 version 22H2, will drop next month. Microsoft has yet to announce the actual release date…
Windows 11 update is crashing PCs with Blue Screen of Death — here’s the fix
Get it together, Microsoft!
Windows 11 22H2, unleashed to the public on Sept. 20, needs to be placed back in the cage it came from. The rough-around-the-edges update is wrecking PCs. Not only has it been dropping frame rates for Nvidia GPU-owning gamers, but it’s also causing the disastrous Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) for some users.
PCs outfitted with Rocket Lake processors, the previous-generation 11th Gen CPUs, are affected, according to our sister site TechRadar. If you’ve been experiencing this issue, don’t worry; there is a fix.
Why is the Windows 11 update causing the Blue Screen of Death?
The Windows 11 22H2 update has an incompatibility issue with some Intel Smart Sound Technology (SST) audio drivers on Rocket Lake processors…
Microsoft Has a New Trick for Keeping Your Password Safe
Your PC’s login password must be protected at all costs.
Your PC’s password is not something to be shared lightly. It’s the keys to your kingdom: From work, to social media, to banking, your whole world is likely accessible from your Windows machine. Consequently, Microsoft is begging us to not be idiots who will hand our passwords over to anyone who asks. But they know some of us will, which is why they’ve recently rolled out some powerful features to protect us from ourselves.
How bad actors steal your PC’s password
The issue comes down to phishing, or tricking someone into handing over personal digital information, such as their PC’s password. Scammers are getting very good at pulling this information out of unsuspecting victims, moving way past the traditional tactics that come off as hokey and obvious these days. One strategy is to create websites that look just like the ones you’re trying to log into, but are totally fake. Even if you realize the scam in time and don’t hit the log in button, sometimes even typing your password into these sites is enough for hackers to steal it. While that’s never a good thing, it’s even worse if the password you use for Facebook is the same one you use for your computer. Now, bad actors know how to log into your machine…
The Secret Microscope That Sparked a Scientific Revolution
How a Dutch fabric seller made the most powerful magnifying lens of his time—and of the next 150 years—and became the first person ever to see a microorganism.
On September 7, 1674, Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, a fabric seller living just south of The Hague, Netherlands, burst forth from scientific obscurity with a letter to London’s Royal Society detailing an astonishing discovery. While he was examining algae from a nearby lake through his homemade microscope, a creature “with green and very glittering little scales,” which he estimated to be a thousand times smaller than a mite, had darted across his vision.
Two years later, on October 9, 1676, he followed up with another report so extraordinary that microbiologists today refer to it simply as “Letter 18”: Van Leeuwenhoek (lay-u-when-hoke) had looked everywhere and found what he called animalcules (Latin for “little animals”) in everything.
He found them in the bellies of other animals, his food, his own mouth, and other people’s mouths. When he noticed a set of remarkably rancid teeth, he asked the owner for a sample of his plaque, put it beneath his lens, and witnessed “an inconceivably great number of little animalcules” moving “so nimbly among one another, that the whole stuff seemed alive.” After a particularly uncomfortable evening, which he blamed on a fatty meal of hot smoked beef, he examined his own stool beneath his lens and saw animalcules that were “somewhat longer than broad, and their belly, which was flat-like, furnished with sundry little paws”—a clear description of what we now know as the parasite giardia…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and/or helpful. Darcy & TC
The last two updates for Windows 10 # KB5017308 and # KB5016616
Have both not downloaded for me in fact the last one is still trying to download. Both gave me error codes saying I have missing files. When I never had any trouble with my computer before them. I am upset now thinking that this new coming will not download for me either and I don’t know what to do to fix this.
I have used Firefox for years also Chrome and Edge but prefer Firefox easy and non intrusive, so hope they carry on as before.
Give me Firefox over any of the others,!
Microsoft with its browser default in Windows 11 back then…cough-cough Edge. That was a headache. Which that was for all browsers. Microsoft has not been what I would call a good guy in the neighborhood. They know the majority of people use Windows. The defaults over there still drive me nuts, but at least they fixed the browser default eventually. Pressure maybe, who knows (opinion).
Edge deflector was not created for no reason back then and others…lol.
Firefox is my default browser. Next is Brave browser, and then Chrome (games only). Edge, not really. I keep it updated, but that is it.
Firefox has been through a lot of changes. Some people have liked these changes, others have not. Mozilla is right about some things now, but they have hurt their selves also doing things.
On the phone I use Brave or Firefox Focus. I’m usually looking up prices in the store and that is it, or the weather. I don’t like using a browser on a phone because I don’t think you have enough screen space to see what is going on. Sorry, I think a phone is a phone, or taking pictures when I’m working on something…lol.