Mozilla has just released the 40th iteration of Firefox, to tie in with the launch of Windows 10 last month — there are some subtle, but telling changes.
Boasting additional malware protection, a slightly different look and a new approach to add-ons, it’s actually a creative way to bypass Windows’ Edge preference that stands out.
For anyone who has already upgraded to Windows 10, you will notice that Edge is the default browser.
Not just that, when you search for something in the Windows 10 taskbar (Cortana), it generates a Bing search.
This isn’t really all that handy to those not interested in that search engine, so when you set Firefox as your default browser it will bypass Bing too.
“We’ve made thoughtful tweaks to the interface to give Firefox a streamlined feel. You’ll also notice bigger, bolder design elements as well as more space for viewing the web,” says the company.
“We had a lot of fun building this version of Firefox and we hope you’ll enjoy the new look.” You can download it here.
It all looks quite promising, so it’s something I’ll have to install and play around with. But the malware warning, of which Mozilla seems quite happy with, appears to be a nice touch.
“Thanks to new developments in Google’s Safe Browsing service we are now able to identify malware downloads in all of our supported platforms as well as warn users about potentially unwanted software,” explained Francois Marier, a security and privacy engineer with the company.
This is a follow-on to the previous browser, and it is something you can bypass if you’re fed up with Google knowing everything about you.
But it basically works like this. You click on a file to download (.com, .exe, .msi, .app, .dmg) and Firefox sends some metadata on to Google.
Any issues and it is blocked, which you need to manually bypass.
Also, a warning pops up if you visit a web page that contains ‘deceptive software’, which is, essentially, an extra filter of protection.
“While we believe that malware protection is in the best interest of all of our users, we recognise that some will prefer not to send any data about downloaded files to Google and hence provide an easy way to disable this feature,” added Marier.
Main image via Raphael Quinet on Flickr
