The only notable change in Opera 38.0.2220.31 is an upgrade to the Chromium engine on which it is based. Chromium upgrades typically improve performance and stability.
The change log for 38.0.2220.31 lists only one difference: DNA-54944 All downloads not working. The meaning of this is unclear.
Based on the available information, no security fixes were addressed in the new version.
It’s that time again, folks. This month Microsoft has sixteen updates, which address forty-four vulnerabilities in the usual culprits: Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, and Edge. Five of the updates are flagged as Critical.
Adobe issued an alert earlier today, saying that they have identified a vulnerability in Flash that is being actively exploited. There’s no update as yet, but they expect to have one ready by June 16. I imagine that Adobe was planning to release a Flash update today to coincide with Microsoft’s updates, but this new threat messed up their timing.
Changes in Opera 38.0 include power use improvements for mobile users, customization for the ad blocker, and numerous bug fixes and other performance improvements.
The full change log has all the details, which as usual distinguishes between the beta and developer versions that led up to the stable version 38.0.2220.29.
There don’t appear to be any security fixes in Opera 38.0, so this isn’t an urgent update.
The announcement for Firefox 47.0 highlights a few changes: synchronized tabs (between Firefox instances), improved video playback, and some security and performance improvements for Android users.
According to the release notes, Firefox 47.0 takes a few more steps in the process of moving away from Flash and toward HTML5 for video, and removes support for some older technologies related to plugins. The click-to-activate plugin whitelist, a security feature that was introduced in 2013, has been removed.
Most importantly, Firefox 47.0 fixes at least thirteen security issues. So don’t delay, update Firefox as soon as you can.
Check your Firefox version and trigger an update by navigating to its About page:
Version 51.0.2704.84 of Google’s web browser was released on June 6. The announcement doesn’t list any changes, but points to the full change log. The log lists about sixteen changes, mostly minor bug fixes. Although it’s not explicitly stated, some of the changes appear to be related to security, so we recommend updating Chrome as soon as possible.
The people who make Vivaldi were happy enough with a recent developer snapshot of the browser to release it as version 1.2.
Whether or not you agree that Vivaldi is ready to be your main browser (I don’t), it is improving. Version 1.2 adds custom mouse gestures, per-tab zoom level, and new settings related to the ‘new tab’ page.
Another batch of security fixes highlights the release of Chrome 51.0.2704.79. At least fifteen security issues are addressed in the new version, so if you use the browser, you should make sure it’s up to date. The full change log (only about three dozen entries this time) provides additional details.
Opera’s latest release is version 37.0.2178.54. The new version includes a few bug fixes related to the new pop-out video feature, as well as some security updates by way of a new version of the Chromium browser engine. The full change log provides additional details.
It’s a new version of Chrome, and there are at least 42 good reasons to install it, namely the 42 security issues Chrome 51.0.2704.63 addresses.
The release announcement doesn’t mention any new features, so although the full change log is another massive, browser-killing abomination, I’m going to leave parsing it as an exercise for readers.
As if in response to my recent post about the joys of updating new Windows 7 installs, Microsoft has just announced a solution. It’s effectively Service Pack 2 for Windows 7, but Microsoft is calling it the Windows 7 SP1 convenience rollup.
The new package will install all post-SP1 updates up to April 2016. After you install Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, you need only install the April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 (KB3020369), a prerequisite for the rollup, then install the rollup, then install any updates published after April 2016.
I haven’t yet tried the new rollup, but it’s difficult to imagine how it could fail to be an improvement.
Microsoft also plans to provide monthly non-security update rollups for Windows 7 and 8.1.
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