Category: 2020.06

Microsoft officially launched the brand new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser in early 2020, allowing users to download the stand-alone installer to operate the app on Windows and shortly after that on macOS too.

The rollout from the browser has since advanced, and recently the software giant kicked off the rollout via Windows Update, thus pushing the new Edge being an automatic update on Windows 10 devices.

This made many refer to it as a “forced update,” albeit when i told you not a years ago, it’s not.

But however, the approach that Microsoft continues to be using for pushing Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 devices is regarded as quite aggressive, and I’m seeing more and more reports in connection with this. For example, here’s what customers think is wrong relating to this automatic rollout:

Edge turning up on Windows Update whether you like it or not (actually, Microsoft has released a blocker toolkit for individuals who don’t want the browser)
The browser automatically launches following a reboot
The first launch runs entirely screen
Other browser data is imported without consent
The new Edge places a shortcut around the desktop as well as an icon around the taskbar

Someone on Microsoft’s forums claims the push is much more aggressive , and also the company turns to notifications that demonstrate on the desktop to download Edge whether or not the browser is already installed on the device.

Quite simply, Microsoft can’t determine whether Edge is already running on the device, so the notification to download the browser shows up anyway. In some cases, this notification is displayed on the desktop even if Edge is running.

“I have Edge Chromium installed on each one of the three Windows 10 computers I personally use for work purposes, and on my MEI/WIP test computer. Microsoft cannot, apparently, to find out if Edge Chromium is installed, even though each one of the computers is set to “Full Diagnostics”, or simply doesn’t care,” the consumer who reported this behavior explains.

“While I’ve actually had the popup display when utilizing Edge (unbelievable), that’s infrequent. However, I get the popups constantly when I’m using Firefox — surface of screen, bottom of screen, all over the place.”

Many of these only happen on Windows 10, in which the Chromium-powered Edge replaces the legacy version as the new default browser around the operating-system.

Many of these reveal that Microsoft is indeed being a little too aggressive in its attempt to make everyone use Advantage on their Windows 10 devices. Fortunately that there are no reports of Edge being configured as the default browser when Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is set as default, so at this time, it just looks like the organization wants to make everyone aware that a new browser is available.

Certainly, insisting so hard for the entire thing may not be everyone’s bag, and Microsoft’s efforts to convince users to try out Edge could easily backfire. I’m already seeing some users claiming they’d rather proceed to Linux than use Edge, so no, a too aggressive campaign may not necessarily be the greatest way to go.

Ought to be fact, Microsoft Edge is actually a pretty solid browser that can easily function as a full-time replacement for Google Chrome, for instance. However this still doesn’t mean the software giant can push so difficult for everybody to test it out, particularly if users have already installed a third-party browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

If you’re while using Windows 10 Mail app (the one which comes pre-loaded with the operating-system) having a Gmail account, you might like to look into the Sent folder, like a bug appears to be causing the silent elimination of all emails that you send for your contacts.

Several users have confirmed the bug on Microsoft’s Community forums, by the looks of products, it’s all the result of a recent update for the Mail app.

More specifically, it appears as though the May 28 update that brought the app to version 16005.12827.20200.0 may be the one that breaks down the Gmail account integration, and the issue has already been reported to Microsoft.

No fix around the corner at this time

The organization, however, is yet to verify it’s investigating, so for now, users are all alone within their attempt to fix everything.

“I have noticed that whenever I respond to emails, the e-mail I send disappears and cannot be found in sent items, outbox, bin, spam, or anywhere actually. The disappeared email can’t be available on Gmail’s web interface either. It appears that it’s automatically deleted and erased from the server,” someone says on the forums.

However, it appears as though your email aren’t permanently deleted but stored in the Spam folder in Gmail.

As noted by MSPU, one way to cope with everything is to configure a filter in your Gmail account (in the web interface) that will instruct apps to no more direct your email you signal towards the Spam folder. This is one way to keep them in the correct place after sending a brand new email.

Considering that Microsoft hasn’t yet confirmed the problem, it’s still unknown if and when a fix could land, so for now, turning this workaround is really the only way to cope with the whole thing.

Microsoft has begun the automatic rollout from the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser on Windows 10 devices, and unsurprisingly, few people likes this approach.

When it comes to Firefox users, some learned that the new default Windows 10 browser, that is shipped to their devices via Windows Update, sometimes imports the information from Mozilla’s application even if they don’t give their permission.

Some of these Firefox users decided to get rid of the initial setup procedure for Microsoft Edge, only to discover that despite the wizard closing prematurely, the browser still copied data stored by Mozilla’s browser.

Several users confirmed on reddit that this behavior happened on their computers too.

Silent data importing

“Love rebooting my computer to get treated to a forced tour of the browser I am not likely to use which i need to force close through the task manager to flee, and then finding out it has been copying over my data from Firefox without permission,” one user explains.

“Unless you close up it via task manager rather than doing the forced setup, in which case it copies your computer data anyway, and the worst part is many people will never know what it’s doing because they’ll never open it again. I only reopened it because I noticed it automatically signed me into the browser as it was closing and wanted to sign out before not touching it again, at which point I came across it had already copied my Firefox data over even though I didn’t go through the setup process,” someone else explains.

Microsoft has remained tight-lipped about this, so for the moment, it’s still unfamiliar why Edge imports Firefox data regardless of the initial wizard actually killed off manually through the user.

Users who don’t want to be offered the brand new Advantage on Windows Update can turn to the dedicated toolkit that Microsoft released captured, while removing the browser can be done by just uninstalling the update in the device.

Windows Defender, now called officially Microsoft Defender, has become more and more powerful, and now a growing number of users stick to the native security protection with no longer purchase and install third-party antivirus software.

The newest antivirus tests are living proof in this regard, as the performance of Microsoft Defender has been in line using the one of the most powerful third-party security products available.

So right now, it makes little sense for many users to set up third-party security software considering that Microsoft Defender has become capable of protecting devices at OS level.

And Microsoft just doesn’t stop here. Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Microsoft ATP) has been updated by having an UEFI scanner. In other words, Microsoft’s security application are now able to detect malware injected in firmware, thus adding a new security layer to devices running Windows 10.

Malware-infected firmware is easily the most difficult to detect, because it launches before booting the operating-system when security software typically launches. So in many of the cases, such malware remains undetected.

Microsoft says the UEFI scanner is built with the aid of chipset manufacturers, who contributed with “insights,” allowing Microsoft Defender ATP to scan the firmware filesystem and see if your risk of malware exists or otherwise.

“Windows Defender System Guard helps reduce the chances of firmware attacks by providing guarantees for secure boot through hardware-backed security features like hypervisor-level attestation and Secure Launch, also known as Dynamic Root of Trust (DRTM), which are enabled by default in Secured-core PCs. The brand new UEFI scan engine in Microsoft Defender ATP expands on these protections by looking into making firmware scanning broadly available,” Microsoft says.

The UEFI scanner comes with three important components, namely a detection engine that will help find exploits and malicious behaviors, a complete filesystem scanner that closely inspects each piece of code in the firmware, and an UEFI Anti-Rootkit that utilizes the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) to access the firmware.

When malware is detected at firmware level, the Microsoft Defender Security Center shows more details much like for any typical infected file. A reminder for compromised firmware appears like this:

“The UEFI sensor in Microsoft Defender Antivirus detected malicious code in firmware.”

“To detect unknown threats in SPI flash, signals from the UEFI scanner are analyzed to recognize anomalies where they’ve been executed. Anomalies are reported towards the Microsoft Defender Security Center for investigation,” Microsoft says.

Microsoft explains the UEFI scanner is simply a natural evolution of all security improvements in Microsoft Defender ATP, and the company states that increasingly more such updates take presctiption their way.

“With its UEFI scanner, Microsoft Defender ATP gets even richer visibility into threats at the firmware level, where attackers have been increasingly focusing their efforts on. Security operations teams may use this new degree of visibility, combined with the rich set of detection and response capabilities in Microsoft Defender ATP, to research and contain such advanced attacks,” the company explains.

Microsoft Defender is offered as the default security application on all Windows 10 devices, so when installing the operating-system, the antivirus engine is automatically enabled too.

Microsoft Defender could be further controlled from Windows Security, a burglar hub obtainable in Windows 10 that gives access to all security measures within the OS. Windows Security is also the home of other security controls, including parental tools and antivirus scanning options, while also allowing users to obtain more information on the current health status of the devices.

Like fully-featured antivirus products, Microsoft Defender also includes real-time protection, cloud scanning, virus definition updates shipped on Windows Update, and multiple scanning modes.