Google’s Chrome browser is now better at handling plugins. That the big thing I take away from the the new Chrome 0.3.154.3 update release.
The new update is tagged by Google as containing mostly bug fixes as well as a new download behaviour – which is also an important thing to note. Security researcher Aviv Raff had alleged that Chrome was at risk from a Carpet Bombing flaw that would let downloaded files execute on a users desktop – the 0.3.154.3 update changes download behaviour. According to Google’s release notes:
Changes the download behavior for files that could execute code (exe,
dll, bat, etc.). These files are now downloaded to
unconfirmed_*.download files. In the browser, you’re asked if you want
to accept the download. Only after you click Save is the
unconfirmed_*.download file converted to the real file name.
Unconfirmed downloads are deleted when Google Chrome exits.
The big thing for me though is really one bug that is fixed dealing with plugings. Google notes that in the new update Chrome runs plugins at a normal priority so that they do not cause the browser to become unresponsive. That’s a huge thing. In my experience with Chrome thus far it is typically a plugin (often Flash) that becomes unresponsive crashing the browser. Putting the plugin at the same priority is an interesting fix – though i’m not sure how that relates to Google’s idea of sandboxing processes.
Their is also a really interesting JavaScript bug fix here too.
Change the minimum timer resolution for setTimeout() to 4 milliseconds
(up from 1ms). At 1ms, some pages would spin in tight loops and consume
100% of CPU.
Intuitively I would have thought that a lower timer resolution would have meant better performance – but that’s apparently not always the case.
