Google Chrome 123 launches with security fixes and Google Update changes on Windows
Google released a new stable version of its Chrome web browser for desktop operating systems and Android today. This new version of Chrome, Google Chrome 123.0, is a feature and security update.
To get the security part out of the way: Google patched 12 security issues in Chrome Stable. The company lists seven of the twelve security issues on the Chrome Releases website. The highest severity is high and Google makes no mention of exploits in the wild.
The new Chrome 123.0 release is available already. It should be pushed to most non-managed systems and installations of Chrome automatically. Desktop users may speed up the installation by loading chrome://settings/help or by selecting Menu > Help > About Google Chrome.
The browser checks for updates when the page is opened. Any new update is downloaded and installed automatically at that point. A restart of the browser is required to complete the upgrade.
Android users need to wait until Google unlocks the update for their devices. There is no way to speed up the installation of the update.
Chrome 123.0: new features and changes
Google Chrome 123 ships with a number of important changes. One of the main changes affects Windows users only. Google is changing the name and file path of the Google Update executable for Windows.
Previously named GoogleUpdate.exe and found under C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe, it is now named updater.exe and found under C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleUpdater\VERSION\updater.exe. In other words, the location is dynamic now. This may make it difficult for users to block the updater from running automatically, for instance by changing its rights.
This change is rolling out over time. If you don't see the new directory and name yet, you have to wait until it rolls out to the system you manage.
Generative AI features
Google introduced generative AI features such as Tab Organizer or Create Themes in Chrome 122. These features were limited to adult users from the United States only at the time and needed to be enabled manually. While the features are still limited to adult Chrome users in the United States, some users have these features enabled by default in Chrome 123.
I reviewed Tab Organizer back when it launched. It analyzes all open tabs and suggests groups for matching tabs automatically. Tab Groups are an excellent feature of many browsers. Since Tab Organizer is an AI feature, its processing happens remotely. In other words, Chrome submits information about all open tabs to Google servers. If you do not want that, avoid the feature and group the tabs manually instead.
Smaller changes in Chrome 123
Here is a list of smaller changes that you find in the release. As always, some of these may roll out gradually to all users.
- Resume Tabs -- The new tab page features a new card to open tabs from other devices. This works only if Chrome Sync is enabled. Chrome on iOS gets another resume option. It displays a quick shortcut pointing to the URL of the last open tab on any device "within the last 24 hours".
- Chrome Sync -- does not support Chrome 81 or earlier versions of the browser anymore. Solution is to upgrade Chrome to a newer version.
- Enhanced password re-use detection -- Chrome detected password re-use of corporate credentials when using a corporate profile in the past. This is extended to non-corporate profiles in Chrome 123.
- Safe Browsing Telemetry -- With Enhanced Protection turned on, Chrome may sent additional telemetry to Google. This happens on pages on which a user accepts notification permissions.
- Private network access warnings -- Google Chrome's private network access checks are designed to protect the private network from malicious requests. The feature runs in warning mode and warnings are shown in the browser's Developer Tools. Google will switch to protected mode in Chrome 130 at the earliest.
Chrome developers may want to check out the Chrome Status website. It lists development related changes in the new browser version.
Now You: what is your take on these changes?
Any clue on how to get the pause key to work again exclusively for iTunes only not video … Your old fix seems not to work anymore and no longer loads onto that experiments page … It drives me crazy having to go into Music to stop & start each song …
Good one
Martin, what can you say about the problem faced by users of Chrome and other browsers on the Chromium engine, on Android. I will leave a link to one such discussion. And I hope for a comment from you.
_https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-full-screen-stays-in-portrait-mode/536178
Chrome doesn’t work properly since last few years. Flashbang at start of Chrome, pausing Youtube shorts sometimes causes other objects of youtube site to disappear until you resume, hovering on tab X button sometimes cause Chrome to blackscreen for a second, Youtube video sometimes throwing a flashbang right before playing, etc.
It looks like Chrome doesn’t properly work with the default D3D11 “chrome://flags/#use-angle” because when i choose OpenGL angle, most of the issues with Chrome disappear.
It could also be Microsoft’s fault i don’t know. When i choose D3D11on12, the issues disappear but i lose HW Acceleration which i don’t want.
Running Chrome 124 beta. C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleUpdater\VERSION\updater.exe doesn’t exist. Download are in the old C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe
Like Microsoft, Google loves to roll out changes over time.
Time to switch to Firefox. After June no chromium-based browsers will be usable.
That is nonsense because a lot of Chromium-based browsers have built-in adblockers, that don’t rely on any extension API… and which are not affected by Manifest V3.
Don’t be surprised if Brave gets more new users out of this than Firefox does – a lot of people like to use Chrome / Chromium, minus the shittier decisions obviously.
Content of your post is ironic since it’s basically a Firefox ad.
> Content of your post is ironic since it’s basically a Firefox ad.
Says the Brave shill.
@Iron
“Don’t be surprised if Brave gets more new users out of this than Firefox does – a lot of people like to use Chrome / Chromium, minus the shittier decisions obviously.”
Most Chrome users don’t know what Chromium is, even fewer know Brave exists. The few that do will be scared away by all the crypto ads. Most of them will switch to Edge since it is the only other Browser they know about.
VPN gate will scare them away before the crypto ads do.
Most browsers run Chromium now so its no surprise we now see frequent security updates.
Previously named GoogleUpdate.exe and found under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe
It is now named updater.exe and found under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleUpdater\VERSION\updater.exe.
Any developer who comes up with a naming scheme like this (putting a dynamically changing version number in the file path) should be relegated to tea duty. What this does is makes it difficult to create rules. For example, if Windows Firewall is set to block connections that do not match a rule, this change now makes it impossible to add an allow rule to Windows Firewall to allow the updater to make outbound connections – as the path to the executable will be constantly changing. Windows Firewall needs an exact path and does not allow wildcards.
No such change. Running Chrome 124.
Imagine if Firefox had this type of garbage update, and then Mull, Fennec or Librewolf… the Google fanboys would be throwing some confetti, but somehow there is so much silence in every Chrome update because nothing ever gets added other than another zero day.
For example Google Search use Google API, that means these non-private search engines are giving money to Google, and also, they are giving data to Google, and no, masking a tiny portion of the IP will not matter, they know your carrier country and all that.
AI Tab Organizer is like exactly what people always are turning off or they ask “why is my browser like this” “well it sends data back to Google?… who uses that?
and Security ‘improvements’ do they mean it was broken and they fixed it?
well at least they added some Safe Browsing Telemetry, always more telemetry is always good…. even if they added the Safe Browsing Telemetry stuff nobody really uses.
Dead browser dying while taking money from NSA and doing the least efforts to improve it because saving money (= more money for their pockets) is important…. nothing new.
Firefox has had garbage updates since 2011 with nothing hew added to it. Only bloat, changing UI every few years for the sake of it. I don’t use Chrome, but I use Brave and Yandex – other Chromium browsers that are better than Chrome. Chrome is feature complete – it doesn’t need anything new, if you think I will say that Google aren’t adding useless bloat to Chrome, I won’t say it, because they are indeed adding bloat to it and it’s one of the reasons I stopped using it, the other was when they decided that Chrome will decide instead of me which downloads are “safe” and which aren’t and will block them without a warning leaving me wondering why what I want to download isn’t being downloaded.
Firefox has been garbage for years, its market share is record low every month and it deserves it – outdated garbage browser, incompatible with most websites. Only diehard fanboys who will sink with the ship still praise Firefox.
Complains about bloat. Uses Brave.
Complains about blocked downloads but uses Yandex, which blocks entire websites
Complains about low market share but uses Brave, which has laid off developers and has even lower share than Firefox.
“Yandex, which blocks entire websites”
Could you give some example(s)?
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/19/russian-search-engines-remove-independent-media-extremist-instagram-results-a77401
Another one
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/02/01/a-window-into-yandex-s-censorship
Cope more.
Cope less
Complains about cope, then fails to Cope
>”some users have these features enabled by default in Chrome 123. I reviewed Tab Organizer back when it launched. It analyzes all open tabs and suggests groups for matching tabs automatically. Tab Groups are an excellent feature of many browsers. Since Tab Organizer is an AI feature, its processing happens remotely. In other words, Chrome submits information about all open tabs to Google servers. If you do not want that, avoid the feature and group the tabs manually instead.”
So amazing. If a project like Firefox or Brave or Pale Moon did this, there would be a mass exodus of users immediately, and the project would likely die quickly. But with something like Chrome or Edge, people just expect to be caught up in the mass surveillance dragnet and don’t even give it a second thought.
Safe Browsing Telemetry, an oxymoron
Not exactly, it’s good telemetry.
chrome://flags/#customize-chrome-side-panel
disable to revert