browser

Lately we've been posting a lot of articles about websites and services that have been hacked . One of the primary recommendations we have also repeated is that users should use unique and hard-to-guess passwords for each site, as this will help to ... prevent any further breaches. The reasoning is that if user account data is stolen on one site ( Yahoo is a good example ), the same username and passwords may also be valid on other sites - but only if users are using the same account names, passwords or password hints. Unfortunately this is often the case, because using the same passwords on ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jane T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and have been using the Edge browser fairly extensively. One thing that really bothers me is that when I first start Edge, it displays a bunch of photos on the ... screen, including: My News feed, News, Entertainment, Sports, Money, Lifestyle, and Autos. Is there any way to disable these permanently so that only Edge shows up? I really don't care to read any of those items - in fact, I'd much rather just have Google as my home page. Can you help? " My response: By default Edge will display the items you mention, ... (view more)

Microsoft claims its Edge browser uses far less battery power on laptops than rivals such as Google Chrome. The claims come as it publishes details of further tweaks to the browser's power demands. To back up its claims, Microsoft has released the ... results of tests it carried out using its own Surface Book computer, along with data gathered remotely from Windows 10 computers. As with any such non-independent tests, it's always worth remembering that not only could the setup of the tests be designed in a way that favors Microsoft, but there's no way of knowing that Microsoft hasn ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled a couple of changes to improve Windows 10: smartphone owners will be able to see notifications on their computer screen, while many Chrome extensions could be coming to the Edge browser. A forthcoming update will introduce ... something called "notification mirroring." That will mean pairing a Windows or Android smartphone or tablet with a Windows 10 computer. Users can then automatically have any notifications that normally appear on their smartphone or tablet show up on their computer screen instead. The idea is that while somebody is working on their computer, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'dbrumley' writes: " Dear Dennis, I've had a problem lately with Firefox when visiting Amazon's website. I get a pop-up window saying a 'script on this page is either busy or not responding'. There are 3 buttons that say Stop ... script, Ignore error, and Debug script, along with an option that says 'Don't ask again'. I've tried using the 'Stop script' button, which closes the window, but the browser slows down and the window re-appears. The 'Ignore error' button does the same thing. The 'Debug script' button opens a window with what looks like HTML, but I can't make heads or ... (view more)

Computer and mobile device owners have been warned to carefully review links before clicking on them, after the creation of a website that can either slow down or crash smart phones completely. The site in question uses a simple but effective ... technique to cause the problem. The site's web address is simply the words "crash" and "safari" next to one another (with no space in between), and is a "dot com" domain name. Trouble-makers online have been spreading links to the problematic site through email and social media. It's worth checking links carefully as ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joe M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running Windows 10. When I go to Hotmail (Live.com) to login and view my emails, I am automatically logged into my account. I would much rather be able to log into my Live email account manually, ... but I don't see an option for this. How can I disable the Hotmail automatic login? Other people use the computer and I do not want them gaining easy access to my email account. I'd rather I had to sign in every time. Thanks for any help you can provide. " My response: With the release of Windows 10 last year, Microsoft has integrated many of its ... (view more)

Microsoft is to ditch support for all but the latest edition of Internet Explorer. The news coincides with reports that Microsoft's new Edge browser is rapidly falling from favor. The discontinued support Internet Explorer affects versions 8, 9 and ... 10 and will end on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. That will mark the final update for those systems, which will simply consist of an on-screen notification urging user to upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 or Edge. Officially, only Windows 7, 8, and 10 can run Internet Explorer 11, while Edge runs on Windows 10. Unlike some browsers such as Firefox ... (view more)

A popular antivirus browser extension has been labeled as a security risk by Google. The tool in question is called Web TuneUp and is a browser extension by AVG; in this case, the problem involves Web TuneUp and the Chrome Browser, but the threat ... itself likely includes other browsers as well. Web TuneUp works by validating links that appear on a web browser page, such as on a search engine results list. It then warns the user if a link points to a page that could compromise security. It's arguably overkill, given that Chrome includes similar tools - plus the fact that Google itself ... (view more)

Infopackets Read Sammy K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just upgraded to Windows 10 and I have been using the Edge browser for a few weeks. One thing I don't understand, however, is how to change the default download location in Edge? I do a fair bit of ... downloading online, but Edge only wants to download to my 'Download' folder which is located in c:\users\my user name. With Internet Explorer or any other browser, I could choose my download location. Can you help? " My response: Microsoft Edge is a much more basic browser in comparison to Internet Explorer (or any other browser, for that matter), ... (view more)